A repair crew out of Chestnut Hill, Newton, for jobs as small as one board

Siding Repair in Newton, Brookline & Boston, MA

There is a reason repair is in our name: siding repair is the main service here, not a sideline. A loose run of vinyl, rot under a window, cedar shingles torn off a corner in a nor'easter: we fix the damaged section and leave the rest of the wall alone when it is sound. Send a photo of the damage by text and you get an opinion on repair versus replacement before anyone drives out.

Call or text (857) 245-9588 Get a free estimate

24-hour emergency service for storm damage
First opinion from a texted photo, written estimate after the visit
Rot, loose panels, cracks, flashing leaks, storm damage, woodpecker holes
Sound siding stays; only the damaged section comes off
Line-item estimates for storm-damage insurance claims

What we fix, by symptom

Most calls start with something you spotted from the driveway.

Rot under windows and at trim. Soft, dark wood at a sill or the foot of a corner board. We cut the rot out back to sound wood, add flashing or housewrap where it is missing, and fit back-primed boards.
Loose and missing panels. Vinyl that rattles in the wind, or clapboard that has pulled its nails. We re-hang or replace the panel and lock it into the course below.
Holes and cracks. Wood gets a dutchman patch; brittle vinyl gets a new panel matched as closely as the faded original allows.
Water getting in. We check the head flashing over windows, the kick-out flashing where a roof edge meets the wall, and the corners, then reflash and seal.
Peeling paint. Paint lifting in sheets means moisture from behind. We find the source, then scrape, prime and paint. See wood and cedar siding repair and painting.
Storm and wind damage. A nor’easter can peel vinyl off a gable or lift cedar shingles at a corner. Our 24-hour emergency service gets the opening covered first; the permanent repair follows with matched material.
Woodpecker holes. Common on cedar shingles and shakes. We replace the shingles, seal the sheathing behind them, and look for the insects that drew the birds.

Materials we repair

We repair the siding types found on most Boston-area houses.

Vinyl siding. Cracked or wind-torn panels, loose runs, J-channel and corner posts; we tell you up front how close the color match will be. More on vinyl siding repair.
Wood clapboard. Rotted lengths cut out, back-primed boards fitted at the same exposure, primed and painted.
Cedar shingles and shakes. New shingles woven into Cape Cod style walls, corners rebuilt. See cedar shingle and clapboard siding.
Fiber cement. Cracked planks replaced, including James Hardie plank, butt joints resealed. See James Hardie fiber cement siding.
Metal siding. Dented panels straightened or replaced, seams resealed.
Stucco. Cracks patched and feathered into the existing texture.

One crew handles all of them, and a house with two or three types is normal. Gutters, roof edges, chimneys and windows that feed a leak are covered on our other exterior services page.

Repair or replace?

If a wall can be fixed, we fix it. A repair makes sense when the damage sits in one area and the rest of the siding is sound. Replacement makes sense when the problems are everywhere: brittle, chalky vinyl on every wall, clapboard rotting on three sides, or wet sheathing under most of what we open up. A middle road is replacing the weather side and repairing the rest.

We give you that call on the phone from your photos, and in writing after we see the house. If replacement is the honest answer, read about siding installation and replacement and how a siding estimate is built.

How it works

Text us a photo. Call or text (857) 245-9588 with a picture of the damage and your town.
Repair or replacement, on the phone. From the photo and a few questions we tell you what we think it is and whether a visit makes sense.
Visit and written estimate. On site we open the damaged spot, check what is behind it and how the flashing was done, then write the estimate. It costs nothing.
Repair, paint, clean up. We bring matched material, do the repair, prime and paint where the siding is wood, and haul away the old pieces.

Get a free estimate to start.

Small jobs are welcome

Many siding companies will not come out for one rotten corner board or three missing shingles. We will. Small repairs are the everyday work here, not a favor squeezed in between big jobs, and a small repair keeps water out of the wall before the problem grows into a replacement.

Repair warranty

New panels, boards and shingles carry the manufacturer’s limited warranty. Keep the estimate with the house papers, since it is the document that states what was done and what is covered.

Insurance claims after storms

Wind damage from a nor’easter is often covered by a homeowner’s policy, and the adjuster wants to see what was there before anyone touched it. Photograph everything first, from the ground and from an upstairs window. Then call us for the emergency work, since policies generally expect you to prevent further damage. For the claim we write a line-item estimate naming the material, the area in square feet and the work needed.

Lead-safe work on pre-1978 houses

Much of Newton, Brookline and Boston was built before 1978, and the paint on old clapboard and trim often contains lead. If the house has never been tested, we treat old painted wood as if it contains lead.

Repair photos

Woodpecker holes in cedar shakes closed up on a gable in Needham. A rotted sill nosing and both corner boards replaced at a bay window in Brookline. Wind-torn vinyl on a Roslindale gable re-hung and relocked. Kick-out flashing added where a porch roof meets the clapboard in Jamaica Plain.

Where we work

Repair calls come thickest from the oldest streets: pre-war clapboard and cedar shingle in Newton, Brookline and Jamaica Plain, three-deckers in Dorchester and Roslindale, and 1980s vinyl hung over wood in Needham, Dedham and Waltham. Our base, 115 Grove St in Chestnut Hill, is a Newton address at the Brookline town line, so Brookline is about 10 minutes away, the Newton villages about 5–15 minutes, and West Roxbury, Roslindale and Jamaica Plain about 10–20 minutes. The everyday area is Boston and about 30 miles around Chestnut Hill; drive times for every town are on the service area page.

To get a free estimate, use the form, or skip the form and call or text (857) 245-9588 with the photo.

Questions homeowners ask

If only one wall of a West Roxbury house is damaged, do you repair just that wall?

Yes. The edge of the patch is what matters, so on clapboard we stagger the new butt joints away from the old ones, and on shingles we weave new ones into the existing courses rather than cutting a square hole. The other walls are not touched unless probing shows the same problem there, and then it is your decision after we show you.

Will a replacement vinyl panel match twenty-year-old siding?

Rarely to the shade. Sun fades vinyl, so a new panel in the same color reads a little darker until it weathers. We identify the profile from the lock and the exposure, order the nearest current color, and keep the new panels together in one block rather than scattering them across the wall, so the eye sees one even section instead of a checkerboard.

How do you find how far rot has spread under a window?

We push an awl along the board until it stops sinking in, then open the siding a course above and below the soft area. Rot under a window usually runs down both sides of the frame and across the sill, so we check both before we count the boards for the estimate.

Does a siding patch in Newton, Brookline or Boston need a building permit?

A like-for-like patch usually does not; a job that strips a whole elevation or changes the material usually does. In Boston it is the city's building permit; Newton and Brookline issue their own. In a local historic district, check with the town's historical commission before changing the material or the look of the street side.

After a clapboard repair, who does the painting?

We do, on the same job. The new boards get primer on the back and the cut ends before they go up, then a finish coat feathered into the old paint at a corner or a trim line so there is no hard edge. Paint needs dry wood and mild weather, so a repair done in late fall is sometimes primed then and finish-coated in spring.

Do you ask for a deposit before a siding repair in Newton or Boston?

The estimate and the opinion we give from your photo are both free.

Why does only the weather side of my Newton house peel?

The side that takes the rain and the afternoon sun wets and dries hardest, and paint lets go where the wood underneath stays damp. Look for a gutter that overflows at that corner, a window whose caulk has failed, or a deck ledger pressed against the wall. We stop the water first and repaint only once the boards read dry, because paint over damp wood lifts again within a season or two.

Do you repair siding on Dorchester three-deckers and Cambridge two-families?

Yes. Those houses usually carry clapboard, or vinyl hung over clapboard, and the repair itself is no different from a single-family job. What changes is the setup: the upper floors need staging or long ladders, the driveway has to be clear while we are there, and the tenants need to know which windows and which porch we will be working around.

Where we work

Based in Chestnut Hill, we cover Boston and the towns within about 30 miles. First-wave town pages:

Get a free estimate

Tell us what you see on the wall, or just leave a phone number and we will call back. Calls and texts: (857) 245-9588, also on WhatsApp. E-mail: [email protected].

Based at 115 Grove St, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467. Open 8:00 AM – 9:00 PM every day.