Siding Service Areas Around Salem, Oregon

Siding work around Salem looks similar from the street, but three things change from one town to the next: which office issues a building permit when a job reaches the sheathing, how old the houses are, and whether a historic review applies before a change of material. Each town has its own guide, because those differences are large enough to change how a job is planned.

The three main areas

Salem covers both sides of the Willamette River, including West Salem in Polk County, which joined the city in 1949. Siding work on its own is permit-exempt unless the wall must be fire-resistive, but repairing sheathing needs a City of Salem building permit, and so does replacing T1-11 that doubles as sheathing; the city also lists dry rot repair among work that always needs one. Salem has four National Register historic districts and more than 150 individually listed properties, where a change of siding material needs historic design review. Housing age swings widely by ZIP code, from a median build year of 1970 in central Salem to 1995 in south Salem.

Keizer grew mostly from the 1950s on and incorporated in 1982. Permits are applied for at Keizer City Hall on a Marion County application, and the county’s building inspection program covers the city. The 1970s and the 1990s are its two biggest building decades, which puts a lot of houses either before the 1978 lead-paint line or inside the years covered by the hardboard and OSB siding class actions.

Silverton runs its own building department and publishes its own list of permit-free work: siding repair or replacement qualifies only on a wall three feet or more from a property line. Nearly a quarter of its homes were built before 1940, and its historic preservation program reviews alterations to designated landmarks and contributing resources.

How the towns compare

Town	County	Median year built	Building permits	Guide
Salem (incl. West Salem)	Marion and Polk	1980	City of Salem	Salem
Keizer	Marion	1981	Applied for at City of Keizer; Marion County Building Inspection jurisdiction	Keizer
Silverton	Marion	1978	City of Silverton Building Department	Silverton
Stayton	Marion	1985	City review, then Marion County plan review and inspection	Stayton
Aumsville	Marion	1995	Applied for at City Hall; Marion County plan review and inspection	Aumsville
Turner	Marion	2003	Applied for at City Hall; Marion County plan review and inspection	Turner
Dallas	Polk	1990	City of Dallas Building Division	Dallas
Monmouth	Polk	1993	City of Monmouth Building Department	Monmouth
Independence	Polk	1999	City of Independence building department	Independence

Median year built is from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 2020-2024 five-year estimates. Marion County’s building inspection operating plan (revised April 2019) lists the county’s jurisdiction as all of Marion County except the city limits of Aurora, Salem, Mill City and Silverton, with permits for Keizer, Mt. Angel and Stayton available at those cities. Houses with a Salem mailing address outside city limits, such as in the unincorporated Hayesville and Four Corners communities, fall under the county. On the Polk County side, the county’s building program issues building permits only for unincorporated areas and Falls City; Dallas, Monmouth and Independence run their own.

What the housing age tells you

• Built before 1978: painted siding may carry lead paint. When work disturbs 20 square feet or more of painted exterior, Oregon requires a contractor with a Construction Contractors Board lead-based paint renovation license. That covers a large share of houses in Salem, Keizer and Silverton.
• Built or re-sided from 1980 to the late 1990s: check lap siding for swollen lower edges, the classic failure of hardboard and OSB siding. The Masonite and LP Inner-Seal settlements are both closed. See swelling hardboard or OSB siding.
• Built since 2000: repairs are easier to match. When a newer wall leaks, check the flashing and clearances first. See siding repair.

What siding do I have? helps identify the siding on a house by its look and the year it went on.

The six smaller towns

Dallas sits where Rickreall Creek leaves the Coast Range and gets noticeably more rain than Salem. About 11% of its homes predate 1940, and the city requires a Certificate of Appropriateness before exterior changes to a locally significant historic resource.

Monmouth is a college town where renters outnumber owners, so Oregon’s lead-safe rules for landlords of pre-1978 rentals come up often, and designated landmarks need a city historic alteration permit.

Independence has a 39-block National Register district, listed in 1989, where most exterior changes need city review, and a newer town around it where about half the homes date from 2000 or later. The city’s own permit-exempt list covers siding on walls three feet or more from a property line.

Stayton averages about 30% more rain than Salem, reviews designated historic resources under its own code, and routes permits through the city before Marion County.

Turner has the newest housing of the nine, with a median build year of 2003, and much of it sits at or just above the 100-year floodplain along Mill Creek; work in the mapped flood hazard area needs the city’s own floodplain development permit.

Aumsville has the highest owner-occupancy of the nine, and about a quarter of its homes are manufactured homes, which Oregon regulates under separate alteration rules for manufactured homes. A 2010 tornado damaged about fifty structures there.

ZIP codes that can request a quote

Area	ZIP codes
Salem	97301, 97302, 97304 (West Salem), 97305, 97306, 97317
Keizer and part of north Salem	97303
Silverton	97381
Stayton	97383
Aumsville	97325
Turner	97392
Dallas	97338
Monmouth	97361
Independence	97351

Use the ZIP code of the house, not a P.O. box. Request a siding quote and we will follow up. Before you hire anyone, check the license on the CCB license search.