Silverton, OR Siding Repair for Older & Historic Homes

Salem Siding Pros covers siding repair and replacement in Silverton, and homeowners can request a siding quote here. Three local facts deserve attention before any Silverton siding job. The city runs its own building department with its own list of permit-free work, and siding is on it only when the wall is at least three feet from a property line. The housing is old: the median home was built in 1978 (Census ACS 2020-2024), the year lead-based paint was banned for residential use, and nearly a quarter of homes predate 1940. And the city reviews alterations to designated landmarks and contributing historic resources.

Silverton’s own building department

Keizer shares its permit work with Marion County Building Inspection, and so do several smaller towns nearby. Silverton does not. The City of Silverton’s Building Department administers residential and commercial building permits for projects within city boundaries, under the State of Oregon building code and the city’s own building, zoning, safety, municipal and fire codes. It conducts plan review, takes and issues permits, and performs the inspections.

The department’s answer to “What structural work can I do without a permit?” lists, among other items:

• Replacing or repairing siding on a wall that is three feet or more from a property line.
• Painting buildings that are not historic landmarks.
• Installing storm windows, or replacing doors and windows in an existing opening.
• Installing gutters and downspouts.

Two conditions in that list matter for siding. A wall within three feet of a property line is outside the exemption, so ask the Building Department before re-siding one. And the painting item is limited to buildings that are not historic landmarks, a reminder to check a property’s status before exterior work. The same page notes that modifications to houses intended for sale, lease, rent or exchange must be done by a contractor licensed with the Oregon Construction Contractors Board, which matters if you own a Silverton rental.

The list does not mention sheathing. In Salem, repairing or replacing sheathing needs a permit, and replacing T1-11 that also serves as the structural sheathing does too; ask Silverton’s Building Department how it handles those cases before work that goes behind the siding. Do you need a permit to replace siding in Salem? explains the distinction.

Silverton’s housing, decade by decade

With a median build year of 1978, Silverton’s housing is older than Salem’s (1980) or Keizer’s (1981), and the spread behind that median is unusual. According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (2020-2024 five-year estimates, table B25034):

• About 23% of homes were built in 1939 or earlier, against about 9% in Salem and under 1% in Keizer.
• Few homes date from the 1940s through the 1960s, about 14% across those three decades combined.
• The 1970s account for about 14%, and the 1980s and 1990s about 20% together.
• About 28% were built in 2000 or later.

About 70% of Silverton’s homes are single-family detached houses, and 61.1% are owner-occupied. The ZIP code area, 97381, reaches well beyond the city into the surrounding countryside, and its figures are a little newer (median 1980).

So a Silverton siding job is often one of two very different things: work on a house that is close to or more than a century old, or work on a house built in the last 25 years.

Pre-1940 houses

These are the houses where historic status, original materials and lead paint all come together. Wood siding on a house this age is likely to have been painted many times, and some walls may have been covered by later siding. Before choosing between repair and replacement:

• Find out the property’s historic status with the City of Silverton.
• Find out what is under the visible layer. A contractor can check at a damaged edge or a vent opening without stripping painted wood.
• Consider repair in kind. Matching wood lap boards or shingles keeps a historic house’s look and keeps a repair from becoming an alteration. Cedar and wood siding covers repairing older wood siding piece by piece.

On older wood-sided houses, check sills, trim and the lowest boards for soft wood; dry rot in siding and trim explains how to tell how far it has gone.

Houses from the 1970s through the 1990s

The pre-1978 part of this group needs lead-safe work like the older houses. The 1980s and 1990s part falls in the years covered by the Masonite hardboard and LP Inner-Seal OSB siding class actions, so hardboard and OSB lap siding may be on Silverton houses too; see swelling hardboard or OSB siding. Both settlements are closed.

Houses built since 2000

More than a quarter of the city’s homes. Their siding is more likely to still be made, so repairs are easier to match. When one of these walls leaks, look at the details first, such as a window, a roof-to-wall corner or a patio edge; siding repair explains why.

Lead-safe siding work on pre-1978 houses

Paint applied before 1978 may contain lead, and removing or cutting painted siding turns it into dust and chips. Oregon runs its lead renovation rules through the Construction Contractors Board and the Oregon Health Authority. When work on a pre-1978 home disturbs 20 square feet or more of painted exterior, the contractor needs a CCB lead-based paint renovation license and has to follow lead-safe work practices, including containing the work area and cleaning up afterward.

In practice, that covers most siding replacement on an older house and many larger repairs. When you ask for a quote:

• Give the year the house was built, if you know it.
• Ask whether the contractor holds the CCB lead-based paint renovation license, and look it up on the CCB license search.
• Ask how the work area will be contained, and how debris will be handled.

Historic landmarks and contributing homes in Silverton

Silverton created its Historic Landmarks Commission in 2006, by Ordinance No. 06-25. The city’s historic preservation program identifies and designates historic resources and reviews alteration, moving or demolition of designated landmarks, contributing historic resources and historic resources of statewide significance. The commission itself is advisory and has no policy-making authority.

Downtown, the Silverton Commercial Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 29, 1987, covering buildings from 1870 to 1936 roughly between High and Oak Streets, Silver Creek, and Lewis, Water and First Streets. The city also publishes a map of the Silverton Downtown Historic District. Most houses sit outside the commercial district, but a house can be a designated landmark or a contributing resource on its own. If yours might be, check its status with the City of Silverton before changing its siding. A change of siding material is an alteration; a matching repair keeps what is there.

Getting a siding quote in Silverton

Silverton’s ZIP code is 97381. Request a siding quote, mention the year the house was built, whether any wall is close to a property line, and whether it might be a historic property. We will follow up about the quote. The siding cost page shows the published figures with their sources, though lead-safe work, historic review and hidden damage on an older house can only be priced once the walls have been seen.