Siding Replacement in Salem, Oregon

Siding replacement means stripping the old siding and trim down to the sheathing, repairing whatever has rotted underneath, rebuilding the wall’s weather layers, and installing new siding. In Salem, replacing siding on its own does not need a building permit unless the wall must be fire-resistive, but repairing or replacing the sheathing does. Describe your house and we connect you with an independent local siding contractor, who inspects it and quotes the job directly.

When is it time to replace siding instead of repairing it?

A repair fixes a contained problem. Replacement is usually worth pricing when you see any of these:

• The same failure on several walls. Swollen lower edges on hardboard or OSB lap siding, or T1-11 panels peeling apart along the bottom, are worth checking for on every side of the house.
• Rot in the sheathing, not just the boards. When a probe goes through the siding and keeps going, the wall needs opening up anyway. See dry rot in siding and trim.
• A product nobody makes anymore. A discontinued hardboard profile can be hard to match board by board.
• Paint that keeps failing on boards that have already been repainted, which usually means moisture behind them.
• Leaks at several windows or roof edges, pointing to a weather barrier or flashing that was missing or failed across the whole wall.

If only one or two of those apply to a single wall, start with siding repair. The comparison further down this page sets the two side by side.

What happens during a siding replacement?

A full re-side generally runs in this order. The sequence follows Oregon’s residential code and manufacturers’ installation instructions, so it is a useful checklist to hold a quote against.

1. Inspection. The contractor looks at every wall, probes for soft wood and checks for moisture. On a house built before 1978 this is also when lead-based paint comes up.
2. Material choice and a written quote.
3. A permit, if needed. In Salem, that means any job that repairs or replaces sheathing, or replaces T1-11 that doubles as structural sheathing.
4. Lead-safe setup on pre-1978 houses where 20 square feet or more of painted exterior will be disturbed.
5. Tear-off of the old siding and trim.
6. Sheathing repair, followed by an inspection where a permit applies.
7. Water-resistive barrier across the walls, with windows and doors flashed into it.
8. Drainage gap (rainscreen) where the code requires one.
9. Starter strips, trim and kickout flashing where lower roof edges meet walls.
10. New siding, installed with the clearances its maker specifies.
11. Soffit and fascia work, if it is part of the job.
12. Caulk and paint, within each product’s temperature and dew-point limits.
13. Cleanup and a final walkthrough.

What does Oregon’s code require behind new siding?

Three sections of the Oregon Residential Specialty Code do most of the work on a re-side. Section R703.2 calls for at least one layer of water-resistive barrier over the studs or sheathing, applied so it is continuous. Section R703.4 calls for kickout flashing where a lower roof edge ends against a wall, a spot where water often finds its way behind siding.

Section R703.1.1 requires the wall to drain: by default, a space of at least 1/8 inch between the barrier and the siding, formed with furring strips, a drainage mat or drainage board. The exceptions include a drainage-enhanced barrier meeting the 75 percent drainage efficiency requirement of ASTM E2273, and repairs or alterations where new siding matches the existing siding, in the same plane, over a compliant barrier. A full replacement generally will not fit that last exception.

Those references are to the 2023 edition, in force when this page was checked in September 2026. The Building Codes Division expects a 2026 edition to take effect on October 1, 2026, so ask your contractor which edition applies to the job.

Which material should replace the old siding?

There is no single best choice; it depends on the house, the look you want and the budget. The common replacements around Salem are:

• Fiber cement lap, panel or shingle siding from makers such as James Hardie and Allura, factory-primed for painting or prefinished.
• Vinyl siding in lap, board-and-batten or shake styles, which has to hang loosely so it can expand.
• Engineered wood lap siding, such as LP SmartSide. It is a different product line from the LP Inner-Seal OSB siding of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
• Cedar lap siding, shingles or shakes, the traditional choice on older houses.

On a Salem historic property, switching from one siding material to another needs historic design review before work starts.

Trim, soffits and fascia

Corner boards, window and door trim, and the drip caps above openings are part of how the wall sheds water, so they are normally replaced with the siding and flashed at the same time. Soffits and fascia sit under the roof edge and vary more from job to job: some are sound and stay, some are rotted and get replaced. Ask for each as a separate line on the quote.

Replacing siding on a house built before 1978

Pre-1978 paint may contain lead, and tearing off painted siding disturbs a lot of it. Oregon runs its lead renovation rules through the Construction Contractors Board and the Oregon Health Authority. A contractor who disturbs 20 square feet or more of painted exterior on a pre-1978 home needs a CCB lead-based paint renovation license and must follow lead-safe work practices, including containment and cleanup. The median home in Silverton was built in 1978 and in Salem in 1980 (Census ACS 2020-2024), so this comes up often.

What should a siding replacement contract include in Oregon?

Under ORS 701.305 and the CCB’s contract rules, residential work priced over $2,000 needs a written contract, and it must show the contractor’s name, address, phone number and CCB license number. The contractor also has to give you the state’s consumer notices on or before the day the contract is signed. Before you sign, check the license on the CCB license search and read what the quote includes: removal and disposal, how rotted sheathing will be priced, the barrier and drainage method, flashing, trim, paint and permits.

What does siding replacement cost around Salem?

The table further down this page lists published figures for replacing 1,250 square feet of siding with fiber cement or vinyl, for the Pacific region and for Albany, Oregon, with national ranges for repair and for removing old siding. Every figure shows its source and the date it was checked. The siding cost page explains what moves a quote above or below those figures, and how to compare two quotes.

Ready to price your house? Request a siding quote and we connect you with an independent contractor who covers your ZIP code.