Siding Installation & Repair in Clifton, NJ

What’s on Clifton Houses Today

Clifton’s housing was largely built in two waves: before 1940 (31.2% of today’s homes) and in the 1940s and 1950s (another 37.9%), according to the Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 survey. Each wave left its own exterior, and many houses carry more than one:

• Cement-asbestos shingles. The stiff, flat shingles with a wavy bottom edge were widely used on houses of this era. They are stable while intact, but they should not be broken, sanded or power-washed hard. We work around them, cover them where appropriate, or tell you when removal by a licensed abatement contractor is the right call. We do not remove them ourselves.
• Aluminum siding from the 1960s and 1970s, often dented on the driveway side and chalky on the south face.
• Original wood clapboard or shingles under later layers, sometimes still exposed on dormers and rear walls.
• Vinyl from the last thirty years, whose most common failures are loose panels after wind, melted spots near grills, and gaps at windows that were never trimmed properly.

Siding Options We Install

Vinyl

The most common choice on Clifton two-families because it is affordable and easy to maintain across both units. Thicker panels and insulated backer resist the wind on exposed streets in Montclair Heights and Richfield. See vinyl siding for profiles and colors.

Fiber cement

A heavier board that holds paint well and suits Colonials and pre-war houses where you want the look of painted wood clapboard.

Engineered wood

Lighter than fiber cement, with a deeper grain, and a good fit for dormers and additions where weight on old framing matters.

Aluminum

Still used for matching and repairs on houses that already have it, and for trim coil around windows and fascia.

Siding Rules in Clifton

New Jersey’s Uniform Construction Code lists repair or replacement of existing siding on one- and two-family dwellings as ordinary maintenance, so no construction permit is needed for that work on most Clifton houses. The exception is polypropylene siding, which is not ordinary maintenance. On larger buildings (Clifton has more than 9% of its homes in buildings of 20 or more units), only like-for-like repairs of up to 25% of the wall area are exempt; anything bigger is permit work.

How a Clifton Siding Job Runs

Clifton lots are often narrow, with two-families set a driveway’s width apart, so the first thing we plan is access. Ladders and staging on the side walls usually mean working within a few feet of the neighbor’s house, and we talk to you about notifying them before the crew arrives.

1. Measure and inspect. We check the existing siding, the sheathing behind it where we can see it, the window and door trim, and the condition of the soffit and fascia.
2. Prepare the walls. Loose material comes off, damaged areas are noted and photographed, and house wrap goes on where the wall allows it. Windows get flashing tape at the head and sides so water is directed out, not in behind the new siding.
3. Install. Starter strip, corners and J-channel first, then the field panels, leaving the expansion gaps vinyl needs to survive a New Jersey summer without buckling.
4. Trim and clean up. Aluminum trim coil on window casings and fascia, sealant only where it belongs, and a full pickup of scraps and nails.

Like roofing, siding work in Clifton’s residential zones runs between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays. If a dumpster is needed for tear-off debris, Clifton’s dumpster ordinance keeps it out of the way of the neighbors’ driveways and limits how long it can stay.

Soffit, Fascia and Repairs

On older Clifton houses the siding is often fine while the roof edge is not. Wood fascia boards behind gutters rot from the top down when gutters overflow, and open soffits on 1950s homes let squirrels and birds into the attic. We replace rotted fascia, wrap it in aluminum, and install vented soffit so the attic gets the intake air a new roof needs. See soffit and fascia repair for details.

For smaller problems, such as a few storm-loosened panels, a cracked corner post or a section hit by a car, we match what is there as closely as current products allow and tell you up front if an exact match is not available. Our siding repair page explains how we approach matching.

Siding Questions from Clifton Homeowners

More Exterior Help in Clifton

Go back to our Clifton home page, see the Passaic County service area, or read our statewide siding overview. Siding work is often scheduled together with gutter installation and repair in Clifton, roof replacement in Clifton or roof repair in Clifton, so the roof edge, fascia and walls are done in one pass.

We also side homes nearby: see siding in Passaic, siding in Little Falls and siding in Garfield.