Siding in Hartford, CT

Siding in Hartford

Hartford's exterior walls tell the story of the city's evolution from insurance capital to a diverse urban center — ornate wood clapboard on West End mansions, asbestos shingle on Asylum Hill's mid-century apartments, aluminum overlays on Behind the Rocks ranches, and first-generation vinyl on South End cape cods now 30-plus years into their service life. The Connecticut River valley climate subjects every siding material to the full New England spectrum: summer temperatures reaching the mid-90s with humidity, winter lows below zero, 80-plus freeze-thaw cycles that work at every joint and seam, and nor'easter winds that drive rain horizontally against building envelopes. Hartford's older housing stock presents a particular challenge — many homes have had siding installed over siding over original clapboard, creating multi-layer walls where moisture gets trapped between materials, wood framing rots invisibly, and energy performance suffers from compressed or displaced insulation. Our Hartford siding crews have stripped walls down to sheathing in every neighborhood from Frog Hollow to Parkville, and the conditions behind aged siding are remarkably consistent: deteriorated house wrap or tar paper, soft sheathing at corners and beneath windows, and insulation that has settled or been damaged by moisture infiltration.