Siding Repair & Replacement in Clifton, NJ
Clifton licenses siding contractors by ordinance. Ask anyone bidding your job for their number.
Clifton is a big, finished city that did most of its building before 1960 — 70.1% of its 34,064 housing units predate that year, with 29.8% built in 1939 or earlier and another 23.8% in the 1950s alone, the single largest decade. 54.5% of the stock is attached or multi-family, and two-unit buildings alone account for 21.0%.
It is also the one town on our list that licenses this trade directly. Clifton's Chapter 199, adopted in 1968, names siding explicitly in its contractor-licensing ordinance — so the first question worth asking any bidder here is not about price.
Clifton licenses siding contractors by ordinance
Most New Jersey towns rely entirely on state registration. Clifton does not. Chapter 199 of the City Code, adopted 3-19-1968 by Ordinance No. 3825, bars a person from engaging in the business without the city's own licence, and siding is named in the ordinance rather than implied.
This is worth knowing because it is invisible from a search result. A contractor can hold a valid NJHIC registration, advertise across Passaic County, and still not be licensed in Clifton specifically. Ask for the city licence number, not just the state one — and ask us for ours the same way.
A pre-war core under a mid-century re-clad
With 29.8% of Clifton's units built in 1939 or earlier and 55.2% built between 1940 and 1979, the city sat through both the asbestos-cement shingle era and the aluminum re-siding wave, then the vinyl wave over both. No dataset records what is actually on a given wall, so we treat all of that as era-based expectation and confirm it by opening a corner.
Asbestos-cement shingle is the one worth naming out loud. On pre-1940 stock it was frequently overclad rather than removed, which means it can still be sitting under the vinyl. It is stable while it is intact and undisturbed; it is a different job the moment a tear-off breaks it. We look before we quote and we say plainly what we find.
- Asbestos-cement shingle on pre-1940 stock, often still present under a later layer
- Aluminum from the 1940s-70s, the largest single era in the city
- Vinyl re-clad from the 1980s onward
- Wood clapboard and cedar shingle on the oldest Dutch-descended and early-20th-century houses
- Brick and stone veneer fronts with sided sides and rear — a standard Passaic County pattern
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One- and two-family is exempt; the rest of the city is not
N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.7(c)1xi makes repair or replacement of existing siding on one- and two-family dwellings ordinary maintenance — no permit, no inspection, no notice — with no requirement that the building be detached. That covers the majority of Clifton's residential stock.
It does not cover the 26.6% of units in buildings of three or more. Those sit under (c)1xii, which allows like-material replacement only to 25% of total exterior wall area before a permit is required. Polypropylene siding is excepted everywhere. Clifton's Construction Department is at 900 Clifton Avenue.
Mapped water on several fronts, not one river
Clifton's floodplain mapping is water-by-water rather than a single riverfront, and the City has participated in the National Flood Insurance Program since its Chapter 239 adoption. If your address sits in a mapped zone, storm-damage siding work can pull in review that a routine re-side never touches — we check the mapping before quoting rather than after.
Common questions
Does Clifton really license siding contractors separately?
Yes. Chapter 199 of the Clifton City Code, adopted 3-19-1968 by Ordinance No. 3825, requires a city licence to engage in the business and names siding specifically. It is separate from state NJHIC registration, and plenty of contractors advertising in Clifton hold the state one only. Ask every bidder for their Clifton licence number — including us.
Do I need a permit to re-side my Clifton house?
If it is a one- or two-family dwelling, no. N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.7(c)1xi classifies siding repair or replacement on one- and two-family dwellings as ordinary maintenance — no permit, no inspection, no notice — and it does not require the building to be detached. Buildings of three or more units are excluded and fall under (c)1xii instead, which caps like-material replacement at 25% of total exterior wall area before a permit is needed. Polypropylene siding needs a permit regardless.
There might be asbestos shingle under my siding. What happens then?
It changes the job, and it is a real possibility on Clifton's pre-1940 stock, which is 29.8% of the city. Asbestos-cement shingle was commonly overclad rather than stripped. Intact and undisturbed it is stable; a tear-off that breaks it is a different scope with different handling requirements. We inspect at a corner or a penetration before quoting so that possibility is priced honestly up front rather than discovered on day one.
Where do I reach the Clifton building department?
Clifton Construction Department, 900 Clifton Avenue — (973) 470-5809. Most like-for-like siding work needs no permit at all under N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.7(c)1xi, so for most jobs you will not need them. Ask us for our Clifton contractor licence number at the same time. NJHIC #13VH13970900.
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