Siding Repair & Replacement in Wallington, NJ
79% of Wallington is not single-family detached. Which clause covers your building comes first.
Wallington is not a detached-single-family town, and for a siding page that is the fact that matters. The Borough's own Amended Housing Element and Fair Share Plan puts single-family detached at 22.9% of the stock and two-family at 34.7%; 79.0% of the borough's 4,988 units are in something other than a detached house.
The stock is old with it — the Housing Element states flatly that 73% of the Borough's housing units were built up to 1969, and the 1950s-60s cohort is about half the total.
Two-family is covered. Three is not.
N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.7(c)1xi treats repair or replacement of existing siding on one- and two-family dwellings as ordinary maintenance — no permit, no inspection, no notice — and it carries no detached requirement, so Wallington's attached two-families qualify in full. With two-family at 34.7% of the stock, that covers a large share of the borough.
Buildings of three or more units do not qualify. They fall under (c)1xii, which allows like-material replacement only up to 25% of the building's total exterior wall area before a permit is required. Polypropylene siding is excepted regardless of building type.
One practical note specific to Wallington: the Building Department keeps limited counter hours — Tuesday and Thursday mornings, 7:30 to 9:30. If a permit is genuinely required, that window sets the schedule, so it is worth knowing before you plan the job.
An old, dense borough in the aluminum window
With 73% of Wallington's units built up to 1969 and about 51% of the stock in the 1950s-70s cohort, the borough sat squarely in the window when aluminum was both the dominant new cladding and the dominant re-clad. That makes aluminum a reasonable era inference here — but no dataset records what is on a given wall, so we confirm by opening a corner rather than quoting a number.
About 23% of units predate 1940, and on those the original wood is often still underneath one or two later layers. Asbestos-cement shingle is worth checking for as a mid-century over-clad; it is a possibility to look for, never something to assume about a particular house.
- Aluminum from the 1950s-70s — the era fits, the surviving share is not recorded anywhere
- Vinyl as the second or third generation re-clad over both cohorts
- Wood clapboard and cedar under later covers on the 23% built before 1940
- Asbestos-cement shingle as a possible mid-century over-clad — checked for, not assumed
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Two rivers on the northern edge
The Borough's Housing Element records that Wallington is bounded by the Passaic River, and both watercourses on its northern edge have documented floodplain inside the borough. Siding is frequently storm work here as a result.
There is no historic district and no Historic Preservation Commission in Wallington — the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office's Bergen County inventory shows no listed property in the borough — so no design review applies to material choice.
Common questions
I have a two-family attached to my neighbour. Do I need a permit to re-side?
No. The siding exemption at N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.7(c)1xi covers one- and two-family dwellings and, unlike the roofing clause directly above it, does not require the building to be detached. That matters in Wallington, where two-family housing is 34.7% of the stock and much of it is attached. Your re-side is ordinary maintenance — no permit, no inspection, no notice. Polypropylene siding is the exception, and structural repair found during tear-off is a separate question.
When is the Wallington Building Department actually open?
Limited hours, which is worth planning around: Tuesday and Thursday mornings, 7:30 to 9:30. Most siding work in the borough needs no permit at all under the state's ordinary-maintenance rule, so this only comes into play on a three-or-more-unit building, a polypropylene product, or structural repair. Where it does apply, that two-morning window sets the schedule. The main borough line is (973) 777-0318 ext. 210 — worth calling to confirm which counter to visit, as the borough lists more than one municipal address.
Is there a historic district on Main Avenue?
No. Wallington has no National Register or New Jersey Register listed property and no Historic Preservation Commission — the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office's Bergen County inventory confirms it. There is no historic design review on siding material anywhere in the borough, Main Avenue included.
Where do I reach the Wallington building department?
Wallington Building Department — (973) 777-0318 ext. 210 (Tue & Thu, 7:30-9:30am). 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. Counter hours are Tuesday and Thursday mornings only, so plan around them. NJHIC #13VH13970900.
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