Drive down Main Street in Mendham Borough and the houses seem to agree with one another, even though no two match. Part of that harmony is age and luck. Part of it is a deliberate choice by the town to look after its streetscape, and anyone planning Mendham exterior construction should understand that choice before ordering a single bundle of siding. Marc Burns General Contracting, a Washington, New Jersey firm with more than ten years in siding, windows, and doors, approaches exterior work in the same spirit, by studying the house and its surroundings first and choosing materials second. What follows is that process, in the order it should happen.
What the street expects
The Mendham Borough Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it takes in Main Street and neighboring streets such as Mountain Avenue, Hilltop Road, and Prospect Street. The homes there are mostly two story single family houses with modest front yards, shaded by old oaks and elms, and wood shingle siding is part of the local vocabulary. The borough set up its Historic Preservation Commission in 2001 to protect that character.
Owners inside the district are asked to notify borough staff before changing the outside of the house, whether by addition, alteration, replacement, or new construction. The borough’s letter to historic district homeowners says ordinary maintenance is not covered and that paint colors are not governed. It also says the commission is there to guide design and material selection, and that a materials list and an application checklist are available. Calling before work starts is much cheaper than rebuilding afterward.
What the weather will do to it
An exterior has one job, which is shedding water. In northern New Jersey that means surviving freeze and thaw cycles, wind driven rain, ice dams, and humid summers, often all in the same year. Water rarely beats a wall in the middle of a panel. It gets in at the edges, around window and door openings, at corners, under trim, and behind poorly lapped flashing.
That is why window, door, and siding work belong together. A beautiful window set into a sloppy opening will leak just as surely as a cheap one. Good installers think in layers, with water resistive barrier, flashing, and cladding all overlapping so that anything that gets past one layer gets caught by the next.
What the wall is hiding
Plenty of older houses wear a second skin. Original wood clapboard or shingles may sit beneath vinyl or aluminum added decades ago, and those layers can hide soft sheathing, rot at sills, or old leaks that nobody knew about. A sensible contractor opens a small section early, ideally a corner or a spot under a window, before finalizing a price. Surprises are normal on old houses. Good planning puts a line in the budget for them so they are not a shock.
Before the first meeting, it helps to gather a few things.
- Photos of every side of the house, plus close ups of trim, corners, and any damage
- A rough age for the house and any known history of earlier siding or additions
- A count of windows and doors, with notes on which ones stick, leak, or fog
- Spots where you have seen stains, peeling paint, drafts, or cold rooms
- Confirmation from the borough of whether the property sits inside the historic district
Materials, without the sales pitch
Each cladding makes different trade offs. Painted wood looks right on an old house and can be repaired, but it needs regular upkeep. Fiber cement holds paint well and resists rot, though it is heavy and needs careful cutting and sealing. Vinyl is low maintenance and budget friendly, and it has appeared on many Mendham homes in recent years, but its profile rarely matches historic wood. Composite trim products are often used on boards and corners where moisture exposure is highest.
Windows deserve the same care. Past commission discussions in Mendham have touched on details such as insulated glass paired with simulated divided lights, matching the original grille pattern, and keeping a historic style sill. Replacing a window is not only an energy decision. The width of the muntins and the proportions of the frame change how the whole facade reads from the street.
Putting the work in a sensible order
Sequence matters more than people expect. Roofing and gutters usually come first, so water has somewhere to go before anything below is disturbed. Windows and doors follow, with their flashing integrated into the wall system. Siding and trim then wrap around them, and paint finishes the job. Reverse that order and you risk cutting into new work or trapping water behind it. If more than one trade is involved, one point of coordination keeps the layers from fighting each other.
Reading a bid like a building inspector
A good proposal describes what will actually happen. Look for the siding product and exposure, the trim material, the type of barrier and flashing, how rotted areas will be handled, and what happens if hidden damage turns up. Ask who handles any borough notification or permits, and ask for proof of insurance. In New Jersey, contractors doing home improvement work must be registered with the state, so ask for the registration number and check it.
Detailed, line by line pricing is a better sign than a single round number. It lets you compare bids fairly and tells you the contractor has thought through the job. Late October is a sensible time to begin, since measuring, selecting materials, and talking with the borough can all happen over the winter, and the work itself can start when the weather settles. A house that took a century to earn its look deserves a plan that takes a few weeks to get right.
