Martinez has a housing mix worth respecting: character homes in and around the older downtown near the Carquinez Strait waterfront, and postwar tracts spreading south toward Highway 4. Bay Area Siding Company re-sides both. We are a Marin-based (Larkspur) siding and window contractor working throughout Contra Costa County, and a replacement here means the full job — pulling the old cladding, inspecting what's behind it, correcting the water barrier and flashing, and installing new siding to the manufacturer's specification.

Want to get moving? Request an estimate or call (415) 619-5167 and we'll talk through your walls.

Is it time to re-side, or can this be repaired?

Not every tired-looking wall needs replacing. Spot repairs and a repaint make sense when the problem is cosmetic and the material underneath is still sound. Replacement earns its cost when the cladding itself is failing or the wall behind it is suspect. On an older Martinez home, the tells tend to cluster:

• Boards or panels that crack, cup, or flex under hand pressure across whole elevations, not just one spot
• Fresh paint that blisters or peels within a season or two, especially on the sun-baked south and west faces
• Trim or siding soft enough to take a screwdriver, or dark staining and a musty note on the inside of an exterior wall
• Aging T1-11, hardboard, or early aluminum that has simply reached the end of its run

When two or more of those show up together, patching becomes a cycle of chasing the same failures. A re-side breaks the cycle.

What tear-off actually exposes — and why it's the point

The reason to remove old siding rather than furring over it is that covering hides the exact layers that decide whether a wall stays dry. Once the cladding is off, the crew can see the sheathing and substrate, confirm there's a functioning water-resistive barrier (WRB), and check the flashing at windows, doors, and wall penetrations — details that on many older homes were minimal or never installed. Concealed dry rot around window corners or along the bottom of a wall gets found and repaired at this stage instead of getting sealed in behind new boards. (A standard re-side stops at the sheathing; the framing only comes into play if the sheathing itself has to be replaced, which is a larger scope we'd flag before starting.) Layering over the old material also adds weight and can trap moisture — which is why we quote the tear-off honestly rather than pitching a cover-up.

Matching material to a Martinez home

We install several systems and walk you through the trade-offs on-site, because the right answer depends on the home's era and exposure as much as budget:

• James Hardie fiber cement — noncombustible, dimensionally stable, and color-stable under strong summer sun; see the Martinez James Hardie page for the full picture
• Fiber cement generally — the wider category across manufacturers
• LP SmartSide — engineered wood, a lighter-weight look-and-feel of real wood
• Vinyl — the lower-maintenance option where the home and neighborhood suit it

We also work in wood, CertainTeed lines, and aluminum. For homes on Martinez's hillside and Alhambra Valley edges, where a parcel may fall in a fire-hazard zone, material choice can carry a code dimension too — more on that just below.

Permits and the local backdrop

Exterior work like this is permitted through the City of Martinez Building Division (525 Henrietta Street), which reviews projects against the currently adopted California Building Standards Codes. We pull and manage the permit as part of the job and confirm the exact scope with the Division rather than guessing at it.

One local note that only applies to some addresses: Cal Fire released updated Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps for local-responsibility areas in March 2025, and Martinez includes zoned areas along its hillsides and rural edges. Where a parcel carries a High or Very High designation, California Building Code Chapter 7A can govern the exterior wall assembly, generally steering toward noncombustible or ignition-resistant materials. Whether it applies to your project depends on the parcel's designation and the scope of work, so if your home is on a slope or out toward Alhambra Valley, tell us early and we'll confirm the designation before speccing.

How the project runs

In practice it's a walkthrough and written scope; permit; tear-off with substrate, WRB, and flashing inspection; any needed rot repair; new WRB and flashing detailing; installation to spec; and a finish-and-cleanup walkthrough with you. The rhythm shifts with the home — a compact downtown bungalow and a two-story tract house south of Highway 4 don't run on the same clock — so we give you a realistic timeline once we've seen the walls.

What moves the price

There are no online prices because no two of these jobs are alike. The real drivers are square footage and number of stories, the material and finish you choose, how much concealed substrate repair turns up at tear-off, access and staging (hillside lots take more setup), whether fire-zone assembly detailing is in play, and whether you're integrating new windows at the same time.

FAQ

Do I need a permit to replace siding in Martinez? Exterior re-sides are handled through the City of Martinez Building Division under the adopted California Building Standards Codes. We pull the permit and confirm the specific requirements for your project with the Division.

My home is up a hill or out toward Alhambra Valley — does that change my options? It can. Cal Fire's 2025 local fire-hazard maps place parts of Martinez's hillside and rural edges in hazard zones, and where Chapter 7A applies it favors noncombustible or ignition-resistant wall assemblies. We verify your parcel's designation before recommending a material.

Is it better to re-side over the old material to save money? For older Martinez homes we generally advise against it. Furring over hides the sheathing, WRB, and flashing — exactly the layers that determine whether the wall stays dry — and can trap moisture. Tear-off costs more up front and gives you a sound wall.

How long will a re-side take? It depends on size, material, what we find at tear-off, and permitting. We commit to a timeline after measuring rather than quoting a generic number.

Start your Martinez re-side

We'll look at the walls, talk through materials, check any fire-zone questions for your parcel, and lay out the process. Browse finished work in our project gallery, see the wider Contra Costa service area, or line up windows at the same time with Martinez window replacement. Call (415) 619-5167 or request an estimate.