Home / Siding replacement cost / Boston, MA
Boston · Suffolk County · labor +24.2%
Siding replacement cost in Boston, MA
A 1,500 sq ft siding job in vinyl siding comes to about $6,750 to $20,200 in Boston once the national installed price is adjusted for what carpenters earn locally. The city's fee schedule has no separate line for it, but its general residential rate puts the permit at $154.51 for a job at the midpoint.
Figures checked October 21, 2026 · sources
- 1Vinyl, 1,500 sq ft $6,750–$20,200
- 2Labor index +24.2% vs US
- 3Boston permit $154.51
Change size or material All Boston projects
Siding replacement prices in Boston by material
Each row starts from the installed price per square foot of wall published in a national cost guide, then moves only the labor part of that price by Boston's labor index. For 1,500 sq ft:
| Material | National | Boston | Midpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vinyl siding | $6,000–$18,000 | $6,750–$20,200 | $13,450 |
| Fiber cement siding | $9,000–$22,500 | $9,750–$24,700 | $17,200 |
| Engineered wood siding | $10,500–$18,000 | $11,250–$20,200 | $15,700 |
| Cedar siding | $9,000–$24,000 | $9,750–$26,200 | $17,950 |
By size
| Wall area to side (sq ft) | Boston estimate | Permit at midpoint |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 sq ft | $4,500–$13,450 | $109.67 |
| 1,500 sq ft | $6,750–$20,200 | $154.51 |
| 2,000 sq ft | $8,950–$26,900 | $199.34 |
| 2,500 sq ft | $11,200–$33,650 | $244.18 |
Vinyl siding.
Permit fee in Boston
General rate The fee schedule has no separate line for this work; the town's general residential building-permit rate is shown as what it would charge if the building department requires a permit for it.
“Short Form Building (Minor Alteration): $20.00 primary fee plus $10.00 per $1,000.00 of the estimated cost of work”
Applied to a 1,500 sq ft siding job estimated at $6,750 to $20,200, that gives $87.25 to $221.76, about 1.15% of the midpoint price. Among the 15 towns on this site whose schedules cover this work, Boston ranks 11 from the cheapest; Newport is lowest at $100 and Hartford highest at $413.38 for its own midpoint job. The fee sheet does not say which permit form re-siding uses; the short-form (minor alteration) rate is applied.
Schedule: City of Boston Inspectional Services, Building Division Permit Fees (marked Rev. 2021). The building department decides whether a permit is required and what valuation it accepts; the national guide puts siding job permits at $30–$200.
Why Boston differs from the national price
Boston is in Suffolk County, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area (mostly Massachusetts). The median wage there for carpenters is $36.16 an hour against $29.12 nationally, so the labor part of a national price is scaled by 1.242 (+24.2%). That is well above the Massachusetts statewide median of $29.42; area estimates for one trade rest on a small survey sample, so a Boston quote may land nearer the low end of the range shown.
On this job the labor portion is $3,000 to $9,000 at national rates and $3,750 to $11,200 at Boston rates, so the midpoint rises $1,450 above the national figure. Against the Massachusetts statewide wage it is the same. Materials are priced at the national figure: shingle, lumber and equipment prices are set by distributors, not by a town.
A second published benchmark points the same way for the region: Remodeling's 2025 Cost vs Value report prices its “Siding Replacement, Vinyl” job at $17,950 nationally and $17,600 in New England, and its “Siding Replacement, Fiber-Cement” job at $21,500 nationally and $20,700 in New England. Those are fixed specification jobs, not per-square-foot prices, so they are shown for comparison only.
Boston at a glance
The Census Bureau estimates 672,973 people lived in Boston on July 1, 2025, down 0.4% from the 675,647 counted in the 2020 census. On 48.34 square miles of land that is 13,977 people per square mile in 2020, among the densest places on this site (1 of 24); dense Massachusetts city blocks mean small lots, shared walls and street parking that crews price into access and staging.
35.7% of Boston's occupied homes are lived in by their owners, fewer than the 62.5% across Massachusetts, and the median owner-occupied home is valued at $731,700 (Massachusetts: $562,100). The midpoint estimate for this siding job works out to 1.8% of that median value, a small share of what a typical house there is worth.
Taking off the old siding
Remove the old siding adds $0.70 to $2 per sq ft nationally (“$0.70 to $2.00 per square foot (old siding removal)”). That work is all labor, so at Boston's index it is $1,300 to $3,750 for 1,500 sq ft, on top of the estimate above.
Before asking for quotes
- The Boston building department can say for free whether this job needs a permit and what it will cost; the schedule linked above is its own published document.
- Written quotes that list the same scope (area, material line, removal, disposal, permit) can be compared line by line; the quote comparison guide walks through it with these numbers.
- A quote far below $6,750 or above $20,200 is not wrong in itself, but it is worth asking what it includes or leaves out.
Other projects in Boston
Roof replacement cost in Boston
Siding replacement in nearby towns
| Town | Labor area | Estimate | Permit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Derry | Boston-Cambridge-Newton | $6,750–$20,200 | $102.25 |
| Durham | Boston-Cambridge-Newton | $6,750–$20,200 | $144.15 |
| Exeter | Boston-Cambridge-Newton | $6,750–$20,200 | $117.25 |
| Londonderry | Boston-Cambridge-Newton | $6,750–$20,200 | $132.60 |
| Portsmouth | Boston-Cambridge-Newton | $6,750–$20,200 | $110 |
More: all siding replacement town pages · siding replacement cost in Massachusetts · permit fees by town · labor costs in New Hampshire
Sources
- Installed price: HomeGuide: Siding cost (Oct 29, 2025) — “Vinyl $4 – $12 (installed, per sq ft)”.
- Labor portion: HomeGuide: Siding cost (Oct 29, 2025) — “$2 to $6 per square foot (siding labor)”.
- Labor index: O*NET OnLine, Carpenters (47-2031.00), New Hampshire local wages; area definitions: BLS, May 2025 Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Definitions.
- Permit: City of Boston Inspectional Services, Building Division Permit Fees.
- Population: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: population estimates July 1, 2025 (V2025), 2020 census, land area and density; housing: Census QuickFacts, Boston.
All figures checked October 21, 2026. Estimates are ranges built from published averages, not quotes; a contractor's price depends on the house, access, the season and the scope written into the quote. Cost by Town does not perform or arrange work.