James Hardie Siding in Chatham, MA

Chatham sits at the elbow of the Cape and takes the brunt of nor'easters coming off the Atlantic. Wind-rated roofing, well-flashed windows and durable trim make a real difference here, and the town has its own historic business district review.

Few Cape towns take weather like Chatham. Nor'easters come straight off the Atlantic, and homes on Pleasant Bay, Stage Harbor and Oyster Pond get salt spray most of the year. On these houses the roof system underneath the shingles, the flashing and the fasteners decide how a roof holds up.

More than half of Chatham's homes are seasonal, and most were built between 1950 and 1999, according to the town's 2025 housing profile. Many are now at the age where roofs, windows and decks come due at the same time, which makes a single, well-planned exterior project worth considering.

Chatham's conservation rules are among the strictest on the Cape. The Chatham Wetland Protection Bylaw covers land within 100 feet of wetlands, banks, beaches, dunes and flats, and the Conservation Commission's floodplain rules restrict new structures and footprint expansions in V and Coastal A flood zones. We check the flood zone and resource areas before design starts.

James Hardie fiber cement siding comes in lap boards, shingles and panels that look like painted wood but do not rot, and it resists damage from insects and woodpeckers that wood siding can suffer. On the Cape that makes it a common choice for houses that take a lot of salt, sun and wind-driven rain.