Window and Siding Replacement in Arrowsic, ME

Arrowsic at a glance

Permit to re-side

Not published

Window, same opening

Not published

New or bigger opening: not published

Window must meet

U-0.30 or lower

2021 IECC (statewide; town need not enforce)

Built before 1980

39%

Homes in Arrowsic, Census 2020–2024

People: 597
Homes: 304
Size: 7.7 square miles
From downtown: About 27 miles northeast
ZIP codes: 04530
Founded or incorporated: 1841

Arrowsic is a small, rural island town between the Kennebec, Sasanoa and Back rivers, crossed by Route 127 with bridges to Woolwich and Georgetown. It has no commercial or industrial district, homes are spread out on large lots, and all land within 250 feet of the rivers, salt water or Sewall Pond is in the shoreland district. The Doubling Point and Squirrel Point lighthouses stand on its Kennebec shore.

The houses in Arrowsic

Before 194020%

1940–19593%

1960–197916%

1980–199938%

2000 or later23%

39% of the homes in Arrowsic are older than 1980 and 20% older than 1940; the median one dates from 1985; 97% are detached houses and 95% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. A sizable share of homes here date from before 1980, the era the federal lead rule covers (homes built before 1978). What the lead rule requires of a contractor.

Owners here put the median home's value at about $584,200, and 74% of homes have three bedrooms or more — each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Arrowsic were built before 1985, which makes its housing about 8 years newer than across Sagadahoc County as a whole (median 1977). Set against Sagadahoc County as a whole, owners live in 95% of occupied homes here against 78% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $584,200 here and $333,300 across the county and detached houses are 97% of the homes, above the county's 75%.

Rooms in the median home: 6.6
Heated with gas / electricity: 1% / 13%
Townhouses and other attached homes: 1%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units: 0%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units: 0%
Mobile homes: 2%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates (tables B25034, B25035, B25024, B25003, B25077, B25041, B25018 and B25040), read through Census Reporter. These are survey estimates, not a count of every house.

Homes are scattered across the island, with the older, more closely built clusters at Preble Point and near the Town Hall.

What that vintage turns up

The largest group of homes in Arrowsic, 38% of them, was built in the 1980s and 1990s, so that is the house described here.

Double-glazed vinyl or clad wood windows with a nailing fin, many now thirty or forty years old. The common failure is the seal between the panes: once it lets go the glass fogs between the layers and the gas fill is gone. When the frames are still square and dry, new sealed glass in the old frame is the cheaper repair; when the frames are cracked or the sills are soft, it is time for the whole unit.

The capes, colonials and raised ranches of the subdivisions that spread across the commuter towns, sided in vinyl or cedar clapboard over plywood or particle-board sheathing, with felt paper or an early house wrap behind it. The siding itself usually holds up; what to look at is what water has done at the corners, around the windows and under any deck ledger fastened through the siding.

The one to watch on a house of this age

Windows of this era were often sealed to the wrap with caulk and little else. When the siding comes off, check the sheathing below each window's lower corners: that is where a failed caulk joint shows up first, as dark, soft wood.

And on the 23% built in 2000 or later

Houses built to recent Maine codes are tight, and Maine now holds new houses to a lower air-leakage limit than the national code. A tight house with too little ventilation fogs its windows all winter; before blaming the glass, check the humidity and the bath and kitchen fans.

Neighborhoods

We work across Preble Point, Squirrel Point, Doubling Point, Bald Head, Mill Island and Spring Cove.

Next door

Arrowsic shares a boundary with Woolwich, Bath, Phippsburg, Georgetown, Westport Island, Kennebec River, Back River and Sasanoa River.

Kitchen window with potted plants on the sill and a snowy yard outside

The rules in Arrowsic

Siding replacement Not published

Arrowsic's Zoning Ordinance (amended June 11, 2026) requires a building permit for new homes, additions over 100 square feet and accessory buildings over 200 square feet, and allows normal upkeep and renovations that do not expand a nonconforming structure without a permit. Siding and windows are not named.

Window replacement, same opening Not published Enlarging or cutting an opening Not published

Window work is not named either way. Ask the Codes Enforcement Officer before cutting a new opening, especially within the shoreland district.

Maine sets this, not Arrowsic: U-0.30 or lower

Arrowsic counted 477 residents in the 2020 Census, under the 4,000 mark, so it need not enforce the state's code, and its pages do not say it does; the state still counts meeting the code as the owner's responsibility.

That is the 2021 energy code’s window figure, with no solar heat gain limit.

ENERGY STAR’s own figure here is U-0.22 or lower with an SHGC of 0.17 or higher, stricter than any code edition in force. When the code applies to a replacement window, and when it does not.

Local quirks

All land within 250 feet of the rivers, salt water or Sewall Pond is in Arrowsic's shoreland district, where smaller additions and replacements over 200 square feet need a conditional use permit as well.

Who to call

Building dept: 207-295-4332
Official: Mike Field, Codes Enforcement Officer
Permits: Department page

What is behind the siding: every layer explained

Worker on a lift painting new shingle and lap siding on a house gable

Gothic-style house with carved bargeboard trim, a pointed window and diamond-pane sashes

Red clapboard cape-style house with a center chimney, shrubs and a sunny lawn

Blue clapboard house with a front gable, a covered porch and a green lawn

How Arrowsic compares with its neighbors

Place	Permit to re-side	Permit for a window	Window must meet
Arrowsic	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Woolwich	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Bath	Depends	Depends	U-0.30
Phippsburg	Depends	Depends	U-0.30
Georgetown	No	No	U-0.30
Bowdoin	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Bowdoinham	No	No	U-0.30

All 10 Sagadahoc County places side by side →

Work we have done in Arrowsic

Not yet — Arrowsic is on our list rather than in our records. We will say so until that changes.

Common questions about Arrowsic

What age of house is typical in Arrowsic?

38% went up in the 1980s and 1990s and 23% in 2000 or later; the median Arrowsic home dates from 1985, and 39% are older than 1980 (20% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.

Does Arrowsic require a permit for new siding or windows?

No rule is published. Arrowsic's rules say nothing on whether you need a permit to re-side, to replace a window in the same opening or to cut or enlarge an opening. That is not the same as no permit being needed: ask the building department before work starts. Next door in Bath, a re-side depends on the job.

How energy-efficient does a new window have to be in Arrowsic?

Maine sets it statewide, not Arrowsic: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. Arrowsic counted 477 residents in the 2020 Census, under the 4,000 mark, so it need not enforce the state's code, and its pages do not say it does; the state still counts meeting the code as the owner's responsibility.

Do bedroom windows in Arrowsic have to meet the egress rule?

Yes. 74% of Arrowsic's homes have three or more bedrooms (median owner-estimated value $584,200), and each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening: at least 5.7 square feet of net clear opening (5 at a grade-floor sill), 24 inches high and 20 inches wide, with the sill no more than 44 inches above the floor (IRC R310).

Where these facts came from

Sources: arrowsic.org · arrowsic.org · arrowsic.org · arrowsic.org · arrowsic.org · legislature.maine.gov · www2.census.gov · maine.gov · maine.gov

Window and siding replacement in Arrowsic

What we do in Arrowsic

Replacement windows

Siding replacement

Vinyl siding

Fiber cement

Hail & storm damage

Older homes