Window and Siding Replacement in Georgetown, ME

Georgetown at a glance

Permit to re-side

Not required

Window, same opening

Not required

New or bigger opening: not published

Window must meet

U-0.30 or lower

2021 IECC (statewide; town need not enforce)

Built before 1980

49%

Homes in Georgetown, Census 2020–2024

People: 1,012
Homes: 1,013
Size: 18.6 square miles
From downtown: About 25 miles east
ZIP codes: 04548
Founded or incorporated: 1716

Georgetown is an island town between the mouths of the Kennebec and Sheepscot rivers on the Gulf of Maine, connected to the mainland by bridges on Route 127, the only road on and off the island. Its villages grew on fishing, farming, boatbuilding and summer visitors, and coastal lots are prized for homes. Reid State Park and other conserved land cover more than a third of the island.

The houses in Georgetown

Before 194022%

1940–195910%

1960–197918%

1980–199930%

2000 or later21%

In Georgetown, 49% of homes went up before 1980 and 22% before 1940; the median one dates from 1980. 89% are detached single-family houses, and owners live in 83% of the occupied ones. 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 $427,200, and 74% of homes have three bedrooms or more — each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Georgetown were built before 1980, which makes its housing about 3 years newer than across Sagadahoc County as a whole (median 1977). Set against Sagadahoc County as a whole, owners live in 83% of occupied homes here against 78% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $427,200 here and $333,300 across the county and detached houses are 89% of the homes, above the county's 75%.

Rooms in the median home: 6.0
Heated with gas / electricity: 1% / 2%
Townhouses and other attached homes: 3%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units: 2%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units: 0%
Mobile homes: 6%

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.

Slightly over half of the town's homes are seasonal, many close to the water, and the old villages of Five Islands and Bay Point are the most tightly built.

What that vintage turns up

The largest group of homes in Georgetown, 30% 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 22% built before 1940

Nothing behind the boards sheds water: no house wrap and no flashing at the window heads, only paint and trim. A new window set into that wall needs a sill pan and head flashing improvised into old framing, so ask how the installer will lap it before you compare prices.

Neighborhoods

We work across Five Islands, Bay Point, Robinhood, Marrtown, West Georgetown, Georgetown Center, Indian Point and MacMahan Island.

Next door

Georgetown shares a boundary with Woolwich, Arrowsic, Phippsburg, Westport Island, Southport, Kennebec River, Sheepscot River and Atlantic Ocean.

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

The rules in Georgetown

Siding replacement No permit

No. Georgetown's Building/Demolition Permit Ordinance (amended June 13, 2026) lists normal, routine maintenance and repairs, "such as re-shingling a roof, replacing siding or replacing windows," among its exceptions; a building permit is needed for them only if a variance is needed.

Window replacement, same opening No permit Enlarging or cutting an opening Not published

Replacing windows is on the same list of exceptions. A new opening is not addressed; work that increases a home's volume or height counts as an expansion and needs a Planning Board permit.

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

Georgetown counted 1,058 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

In the shoreland zone, the Shoreland Zoning Ordinance also allows normal maintenance and repair, naming replacing siding and replacing windows, without a permit. Contractors must arrange private disposal of construction debris, because the Georgetown Transfer Station does not take it.

Who to call

Building dept: 207-295-4332
Official: Mike Field, Code Enforcement Officer and Plumbing Inspector
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

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

Yellow clapboard house with black shutters behind a white picket fence

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

How Georgetown compares with its neighbors

Place	Permit to re-side	Permit for a window	Window must meet
Georgetown	No	No	U-0.30
Woolwich	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Arrowsic	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Phippsburg	Depends	Depends	U-0.30
Richmond	Not published	Yes	U-0.30
Topsham	No	No	U-0.30
West Bath	Yes	Yes	U-0.30

All 10 Sagadahoc County places side by side →

Work we have done in Georgetown

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

Common questions about Georgetown

When were most of the homes in Georgetown built?

30% went up in the 1980s and 1990s and 22% before 1940; the median Georgetown home dates from 1980, and 49% are older than 1980 (22% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.

Do I need a permit to re-side a house in Georgetown?

Not for siding. Georgetown's rules require no permit to re-side and to replace a window in the same opening and say nothing on whether you need a permit to cut or enlarge an opening. Next door in Woolwich, a re-side has no published rule.

What U-factor does a replacement window need in Georgetown?

Maine sets it statewide, not Georgetown: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. Georgetown counted 1,058 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.

What does the egress rule mean for windows in Georgetown?

Yes. 74% of Georgetown's homes have three or more bedrooms (median owner-estimated value $427,200), 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: georgetownme.com · georgetownme.com · georgetownme.com · georgetownme.com · georgetownme.com · georgetownme.com · georgetownme.com · georgetownme.com · georgetownme.com · legislature.maine.gov · www2.census.gov · maine.gov · maine.gov

Window and siding replacement in Georgetown

What we do in Georgetown

Replacement windows

Siding replacement

Vinyl siding

Fiber cement

Hail & storm damage

Older homes