Window and siding replacement in Gorham

Gorham at a glance

People

18,300

Homes

6,834

Size

50.6 square miles

From downtown

About 11 miles west

ZIP codes

04038

Founded or incorporated

1764

A historically rural farm and mill town that has grown into a bedroom community of Portland. It is home to the Gorham campus of the University of Southern Maine, where the Federal-style Academy Building dates to 1806, and its old Presumpscot River mill sites now lie under the Dundee Dam pond.

The houses in Gorham

Of the homes in Gorham, 38% predate 1980 and 14% predate 1940; the median one dates from 1988. Detached single-family houses make up 80%; owners live in 81% 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.

By the owners' own estimate, the median owned home in Gorham is worth about $460,900. 69% of homes have three or more bedrooms, and each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Gorham were built before 1988, which makes its housing about 12 years newer than across Cumberland County as a whole (median 1976). Set against Cumberland County as a whole, owners live in 81% of occupied homes here against 70% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $460,900 here and $451,200 across the county and detached houses are 80% of the homes, above the county's 63%.

Rooms in the median home

6.1

Heated with gas / electricity

12% / 8%

Townhouses and other attached homes

4%

Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units

7%

Homes in buildings of 5 or more units

5%

Mobile homes

5%

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.

What that vintage turns up

The largest group of homes in Gorham, 33% of them, was built in 2000 or later, so that is the house described here.

Double-glazed low-e vinyl or fiberglass windows, usually installed with flashing tape over a house wrap. These rarely need replacing for age; when one fails it is usually a seal or a piece of hardware, and the maker's warranty is worth checking before anything else. Heavy frost or water on the inside of the glass in a cold snap is more often a humidity problem in a tight house than a window defect.

Vinyl, fiber cement or engineered wood over oriented strand board and a house wrap, the wall assembly the current code expects. The weak points are workmanship, not materials: tape that let go at the window corners, a missing kickout where a roof edge meets a sidewall, J-channel run tight with no room for the siding to move.

Neighborhoods

We work across Little Falls, North Gorham, South Gorham, West Gorham, White Rock, Babb Corner, Dog Corner, Gag Corner and Mosher Corner.

Historic districts

Gorham has 3 listed: Gorham Historic District, Gorham Campus Historic District and South Street Historic District. A National Register listing on its own does not limit what you fit; a local district or landmark designation can, and in several towns here a change of siding material or window sash needs a certificate before the permit. Which towns' rules bind, and how.

Next door

Gorham shares a boundary with Windham, Standish, Buxton, Scarborough, Westbrook and Presumpscot River.

The rules in Gorham

What the permit costs

Alterations are charged $12 per thousand dollars of labor and materials, with a $50 minimum.

Local quirks

Gorham's code handout gives the bedroom egress rule: a sill no more than 44 inches above the finished floor and a bottom sash that opens to at least 5.7 square feet, 20 inches wide and 24 inches high. In the Gorham Village Center District, street-facing exteriors are to be traditional New England materials or materials that replicate them, such as vinyl clapboard, and products such as T1-11 or plywood are barred on facades visible from a public street.

Who to call

Building dept

207-222-1605

Official

Not published. Any site printing a name here is guessing.

Permits

Department page

How Gorham compares with its neighbors

All 25 Cumberland County places side by side →

Work we have done in Gorham

No completed job in Gorham on the books yet, and we would rather say so than invent one.

Common questions about Gorham

Where these facts came from

Sources: gorhammaine.gov · ecode360.com · gorhammaine.gov · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · web.archive.org · web.archive.org · web.archive.org · web.archive.org · gorhammaine.gov · gorhammaine.gov · gorhammaine.gov · gorhammaine.gov · gorhammaine.gov · web.archive.org · web.archive.org · web.archive.org · maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov · maine.gov