Window and Siding Replacement in Gray, ME

Gray at a glance

Permit to re-side

Depends

Window, same opening

Depends

New or bigger opening: required

Window must meet

U-0.30 or lower

2021 IECC (statewide)

Built before 1980

46%

Homes in Gray, Census 2020–2024

People: 8,429
Homes: 4,442
Size: 43.3 square miles
From downtown: About 18 miles north
ZIP codes: 04039
Founded or incorporated: 1778

Gray includes most of Little Sebago Lake and Crystal Lake, and its mills on Collyer Brook included the first successful water-powered woolen mill in North America, started in 1791. It shares a school district with New Gloucester and still has families living on land their ancestors farmed.

The houses in Gray

Before 194012%

1940–19596%

1960–197929%

1980–199927%

2000 or later27%

In Gray, 46% of homes went up before 1980 and 12% before 1940; the median one dates from 1983. 78% are detached single-family houses, and owners live in 82% 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.

58% of the homes in Gray have three or more bedrooms. The median owned home is worth about $363,700 by its owner's estimate, the figure to weigh any siding or window quote against.

Half the homes in Gray were built before 1983, which makes its housing about 7 years newer than across Cumberland County as a whole (median 1976). Set against Cumberland County as a whole, owners live in 82% of occupied homes here against 70% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $363,700 here and $451,200 across the county and detached houses are 78% of the homes, above the county's 63%.

Rooms in the median home: 5.2
Heated with gas / electricity: 1% / 10%
Townhouses and other attached homes: 4%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units: 9%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units: 4%
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.

Subdivisions and commercial building have come at a growing pace since the early 1990s.

What that vintage turns up

The largest group of homes in Gray, 29% of them, was built in the 1960s and 1970s, so that is the house described here.

Aluminum sliders and single-hungs, single-glazed or with an early sealed unit, alongside the first vinyl-clad wood windows. An aluminum frame is a cold bridge: in January it collects frost and runs condensation onto the sill and the drywall return. Few of these windows are worth repairing, and on this vintage a full replacement is usually money well spent.

Raised ranches and split-levels in the new subdivisions, and lake cottages turned into year-round houses, clad in plywood panel siding, aluminum lap or the first vinyl. Plywood panels drink water at the bottom edge and at every butt joint; aluminum dents and chalks but rarely leaks. A converted camp may have siding nailed straight to the studs, with no sheathing and little or no insulation behind it.

The one to watch on a house of this age

The bottom of the wall. Panel siding that runs down close to the ground soaks up water and snowmelt, and the rim joist and sill plate behind it rot unseen. On a converted camp, check whether there is any sheathing at all before anyone prices new siding as a simple swap.

And on the 27% built in the 1980s and 1990s

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.

Neighborhoods

We work across Dry Mills, East Gray, North Gray, South Gray and West Gray.

Historic districts

Gray has 1 listed: Freeman Farm 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

Gray shares a boundary with Windham, Cumberland, North Yarmouth, New Gloucester and Raymond.

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

The rules in Gray

Siding replacement Conditional

It depends on whether the work is structural. Gray's code FAQ says a building permit is required when you do anything structural to a building or add a structure, and siding is not on its list of examples.

Window replacement, same opening Conditional Enlarging or cutting an opening Permit required

The FAQ names windows: installing new doors or windows needs a permit if the frame or header is being replaced, so a same-size swap in a sound frame does not, and a new or enlarged opening does.

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

With 8,269 residents in the 2020 Census, Gray is over the 4,000 mark at which Maine requires a town to enforce the state's building and energy code.

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.

Who to call

Building dept: 207-657-3112
Official: Not published. Any site printing a name here is guessing.
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

Victorian clapboard house with a mansard roof, bracketed eaves and a columned front porch

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

How Gray compares with its neighbors

Place	Permit to re-side	Permit for a window	Window must meet
Gray	Depends	Depends	U-0.30
Windham	Depends	Depends	U-0.30
Cumberland	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
North Yarmouth	No	No	U-0.30
New Gloucester	Depends	Depends	U-0.30
Raymond	No	No	U-0.30
Harpswell	Yes	Yes	U-0.30

All 25 Cumberland County places side by side →

Work we have done in Gray

We have not logged a finished job in Gray yet. When we do, it will be listed here with what was done — we would rather show nothing than a number you cannot check.

Common questions about Gray

When were most of the homes in Gray built?

29% went up in the 1960s and 1970s and 27% in the 1980s and 1990s; the median Gray home dates from 1983, and 46% are older than 1980 (12% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.

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

For siding, it depends. Gray's rules make it depend on the job whether you need a permit to re-side or to replace a window in the same opening and require a permit to cut or enlarge an opening. It depends on whether the work is structural. Next door in Cumberland, a re-side has no published rule.

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

Maine sets it statewide, not Gray: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. With 8,269 residents in the 2020 Census, Gray is over the 4,000 mark at which Maine requires a town to enforce the state's building and energy code.

Does Gray have historic districts that limit window or siding choices?

Gray has 1: Freeman Farm Historic District. Check a property's listing before ordering a visible window change.

Where these facts came from

Sources: graymaine.org · graymaine.org · graymaine.org · graymaine.org · graymaine.org · maine.gov · maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov

Window and siding replacement in Gray

What we do in Gray

Replacement windows

Siding replacement

Vinyl siding

Fiber cement

Hail & storm damage

Older homes