Yellow clapboard house with black shutters behind a white picket fence
York County, Maine

Window and siding replacement in Old Orchard Beach

Replacement windows and new siding for homes in Old Orchard Beach. Here a re-side needs a permit, and a replacement window has to be U-0.30 or lower.

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What we do in Old Orchard Beach

Old Orchard Beach at a glance

Permit to re-side
Required
Window, same opening
Not published
New or bigger opening: required
Window must meet
U-0.30 or lower
2021 IECC (statewide)
Built before 1980
46%
Homes in Old Orchard Beach, Census 2020–2024
People
9,244
Homes
7,796
Size
7.4 square miles
From downtown
About 10 miles southwest
ZIP codes
04064, 04063
Founded or incorporated
1883

Old Orchard Beach is a seaside resort on Saco Bay whose 7-mile beach runs into Scarborough and Saco, so many of its buildings stand in direct salt air and ocean wind. Ocean Park, at the south end of town, grew from a Free Will Baptist summer camp community founded in 1881.

The houses in Old Orchard Beach

Before 194023%
1940–19598%
1960–197916%
1980–199930%
2000 or later23%

In Old Orchard Beach, 46% of homes went up before 1980 and 23% before 1940; the median one dates from 1982. 51% are detached single-family houses, and owners live in 68% 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 $366,600, and 41% of homes have three bedrooms or more — each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Old Orchard Beach were built before 1982, which makes its housing about the same age as across York County as a whole (median 1980). Set against York County as a whole, owners live in 68% of occupied homes here against 77% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $366,600 here and $395,700 across the county and detached houses are 51% of the homes, below the county's 70%.

Rooms in the median home
4.8
Heated with gas / electricity
12% / 19%
Townhouses and other attached homes
6%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units
15%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units
18%
Mobile homes
10%

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.

The beachfront is lined with beach houses, condominiums, motels and bed and breakfasts.

What that vintage turns up

The largest group of homes in Old Orchard Beach, 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 23% 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 Ocean Park, Milliken Mills, Surfside and Pine Park.

Next door

Old Orchard Beach shares a boundary with Saco, Scarborough and Saco Bay.

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

The rules in Old Orchard Beach

Siding replacement Permit required

Yes. The town's code enforcement page says a building permit covers work to "construct, alter, or remove a building or structure (siding, etc.)".

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

Window replacement is not named on its own; cutting a new or bigger opening alters the building.

Maine sets this, not Old Orchard Beach: U-0.30 or lower

With 8,960 residents in the 2020 Census, Old Orchard Beach 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.

Contractor registration Yes

Every permit application must come with proof of insurance for all contractors working at the address: liability coverage, and workers' compensation for contractors with employees.

What the permit costs

Residential additions and alterations are charged $8 per $1,000 of construction cost, with a $40 minimum, and building without a permit costs double.

Who to call

Building dept
207-937-5645
Official
Rick Haskell, Director of Code Enforcement
Permits
Department page
12345
What is behind the siding: every layer explained
Gothic-style house with carved bargeboard trim, a pointed window and diamond-pane sashes
Kitchen window with potted plants on the sill and a snowy yard outside
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 Old Orchard Beach compares with its neighbors

PlacePermit to re-sidePermit for a windowWindow must meet
Old Orchard BeachYesNot publishedU-0.30
SacoYesYesU-0.30
ScarboroughYesYesU-0.30
ParsonsfieldNot publishedNot publishedU-0.30
SanfordYesYesU-0.30
ShapleighNot publishedNot publishedU-0.30
South BerwickNoNoU-0.30

All 29 York County places side by side →

Work we have done in Old Orchard Beach

We have no finished work in Old Orchard Beach to show you yet. This fills in as jobs land, and not before.

Common questions about Old Orchard Beach

When were most of the homes in Old Orchard Beach built?
30% went up in the 1980s and 1990s and 23% before 1940; the median Old Orchard Beach home dates from 1982, and 46% are older than 1980 (23% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.
Do I need a permit to re-side a house in Old Orchard Beach?
Yes, for siding. Old Orchard Beach's rules require a permit to re-side and to cut or enlarge an opening and say nothing on whether you need a permit to replace a window in the same opening. Yes. The town's code enforcement page says a building permit covers work to "construct, alter, or remove a building or structure (siding, etc.)". In Parsonsfield, also in York County, a re-side has no published rule.
What U-factor does a replacement window need in Old Orchard Beach?
Maine sets it statewide, not Old Orchard Beach: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. With 8,960 residents in the 2020 Census, Old Orchard Beach is over the 4,000 mark at which Maine requires a town to enforce the state's building and energy code.
Does a siding or window contractor have to register in Old Orchard Beach?
Yes. Every permit application must come with proof of insurance for all contractors working at the address: liability coverage, and workers' compensation for contractors with employees.
What does a permit cost in Old Orchard Beach?
Residential additions and alterations are charged $8 per $1,000 of construction cost, with a $40 minimum, and building without a permit costs double.

Where these facts came from

Sources: oobmaine.com · oobmaine.com · oobmaine.com · oobmaine.com · oobmaine.com · oobmaine.com · maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov

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