Insulation in Arundel, Maine

Insulation and air sealing in Arundel

Arundel runs to about 24 square miles and roughly 4,418 people. It sits about 20 miles southwest of downtown Portland. There are around 1,803 housing units here. The community dates back to 1915. We cover ZIP code 04046.

We have not logged a completed job in Arundel yet. We would rather say so than put a number on this page that is not real.

The housing stock in Arundel

The typical home in Arundel dates to around the early-1990s. Houses of this vintage usually got batts or blown fiber at whatever the standard of the day was, which is well short of what is recommended now. Most are one top-up away from being right.

We work across Arundel rather than one corner of it — Arundel Village, Vinegar Hill, Goff Mill, Log Cabin Crossing and Millers Crossing included. Construction and vintage change between them, sometimes by thirty years and a whole different framing method, which decides whether a wall can be dense-packed at all.

Arundel was the inland part of Kennebunkport until 1915, when it was set off as North Kennebunkport; it took the old name Arundel in 1957. It has no ocean frontage and is crossed by Interstate 95 and Route 1, with the Kennebunk River draining the town.

Arundel homes in the Census numbers

The Census Bureau estimates 1,803 homes in Arundel. 107 of them (6%) went up before 1940 — one of the five lowest pre-1940 shares among the 64 places on this site. The 1990s were the busiest decade, adding 374 of today's homes (21%); 31% predate 1980 and 33% were built in 2000 or later. For York County as a whole the pre-1940 share is 20%, so Arundel sits below it.

Of 1,619 occupied homes, 0% heat with utility gas and 6% with electricity; another 22% burn propane or other tank gas. Electric heat here is less common than across the county (10%), and ranks 46th of 64 on this site. The heating fuel does not change the Efficiency Maine rebate, but it does change what each inch of insulation is worth, which is why the boiler, furnace or heat pump is the first thing an assessment looks at.

82% of occupied homes are owner-occupied and 78% of all homes are single-family detached houses, with 277 mobile homes in the count. On a housing mix like this, the likely starting points are air sealing on newer houses that already have depth.

1,803 homes, Census ACS 2020–2024 (B25034, B25040, B25003); 1,619 occupied.

Sealing comes first in Arundel

638 of Arundel's 1,803 homes (35%) were built in the 1980s and 1990s. The gaps in houses of that age are the parts nobody sealed: batts stuffed into the rim joist, bare spots over cathedral and tray ceilings, soffit vents buried with no baffles, can lights punched through the ceiling plane. A top-up plus a day of sealing usually covers it.

What the energy code requires in Arundel

Arundel enforces the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code (2021 IECC with Maine amendments). Arundel had 4,264 residents in the 2020 Census, over the 4,000 at which state law requires a town to enforce the state code and its energy chapter.

Under that edition the required attic value for new work here is R-60, and walls R-30, or R-20 + R-10 continuous, or R-13 + R-15 continuous, or R-20 continuous. For comparison, the Department of Energy recommends R60 for an uninsulated attic in climate zone 6A, where Arundel sits, and R49 where there are already a few inches up there.

Table R402.1.3 of the 2021 IECC for climate zone 6, with the wall row as Maine rewrote it (08-003 C.M.R.

Do you need a permit to insulate here?

Arundel publishes no answer either way. Insulation and air sealing appear on neither the permit-required list nor the exempt list. Section 12.1.1 of Arundel's Land Use Ordinance exempts repairs, replacement and normal maintenance not involving structural elements. We confirm it with the department before we start and pull whatever is needed. We would rather write that here than guess on your behalf.

Permits and inspections in Arundel

The published number is 207-985-4201. The department page is here.

Permitting is on us, not on you.

Rebates an Arundel homeowner can actually use

62% of the occupied homes in Arundel burn fuel oil or kerosene for heat, 6% use electricity and 22% propane or other tank gas (Census ACS 2020–2024). Efficiency Maine pays the same rebates in Arundel as anywhere else in the state: $2,000 per attic, wall or basement zone with 500 square feet or more insulated at any income, $3,000 for a verified moderate-income household and $4,000 for a low-income one, plus $150 to $300 for sealing the attic's air leaks. It applies to work completed on or after October 1, 2026 by one of its Residential Registered Vendors, and an attic qualifies only if it starts at R-21 or less. Income-qualified households in York County can apply to York County Community Action Corp (207-324-5762) for free weatherization through MaineHousing instead. The York County page and the rebate guide carry the full rules.

Nearby

Arundel borders Kennebunkport, Kennebunk, Lyman, Dayton and Biddeford. These are the ones we also cover, each with its own energy code and permit rule:

Elsewhere in York County we also cover:

How Arundel compares with its neighbors

Maine sets the residential energy code statewide, so the attic figure is R-60 wherever it is published here; what changes is the permit desk, and none of the 7 publishes a permit rule for insulation.

All 29 York County jurisdictions side by side →

Common questions about insulation in Arundel

Code and permit facts checked October 24, 2026, rebates October 24, 2026; housing: Census ACS 2020–2024. Sources: arundelmaine.org (2) · arundel.govoffice.com (2) · legislature.maine.gov · www2.census.gov (2, 3) · maine.gov (2) · en.wikipedia.org · prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com · efficiencymaine.com (2, 3, 4) · energystar.gov · data.census.gov. These change; confirm with the building department at 207-985-4201 or Efficiency Maine at 866-376-2463 first.