Insulation and air sealing for Gorham homes: attics, crawl spaces, rim joists and walls, starting with a free assessment of the R-value you actually have. The typical home here dates to the late-1980s, and 14% of its 6,834 homes went up before 1940.
Gorham runs to about 51 square miles and roughly 18,300 people. It sits about 11 miles west of downtown Portland. That is roughly 6,834 housing units. The community dates back to 1764. We cover ZIP code 04038.
Our job history shows nothing in Gorham so far. Plenty of sites will show you a number here anyway.
The typical home in Gorham dates to around the late-1980s. 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 Gorham rather than one corner of it — Little Falls, North Gorham, South Gorham, West Gorham, White Rock, Babb Corner, Dog Corner, Gag Corner and Mosher Corner 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.
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 Census Bureau estimates 6,834 homes in Gorham. 939 of them (14%) went up before 1940 — 42nd of 64 places on this site for pre-1940 housing. The 2010s were the busiest decade, adding 1,159 of today's homes (17%); 38% predate 1980 and 33% were built in 2000 or later. For Cumberland County as a whole the pre-1940 share is 23%, so Gorham sits below it.
Of 6,636 occupied homes, 12% heat with utility gas and 8% with electricity; another 14% burn propane or other tank gas. Electric heat here is less common than across the county (15%), and ranks 36th of 64 on this site. Whoever comes out will ask what heats the house first: the rebate is the same on any fuel, but the saving is not.
81% of occupied homes are owner-occupied and 80% of all homes are single-family detached houses, with 356 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.
| Built | Homes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 939 | 14% | |
| 1940s | 209 | 3% | |
| 1950s | 294 | 4% | |
| 1960s | 293 | 4% | |
| 1970s | 849 | 12% | |
| 1980s | 1,097 | 16% | |
| 1990s | 887 | 13% | |
| 2000s | 1,020 | 15% | |
| 2010s | 1,159 | 17% | |
| 2020 or later | 87 | 1% |
6,834 homes, Census ACS 2020–2024 (B25034, B25040, B25003); 6,636 occupied.
1,984 of Gorham's 6,834 homes (29%) 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.
Gorham enforces the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code (2021 IECC with Maine amendments). Gorham's Code Division says its Code Enforcement Officer enforces the state code; the town's own pages still name the 2015 editions, but the state moved every enforcing town to the 2021 codes, energy code included, on April 7, 2025.
That edition sets R-60 for the attic in new work, and R-30, or R-20 + R-10 continuous, or R-13 + R-15 continuous, or R-20 continuous for walls. The Department of Energy's recommendation for this climate zone is no lower: R60 for an attic with nothing in it, R49 where a few inches are already down.
The 2021 IECC insulation table (R402.1.3), climate zone 6; Maine's energy chapter changed the wood-frame wall entry and left the attic at R-60.
There is no published answer for Gorham. Neither the permit-required list nor the exemption list mentions insulation or air sealing at all. Gorham's Land Use and Development Code and Code Division say any alteration to an existing structure needs a building permit, priced at $12 per $1,000 of labor and materials with a $50 minimum; insulation is not named either way. That silence is not permission and it is not a prohibition. We settle it with a phone call before the crew is scheduled.
The published number is 207-222-1605. The department page is here.
Permitting is on us, not on you.
60% of the occupied homes in Gorham burn fuel oil or kerosene for heat, 8% use electricity and 14% propane or other tank gas, and 12% utility gas (Census ACS 2020–2024). Efficiency Maine pays the same rebates in Gorham 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. The work has to be done by an Efficiency Maine Residential Registered Vendor, and the attic has to start at R-21 or below and finish at R-49 or more. Income-qualified households in Cumberland County can apply to Community Concepts Inc (207-795-4065) for free weatherization through MaineHousing instead. The Cumberland County page and the rebate guide carry the full rules.
Every layer of an insulated attic, explained
Gorham borders Windham, Standish, Buxton, Scarborough, Westbrook and Presumpscot River. These are the ones we also cover, each with its own energy code and permit rule:
Elsewhere in Cumberland County we also cover:
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 1 of the 7 publishes a permit rule for insulation.
| City | Energy code | Attic R required | Permit to insulate | Building dept. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gorham | Maine code, 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not published | 207-222-1605 |
| Windham | Maine code, 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not published | 207-894-5960 |
| Standish | Maine code, 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not published | 207-642-4571 |
| Buxton | Maine code, 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not published | 207-929-3046 |
| Scarborough | Maine code, 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not published | 207-730-4040 |
| Westbrook | Maine code, 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not published | 207-854-0638 |
| Baldwin | Not published | — | Not for an attic top-up | 207-625-3581 |
All 25 Cumberland County jurisdictions side by side →
Gorham enforces the Maine code, 2021 IECC, which sets R-60 for an attic in new work. That code also reaches work on existing houses, not only new ones.
Gorham has not published a rule for it; the building department at 207-222-1605 is called before the job starts.
Efficiency Maine's: $2,000 per attic, wall or basement zone of 500 square feet or more at any income, $3,000 at moderate income and $4,000 at low income, plus $150 to $300 for attic air sealing, on work completed by one of its Residential Registered Vendors on or after October 1, 2026. The federal 25C credit ended for work placed in service after December 31, 2025.
The typical home in Gorham dates to around the late-1980s; the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 median year built is 1988. Of its 6,834 homes, 14% went up before 1940 and 33% in 2000 or later. That is a median across the whole place, so your own house may be older or newer.
Code and permit facts checked October 24, 2026, rebates October 24, 2026; housing: Census ACS 2020–2024. Sources: ecode360.com (2, 3, 4, 5) · web.archive.org (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) · gorhammaine.gov (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) · maine.gov (2) · legislature.maine.gov · en.wikipedia.org (2) · zip-codes.com · tigerweb.geo.census.gov · efficiencymaine.com (2, 3, 4) · energystar.gov · data.census.gov. These change; confirm with the building department at 207-222-1605 or Efficiency Maine at 866-376-2463 first.
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