Attic insulation, air sealing, crawl spaces and walls for homes in New Gloucester — starting with a free assessment that measures the R-value you actually have. The typical home here dates to the early-1990s, and 11% of its 2,256 homes went up before 1940.
New Gloucester runs to about 47 square miles and roughly 5,766 people. It sits about 21 miles north of downtown Portland. That is roughly 2,256 housing units. The community dates back to 1774. We cover ZIP code 04260.
Our job history shows nothing in New Gloucester so far. Plenty of sites will show you a number here anyway.
The typical home in New Gloucester 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.
That includes Upper Gloucester and Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village. Housing age and construction shift across New Gloucester, sometimes by decades within a few streets, which is why we look in the attic before quoting rather than after.
A farming town settled by families from Gloucester, Massachusetts, and home to Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, founded in 1783 and the last Shaker community still run by the Shakers themselves. The old town center is the New Gloucester Historic District.
The Census Bureau estimates 2,256 homes in New Gloucester. 257 of them (11%) went up before 1940 — 51st of 64 places on this site for pre-1940 housing. The 2000s were the busiest decade, adding 547 of today's homes (24%); 35% predate 1980 and 31% were built in 2000 or later. For Cumberland County as a whole the pre-1940 share is 23%, so New Gloucester sits below it.
Of 2,087 occupied homes, 1% heat with utility gas and 8% with electricity; another 9% burn propane or other tank gas. Electric heat here is less common than across the county (15%), and ranks 37th 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.
83% of occupied homes are owner-occupied and 70% of all homes are single-family detached houses, with 182 mobile homes in the count. With houses like these, the conversations we expect most are about air sealing on newer houses that already have depth.
| Built | Homes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 257 | 11% | |
| 1940s | 133 | 6% | |
| 1950s | 72 | 3% | |
| 1960s | 32 | 1% | |
| 1970s | 301 | 13% | |
| 1980s | 283 | 13% | |
| 1990s | 468 | 21% | |
| 2000s | 547 | 24% | |
| 2010s | 76 | 3% | |
| 2020 or later | 87 | 4% |
2,256 homes, Census ACS 2020–2024 (B25034, B25040, B25003); 2,087 occupied.
751 of New Gloucester's 2,256 homes (33%) 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.
New Gloucester enforces the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code (2021 IECC with Maine amendments). New Gloucester's Zoning Ordinance has the Code Enforcement Officer certify that a building meets the state code before a certificate of occupancy is issued.
For new work, the attic number under that edition is R-60, with walls at R-30, or R-20 + R-10 continuous, or R-13 + R-15 continuous, or R-20 continuous. Set that against the Department of Energy, which recommends R60 for an uninsulated attic in this climate zone and R49 for one that already has a few inches.
The 2021 IECC, Table R402.1.3, zone 6, as amended by Maine's energy rule, 08-003 C.M.R.
New Gloucester's "When do I need a permit?" handout lists insulation, with siding and window and door replacement, as regular maintenance with no permit fee, and says maintenance that does not alter the structure needs no permit. The 2026 Zoning Ordinance's Historic Resource Overlay District section says maintenance and repair work needs a permit from the Code Enforcement Officer, so a house in that district should be checked first.
The published number is 207-926-4126. The department page is here.
Permitting is on us, not on you.
Heating fuel in New Gloucester, by the Census Bureau's count: fuel oil or kerosene in 68% of occupied homes, electricity in 8%, propane or tank gas in 9% (Census ACS 2020–2024). The insulation money for a New Gloucester house comes from Efficiency Maine, not the electric company. For a zone of 500 square feet or more it pays $2,000 at any income, $3,000 at moderate income and $4,000 at low income, and $150 to $300 more for attic air sealing. Only a Residential Registered Vendor can do rebated work, the claim goes in within six months, and a lifetime limit of $8,600 per home applies. 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
New Gloucester borders Gray, Raymond, Pownal, North Yarmouth, Poland and Auburn. 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 3 of the 7 publish a permit rule for insulation.
| City | Energy code | Attic R required | Permit to insulate | Building dept. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Gloucester | Maine code, 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not for an attic top-up | 207-926-4126 |
| Gray | Maine code, 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not published | 207-657-3112 |
| Raymond | Maine code, 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not published | 207-655-4742 |
| Pownal | Maine code, 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not published | 207-688-4431 |
| North Yarmouth | Maine code, 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not published | 207-829-3705 |
| Baldwin | Not published | — | Not for an attic top-up | 207-625-3581 |
| Bridgton | Maine code, 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not for an attic top-up | 207-803-9963 |
All 25 Cumberland County jurisdictions side by side →
New Gloucester 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.
New Gloucester's "When do I need a permit?" handout lists insulation, with siding and window and door replacement, as regular maintenance with no permit fee, and says maintenance that does not alter the structure needs no permit. The 2026 Zoning Ordinance's Historic Resource Overlay District section says maintenance and repair work needs a permit from the Code Enforcement Officer, so a house in that district should be checked first.
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 New Gloucester dates to around the early-1990s; the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 median year built is 1991. Of its 2,256 homes, 11% went up before 1940 and 31% in 2000 or later. It is a median for the place, not a survey of individual houses.
Code and permit facts checked October 24, 2026, rebates October 24, 2026; housing: Census ACS 2020–2024. Sources: newgloucester.com (2, 3, 4, 5) · newgloucester.govoffice.com · newgloucestermecode.portal.iworq.net · maine.gov (2) · en.wikipedia.org (2, 3) · 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 207-926-4126 or Efficiency Maine at 866-376-2463 first.
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