In Cornish, the median home was built in 1976. We replace and repair roofs here and inspect after storms, starting with a free, photographed inspection.
Cornish runs to about 22.2 square miles and roughly 1,803 people. It sits about 29 miles west of downtown Portland. The community dates back to 1794. We cover ZIP code 04020.
In Cornish's Historic District around the village center on Main, Maple and High streets, and on the historic buildings the town lists, a change of roofing material goes to the Code Enforcement Officer and the Planning Board, and the Planning Board must approve before a permit to alter a listed building's exterior is issued.
No completed roof in Cornish is logged in our job records yet.
That includes Cornish Village and Thompson Park. Housing age and construction shift across Cornish, sometimes by decades within a few streets, which is why we look at the roof before we quote rather than after.
Cornish is a small river town where the Ossipee River meets the Saco River, with a village of antique shops and restaurants near historic Thompson Park. It holds the highest ground in York County, Clark Mountain at over 1,320 feet.
From this stretch of building, houses in Cornish sit on plywood or OSB, were first roofed in three-tab shingles, and are mostly on their second roof now. Trouble tends to be at the penetrations rather than across the field: the rubber collar on a pipe boot splits years before the shingles give out, and it is the leak we trace most often. Ridge vents were hit and miss in these decades, and OSB that stays damp for a season softens in a way plywood does not, something you feel underfoot rather than see from the yard.
By the Census Bureau's estimate there are 863 homes in Cornish, with a median year built of 1976. 153 of them (18%) went up before 1940 — 30th of 64 places on this site for pre-1940 share — and 198 (23%) in 2000 or later. More of today's homes date from before 1940 than from any decade since. That is below York County's 20%.
The Maine Bureau of Insurance's claims guide puts the useful life of a roof at usually about 25 years. On that yardstick the 665 homes in Cornish built before 2000 (77%) have outlived at least one roof; 386 of them (45%) predate 1970, old enough for two replacements already. Homes from the 2000s (131 in Cornish) are reaching their first replacement, while the 67 built since 2010 are mostly still on the roof they were built with. At that age it pays to know whether the last roof was torn off or laid over the one before it, because a second layer hides the deck.
81% of homes in Cornish are single-family detached houses (696) and 1% attached ones such as townhouses (12). 64 homes (7%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings and 9 (1%) in buildings of ten units or more, whose roofs are normally an owner's or a board's call rather than a resident's. The count also takes in 82 mobile homes, which are a different kind of roof job. Owners live in 82% of the 742 occupied homes. With houses like these, the jobs we expect most are full tear-offs on houses past two roof lives, deck and flashing checks on pre-war board sheathing and first replacements on 2000s builder-grade shingles.
| Built | Homes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 153 | 18% | |
| 1940s | 30 | 3% | |
| 1950s | 130 | 15% | |
| 1960s | 73 | 8% | |
| 1970s | 80 | 9% | |
| 1980s | 126 | 15% | |
| 1990s | 73 | 8% | |
| 2000s | 131 | 15% | |
| 2010s | 49 | 6% | |
| 2020 or later | 18 | 2% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 863 homes, 742 occupied. Survey estimates.
From 2016 through 2025, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center recorded one report of hail of 1 inch or more within 5 miles of Cornish’s center. The stone was 1 inch, on June 28, 2020, about 4.8 miles northwest of the center. These are reports, not a full record: they come from spotters and the public, so busier areas log more.
If that storm crossed your street and nobody has been on the roof since, a storm inspection photographs what it did.
Cornish's Land Use Ordinance requires a building or use permit from the Code Enforcement Officer for the uses marked in its table of permitted uses, and it defines an alteration as including a change to the roof of a building. The town fee schedule charges $10 per $2,000 of value for renovations. Neither names a like-for-like re-roof, so ask the Code Enforcement Officer before starting. In the Historic District and on listed historic buildings, a roofing change needs review first.
Cornish is not required to enforce a building code. Maine law leaves enforcement of its statewide code optional for a town of 4,000 or fewer people (10 M.R.S. 9724(1-A)), and Cornish had 1,508 residents in the 2020 Census. A town that does enforce one may use only Maine's code, and the state says meeting the code is the building owner's responsibility either way. Cornish's Land Use Ordinance has its own Building Code chapter (Chapter 10) for new buildings, with basic rules for construction practice, exterior finish, roof covering, chimneys, fireplaces, wiring, plumbing and foundations. Maine's statewide code (MUBEC, based on the 2021 International Residential Code since April 7, 2025) applies to new construction and renovations across Maine, but towns of 4,000 or fewer people are not required to enforce it.
The published number is 207-653-4608. The building official on record is Dan Vaillancourt, Code Enforcement Officer, Building and Plumbing Inspector. The department page is here.
The design wind speed a roof in Cornish is built to depends on where the house stands: across greater Portland and southern Maine the published ultimate design wind speeds run 115–120 mph. Ground snow load is set for each address, not one figure for the whole area: the published figures here run 50–70 psf. The building department can confirm the figure, and the code guide explains what it governs.
Cornish borders Hiram, Baldwin, Limington, Limerick and Parsonsfield. Our pages for them:
Also in York County:
| Town | Re-roof permit | Code | Median built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cornish | Not published | Enforcement optional | 1976 |
| Baldwin | Not published | Enforcement optional | 1979 |
| Limington | Not published | 2021 IRC | 1986 |
| Limerick | No | 2021 IRC | 1994 |
| Parsonsfield | Not published | Enforcement optional | 1977 |
| Acton | Not published | 2021 IRC | 1974 |
| Alfred | Conditional | 2021 IRC | 1983 |
All 29 York County towns side by side →
Cornish's Land Use Ordinance requires a building or use permit from the Code Enforcement Officer for the uses marked in its table of permitted uses, and it defines an alteration as including a change to the roof of a building. The town fee schedule charges $10 per $2,000 of value for renovations. Neither names a like-for-like re-roof, so ask the Code Enforcement Officer before starting. In the Historic District and on listed historic buildings, a roofing change needs review first.
Cornish is not required to enforce a building code. Maine law leaves enforcement of its statewide code optional for a town of 4,000 or fewer people (10 M.R.S. 9724(1-A)), and Cornish had 1,508 residents in the 2020 Census. A town that does enforce one may use only Maine's code, and the state says meeting the code is the building owner's responsibility either way. Cornish's Land Use Ordinance has its own Building Code chapter (Chapter 10) for new buildings, with basic rules for construction practice, exterior finish, roof covering, chimneys, fireplaces, wiring, plumbing and foundations. Maine's statewide code (MUBEC, based on the 2021 International Residential Code since April 7, 2025) applies to new construction and renovations across Maine, but towns of 4,000 or fewer people are not required to enforce it.
Median year built 1976, by the Census Bureau's 2020–2024 estimates. Of 863 homes, 665 were built before 2000 and 153 before 1940, so most roofs in Cornish are not the first one the house has had.
One report of 1-inch-plus hail fell within 5 miles of Cornish between 2016 and 2025: 1 inch on June 28, 2020 (NOAA Storm Prediction Center).
The building official on record is Dan Vaillancourt, Code Enforcement Officer, Building and Plumbing Inspector. The department's own number is on this page, beside its name.
Not yet: no completed roof in Cornish is in our job records, so this page shows no job count.
Researched 2026-10-24; housing, Census ACS 2020–2024; hail, NOAA SPC. Sources: www.cornishme.com · www.cornishme.com · www.cornishme.com · www.cornishme.com · www.cornishme.com · www.cornishme.com · legislature.maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov · www.maine.gov · www2.census.gov · www.maine.gov · en.wikipedia.org · www2.census.gov · www2.census.gov · prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com · data.census.gov · www.spc.noaa.gov. Rules and staff change; check with the jurisdiction.
