Roofing for Georgetown homes: replacement, leaks and storm damage. In Georgetown, a re-roof needs a permit only in some cases and 79% of the 1,013 homes were built before 2000. Any permit the job needs is ours to pull.
Georgetown runs to about 18.6 square miles and roughly 1,012 people. It sits about 25 miles east of downtown Portland. The community dates back to 1716. We cover ZIP code 04548.
No completed roof in Georgetown is logged in our job records yet.
Slightly over half of the town's homes are seasonal, many close to the water, and the old villages of Five Islands and Bay Point are the most tightly built.
We work across Georgetown rather than one corner of it — Five Islands, Bay Point, Robinhood, Marrtown, West Georgetown, Georgetown Center, Indian Point and MacMahan Island included. Age and construction change between them, which is why we look before we quote.
Georgetown is an island town between the mouths of the Kennebec and Sheepscot rivers on the Gulf of Maine, connected to the mainland by bridges on Route 127, the only road on and off the island. Its villages grew on fishing, farming, boatbuilding and summer visitors, and coastal lots are prized for homes. Reid State Park and other conserved land cover more than a third of the island.
From this stretch of building, houses in Georgetown 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.
Georgetown has 1,013 homes in the Census Bureau's count and a median year built of 1980. 221 of them (22%) went up before 1940 — 14th of 64 places on this site for pre-1940 share — and 211 (21%) in 2000 or later. More of today's homes date from before 1940 than from any decade since. That is below Sagadahoc County's 27%.
About 25 years is the usual useful life of a roof, by the figure in the Maine Bureau of Insurance's claims guide. By that measure, 79% of Georgetown's homes — the 802 built before 2000 — are past their first roof, and the 376 built before 1970 (37%) are usually on a third covering or later. Homes from the 2000s (153 in Georgetown) are reaching their first replacement, while the 58 built since 2010 are mostly still on the roof they were built with. Older houses are where a second layer laid over the first turns up, and that layer is what hides soft decking.
By building type: 898 detached houses (89%), 30 attached (3%). 21 homes (2%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings. The count also takes in 64 mobile homes, which are a different kind of roof job. 406 of 487 occupied homes (83%) are lived in by their owners. With houses like these, the jobs we expect most are deck and flashing checks on pre-war board sheathing and first replacements on 2000s builder-grade shingles.
| Built | Homes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 221 | 22% | |
| 1940s | 75 | 7% | |
| 1950s | 22 | 2% | |
| 1960s | 58 | 6% | |
| 1970s | 125 | 12% | |
| 1980s | 165 | 16% | |
| 1990s | 136 | 13% | |
| 2000s | 153 | 15% | |
| 2010s | 58 | 6% | |
| 2020 or later | 0 | 0% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 1,013 homes, 487 occupied. Survey estimates.
NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center logged no reports of hail 1 inch or larger within 5 miles of Georgetown’s center from 2016 through 2025. That is a gap in the reports rather than proof that no hail fell: reports come from spotters and the public.
Georgetown's Building/Demolition Permit Ordinance (amended June 13, 2026) lists normal, routine maintenance and repairs, such as re-shingling a roof, replacing siding or replacing windows, among the exceptions; for these a building permit is required only if a variance is needed. In the shoreland zone, the Shoreland Zoning Ordinance likewise allows normal routine maintenance and repair, including re-shingling a roof, without a permit. Work that increases a home's volume or height, such as raising the roof, counts as an expansion and needs a Planning Board permit.
Georgetown 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 Georgetown had 1,058 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.
The published number is 207-295-4332. The building official on record is Mike Field, Code Enforcement Officer and Plumbing Inspector. The department page is here.
Wind design changes with location across greater Portland and southern Maine: the published ultimate design wind speeds run 115–120 mph, and the building department can say which figure applies to a given address. Ground snow load is set for each address, not one figure for the whole area: the published figures here run 50–70 psf. See the roofing code guide for what it governs.
Georgetown borders Woolwich, Arrowsic, Phippsburg, Westport Island, Southport and Kennebec River. Our pages for them:
Also in Sagadahoc County:
| Town | Re-roof permit | Code | Median built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgetown | Conditional | Enforcement optional | 1980 |
| Woolwich | Not published | Enforcement optional | 1982 |
| Arrowsic | Not published | Enforcement optional | 1985 |
| Phippsburg | Yes | 2021 IRC | 1984 |
| Bath | Not published | 2021 IRC | 1939 or earlier |
| Bowdoin | Not published | Enforcement optional | 1992 |
| Bowdoinham | No | Enforcement optional | 1985 |
All 10 Sagadahoc County towns side by side →
Georgetown's Building/Demolition Permit Ordinance (amended June 13, 2026) lists normal, routine maintenance and repairs, such as re-shingling a roof, replacing siding or replacing windows, among the exceptions; for these a building permit is required only if a variance is needed. In the shoreland zone, the Shoreland Zoning Ordinance likewise allows normal routine maintenance and repair, including re-shingling a roof, without a permit. Work that increases a home's volume or height, such as raising the roof, counts as an expansion and needs a Planning Board permit.
Georgetown 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 Georgetown had 1,058 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.
Older than most people guess: the Census puts 79% of Georgetown's homes before 2000 and 37% before 1970, with a median year built of 1980 (2020–2024 estimates). A roof usually lasts about 25 years, so the deck and the layers get checked before any quote.
The building official on record is Mike Field, Code Enforcement Officer and Plumbing Inspector. The department's own number is on this page, beside its name.
Not yet: no completed roof in Georgetown 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.georgetownme.com · www.georgetownme.com · www.georgetownme.com · www.georgetownme.com · www.georgetownme.com · www.georgetownme.com · www.georgetownme.com · www.georgetownme.com · www.georgetownme.com · legislature.maine.gov · www2.census.gov · www.maine.gov · en.wikipedia.org · www.georgetownme.com · www.georgetownme.com · www.georgetownme.com · www.zip-codes.com · en.wikipedia.org · data.census.gov · www.spc.noaa.gov. Rules and staff change; check with the jurisdiction.
