Roof replacement, leak repair and storm damage for homes in Old Orchard Beach. In Old Orchard Beach, the 2021 IRC is in force and the median home was built in 1982. It starts with a free inspection that photographs every slope.
Old Orchard Beach runs to about 7.4 square miles and roughly 9,244 people. It sits about 10 miles southwest of downtown Portland. The community dates back to 1883. We cover ZIP codes 04064 and 04063.
No completed roof in Old Orchard Beach is logged in our job records yet.
The beachfront is lined with beach houses, condominiums, motels and bed and breakfasts.
We work across Old Orchard Beach rather than one corner of it — Ocean Park, Milliken Mills, Surfside and Pine Park included. Age and construction change between them, which is why we look before we quote.
Old Orchard Beach is a seaside resort on Saco Bay whose 7-mile beach runs into Scarborough and Saco, so many of its buildings stand in direct salt air and ocean wind. Ocean Park, at the south end of town, grew from a Free Will Baptist summer camp community founded in 1881.
From this stretch of building, houses in Old Orchard Beach 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.
Old Orchard Beach has 7,796 homes in the Census Bureau's count and a median year built of 1982. 1,766 of them (23%) went up before 1940 — 12th of 64 places on this site for pre-1940 share — and 1,814 (23%) in 2000 or later. More of today's homes date from before 1940 than from any decade since. (York County as a whole: 20% before 1940.)
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, 77% of Old Orchard Beach's homes — the 5,982 built before 2000 — are past their first roof, and the 2,785 built before 1970 (36%) are usually on a third covering or later. Homes from the 2000s (1,084 in Old Orchard Beach) are reaching their first replacement, while the 730 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.
51% of homes in Old Orchard Beach are single-family detached houses (3,971) and 6% attached ones such as townhouses (457). 1,704 homes (22%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings and 889 (11%) in buildings of ten units or more, where the roof is usually a landlord's or an association's decision. The count also takes in 775 mobile homes, which are a different kind of roof job. Owners live in 68% of the 5,374 occupied homes. On a housing mix like this, the likely work is deck and flashing checks on pre-war board sheathing, first replacements on 2000s builder-grade shingles and flat and low-slope sections, which turn up more on attached and multi-unit buildings.
| Built | Homes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 1,766 | 23% | |
| 1940s | 289 | 4% | |
| 1950s | 344 | 4% | |
| 1960s | 386 | 5% | |
| 1970s | 825 | 11% | |
| 1980s | 1,495 | 19% | |
| 1990s | 877 | 11% | |
| 2000s | 1,084 | 14% | |
| 2010s | 521 | 7% | |
| 2020 or later | 209 | 3% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 7,796 homes, 5,374 occupied. Survey estimates.
NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center logged no reports of hail 1 inch or larger within 5 miles of Old Orchard Beach’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.
The town's Code Enforcement page and fee schedule do not say whether a roof replacement needs a building permit. Building permits are issued when a project complies with the town's ordinances and the state codes the town has adopted. Residential additions and alterations are charged $8 per $1,000 of construction cost, with a $40 minimum building permit fee, and building without a permit costs double the permit fee.
Old Orchard Beach enforces the 2021 IRC. The town's Code Enforcement page says the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code (MUBEC) applies and lists the 2021 International Residential Code, 2021 International Building Code, 2021 International Existing Building Code and 2021 International Energy Conservation Code, with Maine's amendments in state rule chapters 1 to 6.
The published number is 207-937-5645. The building official on record is Rick Haskell, Director of Code Enforcement. 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.
Old Orchard Beach borders Saco, Scarborough and Saco Bay. Our pages for them:
Also in York County:
| Town | Re-roof permit | Code | Median built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Orchard Beach | Not published | 2021 IRC | 1982 |
| Saco | Not published | 2021 IRC | 1982 |
| Scarborough | Not published | 2021 IRC | 1988 |
| Acton | Not published | 2021 IRC | 1974 |
| Alfred | Conditional | 2021 IRC | 1983 |
| Arundel | Not published | 2021 IRC | 1992 |
| Berwick | Not published | 2021 IRC | 1989 |
All 29 York County towns side by side →
The town's Code Enforcement page and fee schedule do not say whether a roof replacement needs a building permit. Building permits are issued when a project complies with the town's ordinances and the state codes the town has adopted. Residential additions and alterations are charged $8 per $1,000 of construction cost, with a $40 minimum building permit fee, and building without a permit costs double the permit fee.
Old Orchard Beach enforces the 2021 IRC. The town's Code Enforcement page says the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code (MUBEC) applies and lists the 2021 International Residential Code, 2021 International Building Code, 2021 International Existing Building Code and 2021 International Energy Conservation Code, with Maine's amendments in state rule chapters 1 to 6.
The Census Bureau's 2020–2024 estimates put the median year built at 1982: 23% of Old Orchard Beach's 7,796 homes predate 1940 and 23% were built in 2000 or later. At the usual 25-year roof life, 77% have needed at least one new roof already.
The building official on record is Rick Haskell, Director of Code Enforcement. The department's own number is on this page, beside its name.
Not yet: no completed roof in Old Orchard Beach 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.oobmaine.com · www.oobmaine.com · www.oobmaine.com · www.oobmaine.com · www.oobmaine.com · www.oobmaine.com · en.wikipedia.org · 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.
