Roofing for Woolwich homes: replacement, leaks and storm damage. In Woolwich, 22% of the 1,430 homes went up before 1940. Any permit the job needs is ours to pull.
Woolwich runs to about 35.1 square miles and roughly 3,158 people. It sits about 32 miles northeast of downtown Portland. The community dates back to 1775. We cover ZIP code 04579.
No completed roof in Woolwich is logged in our job records yet.
Days Ferry is a historic riverside village of well-kept older homes in Colonial, Federal and Greek Revival styles, while newer growth is steered toward the Nequasset area.
We work across Woolwich rather than one corner of it — Days Ferry, Nequasset, Montsweag, North Woolwich, Chops Point and Sagadahoc Ferry included. Age and construction change between them, which is why we look before we quote.
Woolwich is surrounded by water on three sides: the Kennebec River and Merrymeeting Bay to the west, Montsweag Bay to the east and the Sasanoa and Back rivers to the south. Route 1 comes over the Kennebec bridge from Bath and runs through the middle of town. Days Ferry, on the Kennebec, is a National Register village of houses from the 1700s and early 1800s.
From this stretch of building, houses in Woolwich 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.
Woolwich has 1,430 homes in the Census Bureau's count and a median year built of 1982. 308 of them (22%) went up before 1940 — 15th of 64 places on this site for pre-1940 share — and 453 (32%) in 2000 or later. More of today's homes date from before 1940 than from any decade since. (Sagadahoc County as a whole: 27% 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, 68% of Woolwich's homes — the 977 built before 2000 — are past their first roof, and 36% (517 homes) go back before 1970, two roof lives and more. First replacements are arriving on the 237 homes built in the 2000s, while the 216 built since 2010 are mostly still on the roof they were built with. On houses that old, the question worth asking is how many layers are up there: a roof laid over an old one hides the deck.
By building type: 1,182 detached houses (83%), 36 attached (3%). The count also takes in 212 mobile homes, which are a different kind of roof job. Owners live in 96% of the 1,295 occupied homes. Read together, those figures point toward deck and flashing checks on pre-war board sheathing, first replacements on 2000s builder-grade shingles and storm checks on newer roofs that look fine from the driveway.
| Built | Homes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 308 | 22% | |
| 1940s | 88 | 6% | |
| 1950s | 28 | 2% | |
| 1960s | 93 | 7% | |
| 1970s | 179 | 13% | |
| 1980s | 118 | 8% | |
| 1990s | 163 | 11% | |
| 2000s | 237 | 17% | |
| 2010s | 213 | 15% | |
| 2020 or later | 3 | 0% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 1,430 homes, 1,295 occupied. Survey estimates.
NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center logged no reports of hail 1 inch or larger within 5 miles of Woolwich’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.
Woolwich's Planning Ordinance (amended through 2025) makes it unlawful to erect any building over 200 square feet, or alter the bulk of any building in any district, without first getting a building permit from the Building Inspector. The town's pages do not mention re-roofing by name. Rooftop solar is applied for on the town's building permit form.
Woolwich 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 Woolwich had 3,068 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. The department page is here.
The design wind speed a roof in Woolwich 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.
Woolwich borders Bath, Arrowsic, Georgetown, Bowdoinham, Dresden and Wiscasset. Our pages for them:
Also in Sagadahoc County:
| Town | Re-roof permit | Code | Median built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woolwich | Not published | Enforcement optional | 1982 |
| Bath | Not published | 2021 IRC | 1939 or earlier |
| Arrowsic | Not published | Enforcement optional | 1985 |
| Georgetown | Conditional | Enforcement optional | 1980 |
| Bowdoinham | No | Enforcement optional | 1985 |
| Bowdoin | Not published | Enforcement optional | 1992 |
| Phippsburg | Yes | 2021 IRC | 1984 |
All 10 Sagadahoc County towns side by side →
Woolwich's Planning Ordinance (amended through 2025) makes it unlawful to erect any building over 200 square feet, or alter the bulk of any building in any district, without first getting a building permit from the Building Inspector. The town's pages do not mention re-roofing by name. Rooftop solar is applied for on the town's building permit form.
Woolwich 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 Woolwich had 3,068 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.
Median year built 1982, by the Census Bureau's 2020–2024 estimates. Of 1,430 homes, 977 were built before 2000 and 308 before 1940, so most roofs in Woolwich are not the first one the house has had.
The building official on record is Mike Field, Code Enforcement. The department's own number is on this page, beside its name.
It can. Woolwich has Days Ferry Historic District. Inside a designated district, changing a visible roof material or color can need preservation review before the permit is issued. Like-for-like replacement usually raises fewer questions, but we check before quoting.
Not yet: no completed roof in Woolwich 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: woolwich.us · woolwich.us · woolwich.us · cdn.townweb.com · cdn.townweb.com · cdn.townweb.com · cdn.townweb.com · legislature.maine.gov · www2.census.gov · www.maine.gov · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · woolwich.us · www.zip-codes.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · data.census.gov · www.spc.noaa.gov. Rules and staff change; check with the jurisdiction.
