Siding, Roofing, Windows & Decks in Gray, Maine

The Census Bureau's American Community Survey estimates about 4,440 housing units in Gray, with a median year built of 1983. Roughly 12 percent predate 1940 and about 18 percent predate 1960, so most of the town is younger than its village center suggests. Two building waves stand out in the data: about 29 percent of homes went up between 1960 and 1979, and about 27 percent in 2000 or later, the years of subdivision growth off the state routes. Close to 78 percent of units are single-family detached houses, and about 82 percent of occupied homes are owner-occupied. The survey also counts roughly 630 seasonal units, around one in seven, which fits the camps and cottages along the town's lake frontage. The older stock runs to Capes and farmhouses, such as the Freeman Farm's circa-1812 Cape with its long ell and 1830s bank barn.

Gray is inland, with a town center about 256 feet above sea level, and it gets noticeably more snow than the coast. The town is home to the National Weather Service office that forecasts for western Maine and New Hampshire, and NOAA's 1991-2020 normals for the Gray station list about 84 inches of snow a year, with December, January and February each averaging roughly 18 to 21 inches. January averages about 22 degrees with a typical low near 14, and the coldest night of an average winter falls below zero. Salt air is not a factor here. The loads on a Gray exterior are freeze-thaw cycling, deep snow sitting on roofs and decks for weeks, ice dams at cold eaves, and wind across open fields and lake coves.

Gray is a cluster of villages: Gray itself, Dry Mills, East Gray, North Gray, South Gray and West Gray. The village center holds the Pennell Institute, an 1876-86 brick Italianate school with a clock tower that now houses the town offices, and Stimson Memorial Hall, a 1900 wood-frame hall fronted by a temple portico on four Tuscan columns. Both are on the National Register, as are the Dry Mills School and the Freeman Farm Historic District. Collyer Brook powered Samuel Mayall's woolen mill from 1791, and its ruins can still be visited. The state's Maine Wildlife Park and fish hatchery are here too, and Little Sebago, Crystal and Forest lakes give the town its shoreline neighborhoods.

Building permits in Gray go through the Community Development Department at the Henry Pennell Municipal Complex, 24 Main Street. The town's residential permit application lists decks as a structure type, asks for a plot plan and building plans, and asks for a Dig Safe number from calling 811 before digging. In the Village Center and Village Center Proper zoning districts, the design standards in Section 402.8.3 of the zoning ordinance, amended in 2021, require a Design Standard Certificate before a building permit is issued for development. Land within 250 feet of a great pond falls under Maine's mandatory shoreland zoning. Confirm what applies with the code office before work starts.

Each page below covers one job in Gray: what the town's houses and weather mean for it, what the work involves, and what moves the price. For the full picture of a trade, see our siding, window replacement, roofing and deck building pages.