Furnace Maintenance in Gorham, Maine

Gorham Homes and What They Need

Gorham covers about 51 square miles west of Westbrook and is still largely rural, and its housing has grown in waves. Census estimates put the median home at 1988: about 14 percent of units were built before 1940, largely in Gorham Village and the old farm roads, while roughly a third were built since 2000 as the town became a Portland bedroom community. About 80 percent of homes are single detached houses and about 81 percent are owner-occupied, and about 5 percent are mobile homes. Newer subdivisions are spread well beyond the village, out toward Little Falls, White Rock and North Gorham. Old farmhouses can have stone foundations, add-on wiring and no ductwork, while newer colonials usually have forced air, which is why replacing an old farmhouse boiler and a subdivision furnace swap are very different jobs.

Heating and Cooling in Gorham

Gorham depends on heating oil more than any of its neighbors. Census estimates show about 60 percent of occupied homes on fuel oil or kerosene, about 14 percent on bottled propane, about 12 percent on utility gas and about 8 percent on electricity with wood at nearly 4 percent. Natural gas in Gorham comes from Maine Natural Gas rather than Unitil, and its lines reach only part of town. Sitting inland, away from the ocean's moderating effect, Gorham tends to run colder on clear winter nights than the Portland Jetport, which matters when sizing any system. That combination - high oil use, colder nights and few ducts in older homes - is why cold-climate heat pumps are often paired with an existing boiler here rather than replacing it outright.

Getting to Know Gorham