Fixture Installation in Scarborough, Maine

Scarborough Homes and What They Need

Scarborough is largely a late-20th-century town. Census estimates put the median home at 1988, with only about 8 percent of units built before 1940 and roughly 30 percent built since 2000. About seven in ten homes are single detached houses and more than three quarters are owner-occupied. The older stock clusters in beach villages such as Pine Point, Higgins Beach and Prouts Neck, where cottages built for summer use have often been converted to year-round living, while subdivisions fill the land around Dunstan, Oak Hill and North Scarborough. The newest layer is The Downs, a mixed-use neighborhood rising on the old racetrack site with apartments, condos and single-family homes. Newer houses usually come with ductwork, which makes a ducted heat pump installation straightforward, while converted cottages often need insulation, freeze protection and wiring brought up to date first.

Water Supply and Drains in Scarborough

Scarborough's drinking water comes mostly from the Portland Water District, which serves the town with water only. Wastewater is handled by the Scarborough Sanitary District, a separate public utility formed in 1969, which pumps flow from the town's developed areas to its secondary treatment plant at Prouts Neck. Outside the areas those two utilities reach, homes rely on private wells and septic systems. Maine CDC estimates about one in ten private wells statewide exceed the arsenic guideline, and the agency advises a full test every three to five years for arsenic, uranium and radon, so a household on a well should know its numbers before choosing treatment equipment. Near the marsh and beaches, high groundwater and storm tides can reach low basements. Choosing the right tank water heater for well water starts with the hardness and iron results.

Getting to Know Scarborough