Fixture Installation in Standish, Maine

Standish Homes and What They Need

Standish, on the southeastern shore of Sebago Lake, is largely rural, and its housing shows it. Census estimates put the median home at 1980, with about half of homes built before 1980 and about 17 percent before 1940, much of the oldest in the villages of Standish Corner, Steep Falls, Sebago Lake Village and Richville. About 7 percent of homes are mobile or manufactured homes, a far higher share than in the towns closer to Portland. Most striking, nearly one in five housing units is held for seasonal or occasional use, largely camps and cottages along the Sebago Lake shore, Standish Neck and Watchic Lake. That mix means a lot of work on homes that were not built for year-round comfort: shallow or exposed plumbing, crawlspaces with no heat, electric baseboard added later, and manufactured homes whose furnaces and ductwork follow their own replacement rules.

Water Supply and Drains in Standish

Standish is where Greater Portland's water starts. The Portland Water District's treatment facility sits on Sebago Lake's Lower Bay, near Routes 35 and 237, and the district also runs a separate well system in Steep Falls that serves about 300 people and uses aeration to remove radon. Beyond those systems, most Standish homes draw from private wells, and the Portland Water District provides water only, not sewer, in town, so households rely on septic systems. Bedrock wells in this part of Maine can carry arsenic, uranium and radon; more than 17 percent of tested private wells in Cumberland County have exceeded the state's arsenic guideline, and Maine CDC recommends testing every three to five years. Hard, iron-bearing or treated water is hard on equipment, so a tank water heater here benefits from annual flushing and anode checks.

Getting to Know Standish