Residential Electrical in Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Cape Elizabeth was incorporated in 1765, when it separated from Falmouth, and its neighborhoods, from Cape Cottage and Delano Park to Pond Cove, Shore Acres, Spurwink and Bowery Beach, span more than two centuries of building. About 19 percent of the town’s homes date from before 1940 and nearly 40 percent from before 1960. Houses of that age are where knob-and-tube wiring, cloth-covered cable, ungrounded outlets and circuits patched together by earlier owners still turn up during renovations. Estates like the 1850s Goddard Mansion, now a ruin in Fort Williams Park, are a reminder of how long the town has been building near the shore.

The next big wave came in the second half of the 20th century: about 27 percent of homes were built from 1960 to 1979 and another 27 percent from 1980 to 1999. Houses from those decades usually have grounded wiring, but kitchens and bathrooms were wired for far fewer appliances, GFCI and arc-fault protection were limited or absent, and the occasional house finished in the late 1960s or early 1970s turns out to have aluminum branch wiring, which can only be repaired with connectors approved for it. With so few new houses in town, most electrical work here is renovation: kitchens, bathrooms, finished basements, additions and home offices in houses that were never planned for them. Each of those projects is a chance to add grounded outlets, dedicated circuits for kitchen appliances and modern protection where the walls are already open.

The town’s Code Enforcement office handles electrical permits, and its inspections cover every phase of construction, including a rough-in inspection of framing, plumbing and electrical wiring before insulation goes in. Planning that inspection into a remodel keeps the insulation and drywall crews on schedule. Replacing knob-and-tube or aluminum runs, adding receptacles and appliance circuits, bringing GFCI and AFCI protection up to date, chasing down a misbehaving circuit and roughing in a remodel are all part of the residential work Goodnow Electric does here. Salt air is a factor even on interior projects near the water, since exterior outlets, outdoor disconnects and garage wiring corrode faster here than inland. Replacing painted steel boxes and covers outside with nonmetallic or stainless ones is a small change that pays off on this coast.