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Toilet Repair in Maine

Across the 12 Maine towns we route calls in, 73% of households own their home and 68% of the housing was built before 1990. The first figure decides who pays for the repair; the second decides what is probably installed.

Short version

In the 12 covered towns in Maine, ownership runs at 73% and 68% of the housing predates 1990. Ownership settles responsibility; the build year only makes a pre-standard flush volume more or less likely.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, tables B25003 and B25034.

Tank and Bowl is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands. Every state page sets out who licenses plumbers there and where to check, so you can confirm before work begins. We carry out no work, we sell no fixtures, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call.

The two figures, for Maine as a whole

Maine	Share	Homes
Owner-occupied	73%	40,659
Rented	27%	15,315

Weighted across 55,974 occupied homes. Separately, 68% of the state’s 69,866 housing units — a wider universe, because it includes vacant ones — were built before 1990, which is before the Energy Policy Act of 1992 set a 1.6 gallon flush maximum.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, tables B25003 (tenure) and B25034 (year structure built), 2023 release. Flush volumes: US EPA WaterSense, tank-type toilet supporting statement.

Maine does not divide evenly

A state average hides the thing that matters. Of the 12 towns we route in here, 2 are mostly pre-1990 housing and 0 are mostly post-1990 housing; on tenure, 7 are strongly owner-occupied and 1 are renter-heavy.

The two are close to independent of each other, so an old town is not reliably an owning town or a renting one. That is why every town page below carries its own pair of figures rather than inheriting these.

The largest towns we route in Maine

Town	Owner-occupied	Built before 1990	Occupied homes
Biddeford	52%	82%	9,982
Saco	70%	68%	8,851
Sanford	68%	77%	7,236
Wells	89%	50%	5,006
York	81%	72%	4,550
Kittery	62%	72%	4,060
Berwick	87%	51%	3,497
Kennebunkport	82%	63%	3,405

What goes wrong, wherever you are in Maine

The fault list does not vary by state. A running tank is the flapper or the fill valve, and EPA publishes a ten-minute test that tells them apart. Water at the base is four different faults, one of which is condensation and not a leak at all. A fixture that rocks is the one that causes the seal failure you will meet later.

What varies by town is who fixes it. In a rented home the toilet is normally the landlord’s repair, and in the towns above that is a large share of households.

Checking a plumber in Maine

Checking a credential in Maine

Maine licenses are issued by the Maine Plumbers' Examining Board, Office of Professional and Occupational Regulation, which publishes a public search you can use before work begins.

Towns we route in Maine

Alfred 89% owner-occupied · 67% pre-1990
Berwick 87% owner-occupied · 51% pre-1990
Biddeford 52% owner-occupied · 82% pre-1990
Eliot 83% owner-occupied · 69% pre-1990
Kennebunkport 82% owner-occupied · 63% pre-1990
Kittery 62% owner-occupied · 72% pre-1990
Ogunquit 92% owner-occupied · 72% pre-1990
Saco 70% owner-occupied · 68% pre-1990
Sanford 68% owner-occupied · 77% pre-1990
South Berwick 77% owner-occupied · 66% pre-1990
Wells 89% owner-occupied · 50% pre-1990
York 81% owner-occupied · 72% pre-1990

If the dye test pointed at the flapper, that is a part, not a fixture.Worth saying on the call, because it changes what somebody arrives with. We connect you to a contractor covering your area and you are never charged. Toilets head this site, but any plumbing job is welcome.

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