Coastal Mainers rocked by January storms are jacking up their homes

CAMP ELLIS, Maine — It’s the fifth time this year Matt Piantoni has come out to the same beachside road to fix and lift storm-damaged homes.

He has been working on two Eastern Avenue homes in the Saco village of Camp Ellis that were battered by extreme storms this winter. In the last year, he has replaced staircases and removed porches. On Monday, he was out jacking up one home’s foundation on massive 10-foot piers.

More homeowners are seeking these kinds of services following twin January storms that led to record flooding along Maine’s coast. Most homes built along the coast now are built far off the ground, but cottages built in the earlier 20th century were not. Camp Ellis is known for those modest homes built right on the ocean.

“Everyone’s going to have to do it at some point,” Piantoni, the sole employee of his construction company, Piantoni Construction of Lyman, said.

The owner of the home Piantoni was jacking up this week solicited his services to “be on the prevention side,” he said. Her cottage itself was not damaged much by the January storms. But it was hit by floodwater, and the possibility of erosion and serious damage spooked her.

Maine’s sea levels have risen ​​8 inches since 1950. The state is expecting a rise of 1.5 feet by 2050 and 4 feet by 2100 that will sharply increase flooding risks. In 30 years, 15 percent of the state’s properties will be at risk of flooding, according to First Street Foundation data .

The January storms left damage that some areas had never seen before . At nearby Biddeford Pool, homes were knocked off their foundations. Floodwaters pushed deep into a neighborhood at Ocean Park, an enclave of Old Orchard Beach. Up the coast in Harpswell, one official said there was “absolute carnage” after the second storm.

The December storms, which were more severe inland, led to hundreds of insurance claims that stretched insurance companies that only made small profits last year as a result. The administration of Gov. Janet Mills estimated $90 million in damage from all the storms to public infrastructure alone, not counting millions more to homes, vehicles and other property.

Lifting these older homes can be relatively simple. The engineering required to do it is not. After factoring in increasing construction and labor costs, the service often costs a homeowner upward of $100,000, Stan Wildes, who owns a New Hampshire-based company that jacks up coastal Maine buildings, said. Piantoni gave the same figure.

Only a handful of construction companies in Maine offer these services, Carter Jerman, one of the owners of Islesboro-based Atlantic Structural, said. But more customers are now seeking services in direct response to the storms. His company, which operates from Kittery to Bar Harbor, has always been slammed but could now book out until 2027.

For a lot of coastal homeowners, waiting that long could be disastrous. One home on Eastern Avenue washed away completely. Even if a coastal home is only knocked off its foundation, it has to be demolished and built back some distance away from the ocean, Jerman noted.

“Jump on it now,” Jerman often advises homeowners. “Because it’s not going to get any cheaper.”