Laid out in the 1680s
Painting & drywall in Newtown.
An old borough of stone and Victorian frame houses, set inside a township built mostly since 1980. Plaster, clapboard and porches in town; drywall from the 1980s and 1990s all around it.
Newtown and its houses
Newtown was surveyed in 1683 and 1684 as an example of William Penn's town planning, laid out around a central common, and it was the county seat until the courts moved to Doylestown in 1813. The borough was split off from the township in 1838 and is surrounded by it on every side.
The oldest buildings sit around Court Street, on the old county tract. After that the town built east from State Street, much of it in frame: in the two extensions added to the National Register district in late 1986, about three-quarters of the buildings are frame, with Queen Anne and Gothic Revival the leading styles.
The numbers split cleanly. More than half of the borough's homes were built before 1940, while about eight in ten Newtown Township homes date from 1980 or later.
The houses
What Newtown’s houses ask for.
The Court Street core
The Court Street area, the town's oldest core, holds its greatest concentration of 18th-century buildings, many of them town houses set right at the sidewalk. Walls in houses this old have usually been patched many times over, and the plaster has to be made sound before the next coat means anything.
Washington Avenue Victorians
Washington Avenue was the town's main residential area through the 1800s and early 1900s, with spacious Victorian houses often set back behind front yards. Houses of that era usually have plaster on wood lath, high ceilings and plenty of millwork, and clapboard and deep cornices outside that need careful preparation before paint.
Queen Anne and Gothic Revival frame
East of State Street the town filled in with frame houses: Queen Anne with turrets, porches and turned posts, Gothic Revival with steep roofs and bracketed cornices. The borough's review board does not review paint colors, so a Victorian scheme can be rethought, though replacing siding or trim with a different material is reviewed.
Township houses, 1980s on
Newtown Township went from about 4,500 people in 1980 to more than 18,000 by 2000, and most of its houses date from those decades. Their drywall is now at the age for settlement cracks and patching, and for a Level 5 finish where dark paint or strong light would show the seams.
Services
In Newtown, specialty first.
Each service, written for Newtown’s houses: what it involves here, what to check, and what people ask.
- Level 5 drywall finishA skim coat over the entire surface, for walls that hold up under raking light and dark paint.
- Skim coatingRough, patched or uneven walls resurfaced smooth, often after wallpaper comes down.
- Plaster repairCracked, loose and failing plaster in older homes, repaired and made sound.
- Interior paintingWalls, ceilings, trim, doors and millwork, prepared properly and finished clean.
- Exterior paintingSiding, trim, porches, stucco and brick, prepared to stand up to Pennsylvania weather.
- Drywall installation & repairNew drywall hung, taped and finished; cracks, holes and water damage repaired invisibly.
- Drywall texture matching & removalTexture matched so repairs disappear, applied where you want it, or taken off for a smooth wall.
- Popcorn ceiling removalOld acoustic texture taken down and the ceiling finished smooth.
- Wallpaper removalOld wallpaper and wall linings stripped without tearing up the wall beneath.
- Wood stainingDecks, porch floors, doors and trim, inside and out, stained by hand.
From clients and job sites
“We had a great experience working with Randy and his team on a big and complicated drywall repair and painting job. The project required extensive repair to custom drywall throughout a 2-story space and 2 bedrooms…”
“Randy and his team laid new drywall on my ceiling and level 5 on my walls. My older house was pretty rough and I hated looking at the uneven surfaces. Now, happy to say it looks great. Randy was very responsive, checked in and followed up…”
Questions
Asked in Newtown.
Do I need approval to change paint colors in Newtown Borough's historic district?
No. The borough's Historical Architectural Review Board does not review colors for any project. It does review exterior changes that can be seen from a public street or sidewalk, such as additions, new materials or repairs that are not in kind. Newtown Township has its own historic district ordinance, which exempts repainting in the same color, so owners in that district planning a color change should ask the township first.
Do you work in Newtown Township, Upper Makefield and Wrightstown?
Yes. Randy is based in Easton and serves Bucks County, including the borough, Newtown Township and Newtown Grant, Upper Makefield with Washington Crossing and Dolington, and Wrightstown and Penns Park.
Our township house has a two-story foyer. Can you finish walls that tall?
Yes. Two-story walls are part of the work Randy does, and they are where a finish shows most, because light from high windows runs straight down them. A Level 5 skim over the whole wall keeps the seams from showing, especially under darker colors.
Is the plaster in a borough Victorian worth keeping?
If most of it is still keyed to the lath, yes. Cracked or loosened areas can be reattached and repaired, then skimmed so the patches disappear. Saving it keeps the walls' depth and the original trim around them, so tearing out is the last resort, not the first.
Nearby
Neighboring towns.
Consultation
Request a private consultation.
Private walkthrough & written estimate, complimentary. Tell us a little about the house and the rooms, and Randy will be in touch to arrange a time.
- Hours
- Monday – Friday8:30 AM – 5:30 PMSaturday10 AM – 3 PMSundayClosed
- Service area
- Easton, Bethlehem, Allentown and the greater Lehigh Valley; Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Fully insured — proof on request. Residential and commercial.