Randy’s Painting & Drywall

Easton, Northampton County

Drywall installation & repair in Easton, PA.

In the city, new board usually has to sit flush with plaster a century old. Out in Forks, Palmer and Williams, the whole house is drywall, and its repairs are the pops, cracks and basements of newer construction.

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A wall opened down to its studs, with new drywall already hung on the ceiling above.
A wall opened to the studs; new drywall on the ceiling.

Drywall installation & repair for Easton homes

Most drywall work inside the city is drywall meeting something older. About 63 percent of Easton's homes were built before 1940, when walls were plastered, so a kitchen opened up, a ceiling replaced after a leak or a wall cut for new wiring means new board set into an old wall. The repair is finished only when the line between the two can't be found.

The townships around the city were built the other way round. More than half of Forks Township's homes date from 2000 or later, and nearly half of Williams Township's, so their walls have been drywall from the first day. Their repairs are the ones newer houses ask for: fasteners backing out, hairline cracks over doors, a basement finished years after the move-in.

Easton

West Ward plaster, Forks Township drywall

Nearly seven in ten West Ward homes predate 1940, and College Hill's run from the 1830s to 1940, including the pattern-catalog houses of its northwest blocks. Those walls are plaster on lath, usually thicker than a sheet of drywall, so a patch cut into one is shimmed or doubled until it sits just under the plaster face. The joint is then filled with setting-type compound, which shrinks less than all-purpose compound, and the tape is feathered well out onto the old surface.

The small boroughs at the city's edge are just as old: more than half the homes in Wilson, West Easton and Glendon predate 1940, and patches there follow the same rules. Out in Forks, a house from the early 2000s is now old enough for its first round of repairs, and they go best together: every popped fastener reset, every cracked corner retaped, then the walls painted once instead of patch by patch.

Inside a geodesic dome: smooth white faceted walls and ceiling with hexagonal skylights.
Custom drywall in a geodesic dome.

Worth knowing

  1. Casings stay where they are

    Patching only the damaged part of a plaster wall, instead of re-covering the whole wall in board, leaves the door and window casings standing off it as they were built.

  2. One primer over the whole repair

    Plaster, new paper and joint compound each soak up paint at their own rate, so the repair is sealed edge to edge before color; skipped, it shows as a dull patch when light crosses the wall.

  3. Forks basements start dry

    Finishing a basement in a newer Forks Township house begins with the foundation: seepage is solved before framing and board go up, since gypsum that stays damp grows mold behind the paint.

The work

How the work goes

The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to drywall installation & repair.

A wall opened at its base, showing damaged drywall, studs and wiring above a pulled-back carpet.
Before: the wall opened up. Sharon Marrone’s photograph, from her Google review.

  1. Look at the cause

    Randy looks at the damage with you and explains what it will take. Where water is involved, the leak has to be fixed and the framing dry before anything is closed up. The walkthrough and written estimate are complimentary.

  2. Cut back to sound material

    Damaged board is cut out to clean, square edges, often back to the framing, so the new piece has something solid to fasten to. Damaged studs are replaced while the wall is open.

  3. Hang it tight and flush

    New board is cut to fit and screwed to the framing with its edges level with the old, because a high edge leaves no room for tape and compound. Wide gaps are filled with setting-type compound before taping.

  4. Tape and coat

    Joints are taped and built up in thin coats, feathered wide. Torn paper is sealed with an oil- or shellac-based primer first, since water in the compound would raise it into bubbles.

  5. Blend, prime, paint

    Texture is matched where the wall has it. The repair is primed so it won’t show as a dull patch, and the wall is painted corner to corner so the sheen reads evenly.

Questions

Drywall installation & repair, Easton.

An electrician opened the plaster in our West Ward row home. Can the holes be closed with drywall?

Yes. Each opening is cut square, loose lath at its edges is fastened down, and a piece of board is packed out to the depth of the plaster around it. The joints are bedded in setting-type compound and feathered wide, then the wall is primed and painted so the patches disappear into it.

Our Forks Township house is about twenty years old. Should we fix the nail pops now or wait?

Now is fine. In a house that age the framing dried out long ago, so a pop usually means a fastener that was never fully tight or board that has been knocked loose. Each one is pulled back with a new screw beside it and refinished, and doing them all before a repaint keeps the fresh paint clean.

Will the joint between a drywall patch and old plaster crack later?

It shouldn't if the joint is built for it. The plaster edge is made solid first, any gap is filled with setting-type compound, and the tape is bedded in compound rather than laid over a dry seam. Where the patch spans framing that moves with the seasons, mesh tape in setting compound holds better than paper alone.

More in Easton

Other services here.

  1. Level 5 drywall finishA skim coat over the entire surface, for walls that hold up under raking light and dark paint.
  2. Skim coatingRough, patched or uneven walls resurfaced smooth, often after wallpaper comes down.
  3. Plaster repairCracked, loose and failing plaster in older homes, repaired and made sound.
  4. Interior paintingWalls, ceilings, trim, doors and millwork, prepared properly and finished clean.
  5. Exterior paintingSiding, trim, porches, stucco and brick, prepared to stand up to Pennsylvania weather.
  6. Drywall texture matching & removalTexture matched so repairs disappear, applied where you want it, or taken off for a smooth wall.
  7. Popcorn ceiling removalOld acoustic texture taken down and the ceiling finished smooth.
  8. Wallpaper removalOld wallpaper and wall linings stripped without tearing up the wall beneath.
  9. Wood stainingDecks, porch floors, doors and trim, inside and out, stained by hand.

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.

Randy’sPainting & DrywallReply card
The project
Preferred contact

Walkthrough & written estimate, complimentary.