Randy’s Painting & Drywall

Quakertown, Bucks County

Drywall installation & repair in Quakertown, PA.

A borough of stone and brick houses, twins and rows, with a 1970s building surge of its own and a township around it built mostly since 1980. The hardest drywall joint here is where a frame addition meets old masonry.

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The same wall repaired and painted a soft beige, a wooden trunk sitting against it.
After: the same wall, repaired and painted. Her photograph.

Drywall installation & repair for Quakertown homes

Stone and brick, some of it stuccoed, are what the borough is built of, in big, nearly square houses two and a half stories tall. Walls like that barely move, while a frame addition, a sunroom or a rebuilt back kitchen attached to one swells and shrinks with the seasons like any wood house. Where the two meet, the drywall has to be built for that difference or it cracks along the line.

The 1970s were the borough's busiest postwar decade, about one home in five, and those houses have drywall now near the half-century mark. Out in Richland Township, roughly three in ten homes went up in the 2000s alone. The work in both is drywall's ordinary list: cracked corners, popped fasteners, kitchens and baths opened up, and basements finished long after the house.

Quakertown

Where frame additions meet Quakertown masonry

Inside a masonry house, the outside walls were often plastered straight onto the stone or brick, and that plaster sits at its own depth. When an addition is built against one, its new board has to come out to meet the old face rather than stopping short of it, and the opening between the old rooms and the new ones is trimmed so the casing covers a joint that will keep moving a little.

Older patches are the other thing plaster houses here tend to carry. Decades of owners closed holes with whatever board was at hand, often thinner than the plaster and taped over a dry seam, and those patches show as dents and outlines when light crosses the wall. Each one is cut back, rebuilt to the plaster's depth and refinished, then the wall is primed so old and new surfaces take paint alike.

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.

Worth knowing

  1. Tohickon Heights predates drywall

    The area's first large housing subdivision, advertised in 1906 and expanded in 1924, was built in the plaster era, so its houses are plaster unless a room has been redone, and patches there are built to plaster depth.

  2. Foursquare rooms show everything

    The broad, square rooms of the borough's Foursquares put a patch in the middle of a wall seen from every side, so it is feathered far wider than the hole itself.

  3. One wall, two houses

    On a twin or a row house, a wall shared with the next house is worked from your side only, with any opening kept to what the repair actually needs.

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

  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, Quakertown.

Our Quakertown twin has a back addition with a crack where it meets the original house. Why?

The addition is framed in wood and the house is masonry, and the two move differently through the year, so the corner between them works open. A filled crack there usually returns; the joint is opened, bridged with mesh tape in setting-type compound and feathered out, which holds up far better than filler.

We'd like to enclose part of our back porch as a mudroom. Can the inside be drywalled?

Once it is a closed, weather-tight room, yes. Board goes up after framing, insulation and wiring, and compound needs steady warmth to dry well, so the space is heated before finishing starts. Enclosing a porch changes the outside of the house, so check with the borough's code and zoning office first.

Can the wood paneling in a 1970s room be replaced with drywall?

Yes. The paneling comes off, and what is behind it decides the rest: sometimes old drywall that can be patched and finished, sometimes bare studs or furring that need new board. Nail holes, adhesive and gaps at the floor and ceiling are typical, and outlets and trim are reset to the new wall depth.

More in Quakertown

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.