Randy’s Painting & Drywall

Bethlehem, Northampton and Lehigh Counties

Drywall texture matching & removal in Bethlehem, PA.

Nearly half of Bethlehem's homes went up between 1940 and 1979, as drywall replaced plaster and sprayed ceilings came into fashion. Matching their texture, or taking it off, starts with knowing what the wall is.

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A room in an older house with its walls patched and part-way through a skim coat, a radiator cover under the window.
Walls part-way through a skim coat.

Drywall texture matching & removal for Bethlehem homes

Age splits the city's houses into three clear groups. About 31 percent were built before 1940 and are plaster on lath, about 48 percent between 1940 and 1979, and the rest since. The middle group is where drywall texture is most likely in the city: walls and ceilings from the decades when drywall took over and sprayed finishes were common, all of it applied before the mid-1980s.

The 1940s and 1950s need a second look. Plastering over gypsum rock lath was the norm in houses by the late 1930s, and drywall spread through the years after the war, so a Bethlehem house from that span can have either. A sand-finished plaster wall and a lightly spattered drywall one can look much alike under paint, and they are matched in different ways.

Bethlehem

The postwar half of a city founded in 1741

Prewar houses fill the older neighborhoods: the Moravian streets north of the river, the South Side's brick row homes, the West Side's turn-of-the-century twins, Mount Airy's houses of 1910 to 1930. Their walls are plaster. Texture on them was added later and may hide cracks, so taking it off means repairing the plaster before the skim, or the smooth wall will crack along the old lines.

The postwar houses, and the two-thirds of Bethlehem Township's built since 1980, are mostly drywall, with texture that may be original. Anything from before the mid-1980s, joint compound included, goes to a lab before it is cut, sanded or skimmed; if it is positive, a certified asbestos abatement contractor takes it out, not a painter. When the result is clear and the owners want a quieter wall, the texture is filled in thin coats until the room is flat enough for its light.

A two-story stairwell wall patched and primed in white over a wood banister, a chandelier hanging below.
A stairwell wall, patched and primed.

Worth knowing

  1. A sample before the skim

    Skimming over old texture still means scuffing and sanding on top of it. Original texture from the city's 1940 to 1979 houses is tested before that work starts.

  2. Steel-era row homes

    The South Side's brick row homes went up for mill families, and most of the historic district there dates from about 1900 to 1935. Their plaster is the surface any repair has to match.

  3. Two neighbors, two kinds of wall

    More than four in ten Fountain Hill homes are prewar, while two-thirds of Bethlehem Township's date from 1980 on. The match follows the wall, not the address.

The work

How the work goes

The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to drywall texture matching & removal.

A beige wall with a long L-shaped patch and many smaller patches in white compound, a stepladder beside it.
Patches set and drying.

  1. Read the wall

    The texture is studied in side light: its pattern, its height, how it was applied. Then Randy talks through the choices with you: match it, change it, or take it off. The walkthrough and written estimate are complimentary.

  2. Test older texture first

    Texture or compound from before the mid-1980s should have a sample tested before anyone sands or scrapes it. If it tests positive, removal is work for a certified asbestos abatement contractor.

  3. Repair and prime

    The patch is finished flat and primed before texture goes on, so the new texture absorbs and dries the same over fresh compound as over old paint. Primer also keeps the patch from flashing through the paint later.

  4. Match it, or bury it

    To match, mix and pressure are tried on a scrap until the pattern dries the same, then texture is applied and feathered past the repair. To remove, the wall is skimmed in thin coats until the pattern is gone.

  5. Prime and paint the whole wall

    Primer evens out new and old surfaces. The whole wall is painted, corner to corner, so the sheen reads as one.

Questions

Drywall texture matching & removal, Bethlehem.

Is the textured wall in our 1950s Bethlehem house plaster or drywall, and does it matter?

It matters for the match. Houses from the 1940s and 1950s can have either: plaster over gypsum lath, harder and thicker, or paper-faced drywall with a sprayed or rolled texture. Taking off a switch plate usually shows the edge of the wall and settles it. Plaster is matched to plaster's own surface; a drywall texture is reproduced with the tool and mix that made it, after a test.

Do you match texture in Bethlehem Township, Hanover Township and Freemansburg?

Yes. Randy serves the city on both sides of the Lehigh and the townships and boroughs around it. Much of the housing there dates from 1980 on, so original texture is often past the testing cutoff; early-1980s houses, and any older material in a remodeled room, are tested before work starts.

We want a deep color in a 1960s room with knockdown walls. How smooth does the wall need to be?

Smoother than the texture ever required. Walls meant for texture were often finished to a lower level underneath, so once the knockdown is skimmed away, old seams and fasteners have to be filled and flattened as well. Under a deep color the surface needs to come close to a Level 5 standard, judged in the room's own light.

More in Bethlehem

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 installation & repairNew drywall hung, taped and finished; cracks, holes and water damage repaired invisibly.
  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.