Coopersburg, Lehigh County
Drywall texture matching & removal in Coopersburg, PA.
About half of Coopersburg's homes were built between 1950 and 1979. When one of them is opened up, the texture overhead has to be carried across the change, or taken off for good.
Drywall texture matching & removal for Coopersburg homes
Between 1950 and 1970 the borough grew by more than half, and about half of its homes now date from 1950 through 1979; nearly two-thirds of all its homes are detached houses. Drywall took over from plaster in those decades, and a sprayed texture on the ceilings or walls of a house from those years would have gone on before the mid-1980s, in the years when asbestos could still turn up in texture and joint compound.
Opening one of those houses up cuts through that texture: a wall taken out between kitchen and dining room, a doorway widened, a ceiling light moved. Each leaves a gap in the pattern, and a strip across the middle of a ceiling is much harder to hide than a patch in a corner. Before any of it starts, the texture and compound are sampled and tested, since disturbing them is exactly what the test is for.
Coopersburg
Where a wall used to be, in the borough's postwar half
A wall taken out leaves a bare strip in the ceiling where its top plate ran, the full length of the old wall. The strip is patched flush and primed so it takes texture like the old surface before the pattern is matched. In a room being opened up anyway, a clear test also makes the other choice possible: taking the texture off and finishing the larger room as one smooth ceiling.
Upper Saucon Township, which nearly surrounds the borough and includes Center Valley, is newer: close to half its homes have been built since 1990. Texture original to those houses went on well after the cutoff, so the testing rule does not reach it. Then there are the borough's prewar houses, nearly a third of the total: plaster walls in Federal, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival houses, where a repair follows the plaster, not a spray pattern.
Worth knowing
Test before the wall comes out
Taking out a wall in a house from the 1950s to the 1970s disturbs the ceiling texture along its whole length. The sample is tested before demolition, not after.
Feather well past the line
A matched strip stops showing when the new texture runs well beyond both edges and fades into the old along an uneven border.
Light from the new opening
Opening a wall can bring window light into a part of the room it never reached. A ceiling patch that passed in the old layout may show in the new one.
The work
How the work goes
The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to drywall texture matching & removal.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, Coopersburg.
We're taking out a wall in our 1960s Coopersburg house. Can the ceiling texture be matched where it stood?
Yes, once the texture and joint compound have been sampled and tested, since both predate the mid-1980s. The gap is patched flush and primed, the texture is matched on spare board and carried past both edges, and the ceiling is painted wall to wall so the old line disappears. A positive result means removal by a certified asbestos abatement contractor first.
When a room is opened up, is it better to match the old texture or take it off?
It depends on how much of the ceiling is disturbed and how the new room will be lit. A single strip in a ceiling you otherwise like is a matching job. When several walls come out, recessed lights go in, or window light now runs the length of the room, a smooth ceiling is often simpler and reads better.
Do you work in Center Valley and the rest of Upper Saucon Township?
Yes. Randy serves the borough and Upper Saucon Township around it, Center Valley included, along with Limeport and Lower Milford. Many of the township's houses are recent enough that a texture there is a choice to keep or skim rather than a testing question.
More in Coopersburg
Other services here.
- 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.
- 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.
Nearby
Drywall texture matching & removal nearby.
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.