Randy’s Painting & Drywall

Easton, Northampton County

Exterior painting in Easton, PA.

Paint color is the owner's call in this city, even downtown; painting brick or stone that was never painted is not. The work is in the wood, the stucco and the brick painted long ago, each prepared its own way.

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After: the same two-story house painted a deep charcoal-slate.
After: the same house in deep charcoal-slate.

Exterior painting for Easton homes

The city's preservation guidelines are plain about it: masonry is the most common way houses and shops in Easton were built, and most of that masonry was left without paint or stucco. So an exterior job here starts with a question that comes before color, which surfaces were ever meant to carry paint at all.

Wood is most of the answer. Wood siding is common on houses and on their rear and side additions, College Hill adds clapboard and stucco-covered frame to its brick and stone, and stucco spread through the city as a remodeling material in the early 1900s. With 63 percent of homes here built before 1940, most of those surfaces carry decades of coatings that have to be read before anything new goes on.

Easton

Brick that stays bare, brick that stays painted

Downtown, in the Local Historic District bounded roughly by the Delaware, Bushkill Creek, Sixth Street and the Lehigh, exterior changes visible from a public way need a Certificate of Appropriateness. Paint color is not among them. Painting brick or stone that has never been painted is, and the city's guidelines discourage it: paint traps moisture in a masonry wall, and the face of the brick can spall.

Brick painted long ago usually stays painted, and repainting it needs no review, but weathered joints come first. Masonry laid before about 1910 used no Portland cement, and in a 2024 approval the commission required soft, high-lime mortar for repointing ahead of paint. On College Hill the obstacle is overhead: slate is by far the most common roof there, so gables and dormers are reached from staging set clear of it.

A yellow Italianate Victorian with black shutters and a deep porch; a painter works from a ladder at the porch.
An Italianate Victorian in yellow clapboard, black shutters.

Worth knowing

  1. Built-in color is reviewed

    Downtown, color that arrives built into a new product, such as shingles, clad windows or a fiberglass door, goes to review. Paint does not, so a new scheme is often easier to reach in paint than in parts.

  2. Wood trim stays wood

    The city's guidelines do not accept capping wood trim in vinyl or aluminum, which traps moisture behind it. Soft trim is repaired or replaced in wood, primed, and painted with the rest of the house.

  3. Stucco cracks start with water

    The guidelines trace most stucco problems to water getting in. The leak is found and the cracks repaired before stucco is repainted, or the new coat fails where the old one did.

The work

How an exterior goes

The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to exterior painting.

Before: a cream two-story house in the woods with a small gabled porch.
Before: cream siding.

  1. Every side, walked

    Randy walks every side of the house with you, because the south wall and the north wall rarely need the same work. Both the walkthrough and the written estimate are complimentary.

  2. Causes first

    Where paint is peeling to bare wood, the source of the water is found and dealt with. Soft, rotted wood is repaired or replaced, because no paint holds on wet or decayed wood.

  3. Washing

    Dirt, mildew and chalk are washed off at a pressure that cleans without gouging the grain. The siding then dries completely before any primer or paint goes on.

  4. Scraping and priming

    Loose and flaking paint is scraped back to a firm edge. Bare wood is primed promptly, before the sun has time to weaken its surface.

  5. Caulk where water gets in

    Open joints where trim meets siding and around windows are caulked, and holes are filled. The bottom edges of lap siding are left open on purpose, so water can drain out and the boards can dry.

  6. Paint in the right conditions

    Finish coats go on when the temperature will hold for the paint, away from walls baking in full sun, and early enough to set before the evening dew. On most days that means following the shade around the house.

Questions

Exterior painting, Easton.

We live on College Hill. Do historic district rules apply to our house?

College Hill is a National Register district, listed in 1991, but it lies outside the city's Local Historic District, which covers downtown. National Register listing by itself places no restrictions on a private owner using private funds. Even so, check with the city before changing more than paint.

The paint on our old brick is peeling. Should all of it be stripped?

Usually not. The city's guidelines say removing paint from historically painted masonry may not be appropriate, and where removal is needed they call for the gentlest method, because paint is very hard to take off brick without harming its face. More often the loose paint is cleaned away, failing joints are repointed, and the wall is repainted with a coating made for masonry.

Can we rebuild the railing on our downtown porch in vinyl so it never needs paint?

Not under the city's guidelines for the downtown district, which find vinyl railing systems and unpainted pressure-treated lumber inappropriate on historic porches. Porch features that define the house are meant to be repaired rather than replaced, and wood railings kept painted.

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