Nazareth, Northampton County
Exterior painting in Nazareth, PA.
A grid of brick and frame houses around Center Square, many built for workers at the cement plants, on one of the country's richest veins of limestone. The wood carries the paint; old brick and stone are best left bare.
Exterior painting for Nazareth homes
More than 500 buildings make up the Nazareth Historic District, and its National Register nomination describes them as mostly two and a half stories of brick or frame, with the remaining stone buildings mostly older than 1858. Frame and masonry want opposite things. Wood siding and trim last only as long as their paint, while brick and stone that were never painted are better left bare, because a coating can hold moisture inside the wall.
The weather presses on both. January here averages about 28°F and the summers are humid, so water that gets behind paint freezes and thaws through the winter and pushes it off, and wood that stays damp through the summer is where rot begins. Most of a lasting repaint in the borough is the work of keeping water out of the wood.
Nazareth
Brick and frame on the grid around Center Square
The grid filled in after the town opened to non-Moravians in 1856 and became a borough in 1858, with new streets laid out parallel to Center and Main. Just over half the district's buildings stood by 1899 and another third went up by 1938, many of them for workers at the cement plants that opened around town from 1898. On houses of those decades, paint belongs on the wood: siding on the frame houses, and sash, doors, cornices and porches on frame and brick alike.
Stone is the older layer. The borough sits atop one of the richest veins of limestone in the country, and Nazareth Hall, raised in the 1750s, was built of it. Limestone and fieldstone that have stood bare for a century or more are left that way. National Register listing, which came in 1988, does not by itself limit a private owner; before an exterior changes, ask the borough about local rules.
Worth knowing
Two households, one building
About one home in five here sits in a two-unit building. Where two households share a front, colors, ladders and timing are worth agreeing on before work starts.
The half story
The half story is the attic under the gable, and its peak is the highest and most exposed paint on the house. It is reached from proper staging and prepared as carefully as the porch below it.
Past the borough line
Upper Nazareth has built nearly half its homes since 2000, and Lower Nazareth and Bushkill are mostly post-1980. A first repaint on houses that young is usually about color and worn sealant rather than failing paint.
The work
How an exterior goes
The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to exterior painting.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, Nazareth.
Our house in the borough is limestone. Should the stone be painted or sealed?
Neither, if it has always been bare. Paint and clear sealers can hold moisture in a masonry wall, where freezing can break the face of the stone. The painting on a stone house is its wood: sash, doors, cornice and porch, in colors chosen against the stone.
Our house near Center Square was built around 1910. Where does the exterior work start?
With a slow look at where water collects: window sills, the bottoms of porch posts and the cornice under the gutter. Those are repaired first, then loose paint comes off and bare wood is primed, and the painting moves around the house with the shade.
Should the old wood siding on a frame house be replaced or repainted?
Repainted, as a rule, if the boards are sound. Siding that has held paint for a century is usually worth keeping; individual boards that have gone soft are replaced in kind, and the rest is scraped, primed where bare and repainted.
More in Nazareth
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.
- Drywall installation & repairNew drywall hung, taped and finished; cracks, holes and water damage repaired invisibly.
- Drywall texture matching & removalTexture matched so repairs disappear, applied where you want it, or taken off for a smooth wall.
- 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.
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.