New Hope, Bucks County
Interior painting in New Hope, PA.
Thick stone walls set every window deep, the river lies to the east, and some lower rooms have known high water. Interior painting here starts with all three.
Interior painting for New Hope homes
About three in ten of the borough's buildings were stone when its National Register survey was written, and many of the oldest, from the 1700s, still are. A stone wall is thick, so every window sits in a deep opening, and the plastered reveal around it, sill, sides and head, is a surface of its own that often catches more direct light than any wall in the room.
That changes how a room is painted. The reveals show flaws in the plaster first and read lighter than the walls, so they are filled and sanded with as much care, and they often look right in the trim color or a shade lighter than the wall. The rest of the house tends to be small: the canal company's stone houses have two or three rooms to a floor, and in rooms that size the trim, doors and windows are most of what you see.
New Hope
Stone reveals, east light and the river
The Delaware forms the borough's eastern edge, and the land rises steeply from it, with Ingham Creek running through the middle of town. Rooms that look toward the river face east, so they take their strongest light in the morning and soften by afternoon. A color that looks clean at breakfast can look muted by dinner, and samples are worth seeing at both ends of the day.
Houses at river level and along the creek carry another history: the Delaware has topped major flood stage at New Hope several times, three of them between 2004 and 2006. Masonry that has taken on water dries slowly, and as it dries it can carry salts to the surface that push paint off the plaster. Repainting waits for a dry wall. Elsewhere, half the borough's buildings are frame, and about a third of its homes date from the 1970s, drywall rather than plaster.
Worth knowing
Galleries and shops
Many older buildings in town now hold shops and galleries. Walls that are hung and rehung with art do well in a flat or matte finish, which takes touch-ups without showing them.
Deep sills
Sills in thick stone walls end up used as shelves. They take a harder sheen than the walls so they can be wiped, with their edges sanded smooth before paint.
Three-story stairs
In the three-story frame Italianates of the mid-1800s, the stair climbs three floors, and its upper walls are reached from staging rather than a leaning ladder.
The work
How the work goes
The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to interior painting.
The walkthrough
Randy walks the rooms with you and looks at the walls in the light they actually get. He tells you plainly what they need, then puts it in writing. The walkthrough and the written estimate are complimentary.
Repairs first
Cracks, holes, nail pops and failing plaster are dealt with before anything else, and every patch is sanded flat. Paint doesn’t hide a poor patch; it shows it.
Primer where it’s needed
Patches, bare drywall and stains are primed. Joint compound takes up paint differently from a painted wall, and an unprimed patch can flash through the finish as a dull spot.
Finish coats
Ceilings, walls and trim are cut in and rolled or brushed, each in the sheen chosen for it. A big change of color takes more coats than a refresh, and the number is set by the wall, not the calendar.
Seen in the room’s own light
Before the drop cloths come up, the walls are looked at in the light the room really has, from its windows and its lamps. Low sun and lamplight show what an overhead work light hides.
Questions
Interior painting, New Hope.
We're painting inside and out in New Hope's historic district. What needs a certificate?
The exterior. The borough requires a Certificate of Appropriateness for any change to an exterior facade in its historic district, painting included, and its review board's jurisdiction is limited to what can be seen from a public street or way. Interior painting falls outside that review, so the rooms can go ahead while the outside waits for the board and Borough Council.
A white powder is coming through the paint on our lower walls. What is it?
Most likely salts carried out of the masonry as it dries, often after the walls have been wet. Painting over them does not work, because they keep pushing through. The wall is left to dry, the powder brushed off, and only then is it primed and painted.
Do you paint houses in Solebury Township as well as the borough?
Yes. More than half of Solebury's homes have been built since 1980, so the work there is often drywall, while the township's older fieldstone houses bring the same deep reveals and old plaster found in town.
More in New Hope
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.
- 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.
- 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.