Allentown, Lehigh County
Level 5 drywall finish in Allentown, PA.
Rows and twins are the largest single type of home in Allentown, and a row is lit from its ends. Daylight runs the length of its side walls, the kind of light that finds taped seams.
Level 5 drywall finish for Allentown homes
Rowhouses and twins make up about 36 percent of Allentown's homes, more than detached houses do. A row shares its side walls with its neighbors, so most of its windows sit at the front and back. Light comes in at the ends of each floor and travels down the long walls at a shallow angle, the condition the drywall standard calls critical lighting. A seam that would vanish under light falling squarely on a wall stands out when the light skims along it.
About four in ten homes in the city predate 1940, and most of those long walls are plaster. Sound plaster is skim coated, not torn out, and that is the usual answer in the older rows. Level 5 enters where a renovation has put up new drywall, in a rowhouse or in the newer houses at the city's edges, and in a house lit only from its ends it is worth the extra pass.
Allentown
Long walls lit from the ends, Old Allentown to the West End
Old Allentown's rows went up from the 1850s to the 1910s, and the Old Fairgrounds filled in between 1888 and 1910 with rowhouses and twins. In those houses the party walls run front to back, and light from a front or rear window reaches them almost edge-on. A deep color or any sheen on such a wall shows the slightest ridge, which is why a skim coat often comes before dark paint in these houses.
West Park, built mostly between 1895 and 1930, and the West End toward Cedar Crest Boulevard add larger Victorian and Craftsman houses behind front porches. Out in South Whitehall Township about a quarter of homes date from 1990 or later. Those newer rooms, and any older room re-boarded during a renovation, are where the full Level 5 standard applies: new drywall, skimmed over its whole surface before paint.
Worth knowing
Side walls take the glancing light
In a row or a twin, the walls running front to back meet daylight at the shallowest angle. They show seams first, and they are the ones to skim first.
The postwar ring
More than four in ten Allentown homes were built from 1940 to 1979, and more than half of Salisbury Township's date from 1950 to 1979. Walls of those years may be plaster or early drywall, and a deep color on them usually starts with a whole-wall skim.
Interior work and the districts
In Old Allentown, the Old Fairgrounds and West Park, the certificate of appropriateness covers exterior features visible from a public right-of-way. Finishing walls inside is outside that.
The work
How the work goes
The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to level 5 drywall finish.
A walkthrough in the room’s light
Randy walks the rooms with you and says which walls need Level 5 and which don’t. It helps to look at the hour the light is hardest. The walkthrough and written estimate are complimentary.
Joints finished to Level 4
Tape is bedded in compound at every joint; flat joints get two more coats, inside corners one, screw heads three. Each coat dries hard before the next, with the house kept warm and steady.
A skim coat, edge to edge
Compound is spread over the entire surface and wiped back tight with a wide knife or trowel, leaving a thin film over paper and joints alike. Where one pass doesn’t cover, a second follows.
Sanded, then primed
The dry surface is sanded smooth without scuffing the paper beneath. Primer goes on before any color, so the finish coats absorb evenly across the whole wall.
Judged in its own light
Finish coats go on last. The standard’s test is the one that counts: the wall seen from five feet back, under the light the room will actually have.
Questions
Level 5 drywall finish, Allentown.
Why do the seams show on our rowhouse's long walls but not on the wall facing the window?
Because of the angle of the light. The wall facing the window takes daylight head-on, which flattens small ridges, while the side walls catch it at a glancing angle that throws each one into relief. On new drywall the cure is a Level 5 skim; on sound old plaster, a skim coat does the same work.
A previous owner replaced the plaster in our twin with drywall. Can it be brought up to Level 5 now?
Not by the letter of the standard, which covers board that has never been painted. The same smoothness comes from skim coating the painted drywall from corner to corner, once any loose paint or failed tape has been dealt with.
Is a Level 5 finish worth it in a West Park house with big windows?
In the rooms where sun crosses a wall at a low angle, or where the paint has a sheen or a dark color, yes. West Park was built mostly before 1930, so its walls are usually plaster and the work is a skim coat; any wall rebuilt in drywall can be finished to Level 5 itself.
More in Allentown
Other services here.
- 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.
- 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.