Nazareth, Northampton County
Plaster repair in Nazareth, PA.
Just over half the historic district's buildings stood by 1899, and another third went up by 1938, many for cement workers. Plaster from those two waves differs, and so do the cracks it shows.
Plaster repair for Nazareth homes
Of the 503 contributing buildings in the Nazareth Historic District, just over half stood by 1899, and another third went up between 1900 and 1938, many of them for workers at the cement plants around town. Across the borough, about 54 percent of homes predate 1940. Those are plastered houses, because plaster stayed the usual wall into the 1930s.
The two waves sit on either side of a change in the trade. Houses finished in the 1800s generally have lime plaster, softer and slower to set; after about 1900 gypsum took over, harder and quicker, and by the late 1930s it was going onto gypsum lath panels instead of wood strips. Knowing which a house has shapes the repair, because the two crack differently and call for different patching.
Nazareth
Brick and frame on the grid, half of it standing by 1899
Most of the district is two-and-a-half-story brick or frame, on streets laid out parallel to Center and Main. In the houses that stood by 1899, plaster on frame walls and partitions hangs on wood lath, which takes up moisture in humid months and gives it back in dry ones; horizontal hairline cracks that reopen every year usually come from that, and stay cosmetic while the plaster holds. The few stone buildings left, mostly from before 1858, are a separate case, with plaster laid against masonry.
The cement-era houses of 1900 to 1938 were plastered as gypsum took over, often on wood or metal lath and later on gypsum panels. Two-unit buildings hold about a fifth of the borough's homes, and on a shared wall plaster earns its keep twice: it is dense enough to damp sound between the two households, and it moves with both halves, so a crack there can reflect settling on either side.
Worth knowing
Date the house first
The district nomination places most buildings either before 1899 or between 1900 and 1938. Knowing which wave a house belongs to narrows down what is behind the plaster before anything is opened.
Seasonal cracks can wait their turn
Fine horizontal cracks that come and go with the seasons are cosmetic and can be bridged at the next repaint. A bulge or a sagging ceiling should not wait.
Upper Nazareth is mostly drywall
Nearly half of Upper Nazareth Township's homes were built in 2000 or later. In its subdivisions, a cracked wall calls for a drywall repair, not a plaster one.
The work
How the work goes
The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to plaster repair.
Find the cause
Every repair starts with why the plaster failed: a leak, a settling corner, a ceiling carrying too much. Randy walks the rooms with you, and the walkthrough and written estimate are complimentary.
Reattach what’s loose
Plaster that has lost its keys but is otherwise sound can be drawn back to the lath with screws and broad plaster washers. It doesn’t have to come down.
Bridge the cracks
Cracks are opened slightly, bridged with fiberglass mesh tape and filled with setting-type compound, which hardens by chemical reaction and shrinks less than ordinary joint compound. A finer compound goes on last, because setting compound is hard to sand.
Rebuild what’s missing
Where plaster is gone down to the lath, the old edges get a bonding agent and the hole is built back up in layers, each stepped over the last. Larger openings can take a piece of board shimmed to the plaster’s thickness instead.
Finish to the wall around it
The repair is feathered into the old surface, or the whole wall is skimmed so old and new read as one. On a wavy old wall, the patch follows the wall’s contour; a dead-flat patch would stand out.
Questions
Plaster repair, Nazareth.
Is the plaster in one of Nazareth's cement-era houses worth saving?
Usually. Houses built between 1900 and 1938 were plastered with gypsum, sometimes mixed with lime, and that plaster is hard and well bonded unless water or movement has broken it loose. Cracks are bridged, loose areas reattached and missing pieces rebuilt; replacing a whole wall is for plaster a long leak has ruined.
Our house is half of a double. Can we repair our side of the shared wall on our own?
Yes. The plaster on your face of the wall is repaired from your side, and nothing on the other half is touched. If the crack or stain comes from the wall itself, through a leak at the shared roof line or uneven settling, the cause is worth sorting out with your neighbors, or the repair will return.
Do you repair plaster in Stockertown and Tatamy?
Yes. More than four in ten Stockertown homes and about a third of Tatamy's were built before 1940, so old plaster turns up there far more often than in the newer townships. Randy serves both, along with the townships around the borough.
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.
- 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.