Bethlehem, Northampton and Lehigh Counties
Skim coating in Bethlehem, PA.
Bethlehem's walls run from steel-era row homes to the houses of the 1940s and 1950s, and most have been painted for generations. A skim coat gives every one of those coats a single, even face.
Skim coating for Bethlehem homes
About three in ten Bethlehem homes were built before 1940 and nearly a quarter more between 1940 and 1959, so a great many of the city's walls have worn paint for most of a century. Every coat is still there: drips cured into ridges, brushwork from decades ago, a crack someone filled with whatever was at hand. Under flat white they half disappear. Under satin or a deeper color they all come back.
A skim coat lays a new face over that history. Thin coats of joint compound fill the low places and bury the ridges, the wall is sanded and primed, and the finish goes onto one even surface. The plaster underneath stays, and so does the trim fitted to it.
Bethlehem
South Side rows, West Side twins and postwar walls
South of the Lehigh, brick row homes went up for families who worked the mills, and the historic district there dates mostly from about 1900 to 1935. Across the river, the West Side's numbered avenues are lined with turn-of-the-century twins. Close to 28 percent of the city's homes are row homes or twins, and in those houses the shared wall is usually the longest stretch of plaster in a room, with no window or door to break it up, so it tends to be the one that shows its age first.
Postwar houses bring a different wall. By the late 1930s most residential plaster went onto gypsum board lath, and drywall spread through the years that followed, so a Bethlehem house from the 1940s or 1950s may have either. Both collect decades of anchors, nail holes and patches, and both take a skim coat once the fasteners and cracks under the surface are dealt with.
Worth knowing
Paper under the paint
In older rooms, wallpaper is sometimes still on the wall beneath later paint. It comes off before skimming, because water in fresh compound can soften the old paste and lift it.
Straight cracks in postwar plaster
Plaster on gypsum board lath tends to crack in straight lines where the boards meet. Those lines are taped with mesh before skimming, or they telegraph through the new surface.
Bigger rooms in Mount Airy
The large houses built there between 1910 and 1930 have long walls and tall ceilings, so skimming them is staged work, set up so each wall can be finished without stopping halfway.
The work
How the work goes
The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to skim coating.
Walkthrough and estimate
Randy walks the rooms with you, looks at how sound the plaster and old paint are, and explains what each wall needs. The walkthrough and written estimate are complimentary.
Repairs first
Loose plaster is reattached, cracks are opened and bridged with mesh tape, and deep holes are filled with setting-type compound, which shrinks less than ordinary joint compound. A skim over an unsound wall only hides the problem for a while.
Clean, dull, seal
Walls are washed and glossy paint is dulled so the compound can grip. Torn paper facing and leftover wallpaper paste are sealed with an oil- or shellac-based primer, because water in the compound would make them bubble.
Thin coats, edge to edge
Compound is spread over the whole wall and wiped back tight, then left to dry hard before the next pass. Thin coats, never one heavy one: thick compound shrinks and cracks as it dries.
Sand, prime, paint
The dry wall is sanded smooth and cleaned of dust. Primer evens out how the surface absorbs, so the paint dries to the same sheen everywhere.
Questions
Skim coating, Bethlehem.
Does skim coating inside a house in the Central Bethlehem Historic District need HARB approval?
The Historical and Architectural Review Board reviews exterior changes visible from a public way, paint colors included. Walls inside the house are outside that review. If the project also touches the exterior, check with the city before work starts.
The plaster on our South Side party wall sounds hollow in places. Can it still be skimmed?
Hollow spots mean the plaster has lost its grip on whatever is behind it. Those areas are secured where they can be, or cut out and refilled, before anything else happens; a skim spread over loose plaster cracks along with it. Once the wall is sound, the skim covers the whole surface.
If we can't skim every room of our Bethlehem row home at once, which walls should come first?
The ones that catch light at a low angle. In a row home that usually means the long side walls running back from the front and rear windows, and the wall beside the stairs. Walls you face straight on, under soft light, hide far more and can wait.
More in Bethlehem
Other services here.
- Level 5 drywall finishA skim coat over the entire surface, for walls that hold up under raking light and dark paint.
- 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.