Northampton County
Painting & drywall in Hellertown.
A borough of old Main Street houses and postwar neighborhoods built for families with steel jobs nearby. Old plaster, mid-century walls and sloped upstairs ceilings each need their own kind of care.
Hellertown and its houses
Christopher Heller and his son Simon settled at the southern foot of Lehigh Mountain in 1742. The town stayed small for a century, then grew with the iron works and the railroad; it became a borough in 1872, and in 1919 it annexed the Crossroads section, nearly quadrupling its population.
Its houses come in layers. Main Street, the old King's Highway, has houses from about 1800 through the early 1900s. The Mountainview section began in 1940, and Durham Terrace added 154 Cape Cods between 1951 and 1954, near enough to Bethlehem Steel to house its workers. Census estimates put 37 percent of the borough's homes in the 1940s and 1950s, and 62 percent are detached.
Randy serves Hellertown and the township around it, from plaster repair in the older houses to drywall, ceilings and Level 5 walls in the newer ones.
The houses
What Hellertown’s houses ask for.
Main Street
Along Route 412 stand the borough's oldest houses, from about 1800 to the early 1900s. Plaster this old has usually been patched more than once, and the woodwork outside carries many coats of paint that need careful scraping before another goes on.
Durham Terrace and Mountainview
Modest single-family neighborhoods of the 1940s and 1950s; Durham Terrace's 154 one-and-a-half-story Cape Cods went up between 1951 and 1954. Upstairs rooms sit under the roof, so the angles where sloped ceilings meet walls are where cracks and uneven patches tend to show.
1960s and 1970s houses
About one in five Hellertown homes dates from 1960 to 1979, the years of sprayed acoustic ceilings. Texture applied before the mid-1980s should be tested before it is disturbed; if it contains asbestos, removal belongs to a certified asbestos abatement contractor.
The township around the borough
Hellertown is mostly surrounded by Lower Saucon Township, where about half the homes have been built since 1980. Newer drywall houses there call for crisp finishing, smooth ceilings and, under strong window light, a Level 5 wall.
Services
In Hellertown, specialty first.
Each service, written for Hellertown’s houses: what it involves here, what to check, and what people ask.
- 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.
- 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.
From clients and job sites
“Excellent work repairing my ceiling with new drywall & painting my home. Randy is meticulous and professional. The ceiling looks brand new & my walls look smooth & even. He is very easy to work with & always showed up on time…”
“Randy and his team laid new drywall on my ceiling and level 5 on my walls. My older house was pretty rough and I hated looking at the uneven surfaces. Now, happy to say it looks great. Randy was very responsive, checked in and followed up…”
Questions
Asked in Hellertown.
Our Cape in Durham Terrace has cracks where the sloped ceilings meet the walls. What is the right repair?
Cracks along those angles usually come from seasonal movement in the framing, so filling them alone rarely lasts. The joint is opened up, retaped and feathered out wide, then primed and painted so the repair disappears into the ceiling.
Is the plaster in an older Main Street house worth keeping?
Usually, yes. Sound plaster is repaired and skim coated, and only the sections that have let go of the lath are cut out and patched, which keeps the original trim and casings in place.
Do you work in Lower Saucon Township and Leithsville?
Yes. Randy serves Hellertown and the township around it, including Leithsville, Seidersville and Wassergass, and Bethlehem just to the north.
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.