Randy’s Painting & Drywall

Bethlehem, Northampton and Lehigh Counties

Drywall installation & repair in Bethlehem, PA.

Close to half of Bethlehem's homes date from 1940 to 1979, the decades when drywall took over from plaster. Their ceilings and settled walls set much of the repair work, with the newer townships close behind.

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A ceiling and walls patched in white compound, a work table of tools in the middle of the room.
Ceiling and walls, patched mid-job.

Drywall installation & repair for Bethlehem homes

The middle of the century dominates the city's housing. About a quarter of Bethlehem's homes went up between 1940 and 1959 and another quarter in the 1960s and 1970s, the years when drywall replaced plaster as the usual wall. A house from that span may have either behind its paint, and a repair is planned around which one is there.

Fifty to eighty years on, those houses have settled into their frames. Cracks run from the corners of doors and windows, ceiling joints ridge where two sheets meet over a joist, and each owner has left a patch or two. The repairs that last cut back to sound material and rebuild the joint with tape and setting-type compound instead of adding one more layer of filler.

Bethlehem

South Side row homes and the townships past the city line

On the South Side, brick row homes went up for families living on mill pay, and the historic district there dates mostly from about 1900 to 1935; the West Side's numbered avenues are lined with turn-of-the-century twins. Those walls are plaster. When a room is re-drywalled or a kitchen wall is opened for new pipes, the new board meets plaster of a different thickness at every edge, and the joint is built up and feathered until it vanishes under paint.

Across the line, in the townships, the drywall era takes over. Two-thirds of the homes in Bethlehem Township and in Hanover Township have been built since 1980, and Freemansburg added about a third of its homes after 2000. The drywall there is original, and the work is a basement finished long after the house, a family room opened to the kitchen, or cracks over doorways from framing that moves with the seasons.

A wall opened at its base, showing damaged drywall, studs and wiring above a pulled-back carpet.
Before: the wall opened up. Sharon Marrone’s photograph, from her Google review.

Worth knowing

  1. Old joint compound, tested first

    Joint compound and patching materials from before the mid-1980s can contain asbestos; in a postwar house a sample should be tested before the wall is cut or sanded, and if it tests positive, that work is for a certified asbestos abatement contractor.

  2. Plaster front, drywall back

    An older house that was added onto later can run from plaster rooms into drywall ones on the same floor; where the two meet, the joint is built to the thicker surface and feathered across both.

  3. Stains under baths

    A ceiling stain below a bathroom gets a stain-blocking primer only once the leak is fixed and the board has proved dry and firm; painted sooner, the mark tends to come back.

The work

How the work goes

The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to drywall installation & repair.

The same wall repaired and painted a soft beige, a wooden trunk sitting against it.
After: the same wall, repaired and painted. Her photograph.

  1. Look at the cause

    Randy looks at the damage with you and explains what it will take. Where water is involved, the leak has to be fixed and the framing dry before anything is closed up. The walkthrough and written estimate are complimentary.

  2. Cut back to sound material

    Damaged board is cut out to clean, square edges, often back to the framing, so the new piece has something solid to fasten to. Damaged studs are replaced while the wall is open.

  3. Hang it tight and flush

    New board is cut to fit and screwed to the framing with its edges level with the old, because a high edge leaves no room for tape and compound. Wide gaps are filled with setting-type compound before taping.

  4. Tape and coat

    Joints are taped and built up in thin coats, feathered wide. Torn paper is sealed with an oil- or shellac-based primer first, since water in the compound would raise it into bubbles.

  5. Blend, prime, paint

    Texture is matched where the wall has it. The repair is primed so it won’t show as a dull patch, and the wall is painted corner to corner so the sheen reads evenly.

Questions

Drywall installation & repair, Bethlehem.

Does an addition to a house in one of Bethlehem's historic districts need approval?

If it can be seen from a public way, yes. In the Central Bethlehem Historic District the Historical and Architectural Review Board reviews exterior alterations, and in the South Side and Mount Airy districts the Historic Conservation Commission handles exterior changes. Check with the city before plans are drawn; the drywall inside follows once the outside is approved.

We're opening the wall between the kitchen and dining room in our 1950s house. What does the drywall side involve?

Whether the wall can come out is first a question for a builder or engineer, since it may carry the floor or roof above. Once the framing work is done, the ceiling is patched where the wall stood, the new wall ends get corner bead and tape, and the patch is carried wide so the old wall line can't be traced.

Should cracks be repaired before or after new windows and a new roof?

After. Window and roof work shakes walls and ceilings, and a finished repair touched up later rarely blends, so the drywall and paint are saved for when the heavier trades are done. Note the cracks now and have them repaired in one pass at the end.

More in Bethlehem

Other services here.

  1. Level 5 drywall finishA skim coat over the entire surface, for walls that hold up under raking light and dark paint.
  2. Skim coatingRough, patched or uneven walls resurfaced smooth, often after wallpaper comes down.
  3. Plaster repairCracked, loose and failing plaster in older homes, repaired and made sound.
  4. Interior paintingWalls, ceilings, trim, doors and millwork, prepared properly and finished clean.
  5. Exterior paintingSiding, trim, porches, stucco and brick, prepared to stand up to Pennsylvania weather.
  6. Drywall texture matching & removalTexture matched so repairs disappear, applied where you want it, or taken off for a smooth wall.
  7. Popcorn ceiling removalOld acoustic texture taken down and the ceiling finished smooth.
  8. Wallpaper removalOld wallpaper and wall linings stripped without tearing up the wall beneath.
  9. 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.

Randy’sPainting & DrywallReply card
The project
Preferred contact

Walkthrough & written estimate, complimentary.