Randy’s Painting & Drywall

Nazareth, Northampton County

Drywall installation & repair in Nazareth, PA.

Farmland around the borough keeps turning into subdivisions, and new framing has drywall habits of its own. Inside the borough, more than half the homes predate 1940, and repairs there meet old plaster.

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Bare stud framing and a scaffold in a room being rebuilt, before any drywall goes up.
Framing and scaffold, before the drywall.

Drywall installation & repair for Nazareth homes

Nearly half the homes in Upper Nazareth Township have gone up since 2000, and most of those in Lower Nazareth and Bushkill since 1980. Much of the drywall work around the borough is in those subdivisions, and it follows the life of a new house: lumber gives up its moisture through the first few heating seasons, shrinks slightly, and the board shows it at fasteners, seams and the corners of openings.

Around Center and Main the houses are far older. About 54 percent of Nazareth's homes predate 1940, brick and frame houses on the borough's grid with plaster walls inside. Drywall in those houses usually arrives with a renovation, a kitchen, a bath, a back addition, and it has to come up to the face of the plaster around it.

Nazareth

New framing in the townships, plaster off Center and Main

A screw that pops in a two-year-old house usually hasn't failed; the stud behind it has shrunk away from the board. A new screw about an inch and a half from the old one pulls the board back to the framing, the popped head is reset or removed, and thin coats bring the spot level. Fixed while the lumber is still drying, the same spot tends to pop again, which is why the first full heating season is worth waiting out.

Within the borough, about a third of the historic district's buildings went up between 1900 and 1938, many of them for workers at the cement plants. Walls of that age are plaster, so a new bath, a closed-up doorway or an addition puts drywall against plaster along at least one edge. The board is shimmed out to the plaster's face and the seam is built with setting-type compound, since a joint left proud or sunken shows when light comes across it.

A wall opened down to its studs, with new drywall already hung on the ceiling above.
A wall opened to the studs; new drywall on the ceiling.

Worth knowing

  1. Builder paint and touch-ups

    Flat builder paint in a new house rarely blends with touch-ups, so once pops and cracks are repaired, the whole wall is repainted rather than dabbed.

  2. Double houses

    About one home in five in the borough sits in a two-unit building; work on a wall shared with the other unit is scheduled with the neighbors in mind, since cutting and fastening are heard on both sides.

  3. Corners of openings

    In a new house the corners of doors and windows take the most strain as the framing shrinks; cracks there are opened, taped and refinished rather than caulked or filled.

The work

How the work goes

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

New drywall in a commercial space, its seams taped and screws spotted with compound, a scissor lift beside it.
New drywall, taped and spotted.

  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, Nazareth.

We're finishing the basement of a newer house in Lower Nazareth. What should be settled before drywall goes up?

That the space stays dry through heavy rain, since gypsum board that takes on water grows mold. Then the framing is checked for straightness, because board follows whatever is behind it, and the bottom edge of the board is held just above the slab so it can't wick moisture from the floor.

Can a doorway in an older Nazareth borough house be closed off with drywall?

Yes. The opening is framed in, the board on each side is shimmed until it sits flush with the plaster, and the joints are taped and feathered well past the old jamb lines. Primed and painted with the rest of the wall, the doorway shouldn't be traceable.

Is it better to cover cracked borough plaster with new drywall than to repair it?

It can be done, but it changes the wall's depth at every window and door casing, and it hides whatever is moving rather than fixing it. Where the plaster is sound, repair keeps the trim as it was built; where whole walls have failed, replacing them with board brought out to the old depth is the cleaner choice.

More in Nazareth

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.