Randy’s Painting & Drywall

Newtown, Bucks County

Drywall installation & repair in Newtown, PA.

Eight in ten Newtown Township homes date from 1980 or later, while most of the borough's predate 1940. One is drywall at the age for its first big remodels; the other is plaster, where new board has to blend in.

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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 Newtown homes

Between 1980 and 2000 the township grew from about 4,500 people to more than 18,000, and about six in ten of its homes went up in those two decades alone. Their drywall is now roughly 25 to 45 years old, old enough for the first full round of remodels: kitchens and baths redone, basements finished, walls opened to join rooms, and the cracks and popped fasteners of a house long since settled.

The borough inside it is the opposite. Close to six in ten of its homes predate 1940, many of them frame houses in Queen Anne, Gothic Revival and Italianate dress, with stone houses from before 1850 among them. Their walls are plaster, on wood lath in the frame houses and on masonry in the stone ones, and drywall there arrives with a renovation and has to meet that plaster without a visible line.

Newtown

Township basements and remodels, borough plaster

Finishing a basement in a 1980s or 1990s township house is largely a question of what stays reachable. Main water shutoffs, cleanouts, junction boxes and heating valves all need a way in once the walls and ceiling are closed, so access panels are planned into the framing rather than cut in afterward. Ducts and pipes under the floor above are boxed into soffits, finished to the same straight lines as the walls around them.

Inside the borough's Victorians, plaster on wood lath sits thicker than standard drywall, so a patch is shimmed out to the old face before it is taped, and the seam is filled with setting-type compound and feathered across both surfaces. In the frame houses, three-quarters of the buildings in the 1986 district extensions, the framing behind the plaster still moves with the seasons, so seams over door and window heads are bridged with mesh tape rather than paper alone.

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

Worth knowing

  1. Borough or township

    Say which you live in when you call: a borough house is most likely plaster, a township house almost certainly drywall, and the repair, the materials and even the review rules differ.

  2. The township's historic district

    Newtown Township has its own historic district ordinance, and an addition to a house inside it needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Board of Supervisors after a review board recommendation.

  3. Upper Makefield and Wrightstown

    Upper Makefield has more than half its homes from 1980 on, and Wrightstown about four in ten alongside some 140 houses a century old or more: the same drywall-and-plaster split, on a smaller scale.

The work

How the work goes

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

Inside a geodesic dome: angled white walls, a black spiral stair and a green door, the floor still bare.
The dome’s spiral stair, walls finished.

  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, Newtown.

Does Newtown Borough's review board need to approve interior drywall work?

No. Interior changes are on the list of things the borough's Historical Architectural Review Board does not review. An addition or other exterior change that can be seen from a public street or sidewalk is reviewed, so that part of a project goes to the board before work starts.

What happens to the drywall when we replace the windows in our 1980s township house?

Usually some patching inside. Where the window openings are wrapped in drywall returns, their edges and corner bead often get damaged as the old units come out, and casings may come off and go back. Those edges are repaired and repainted once the installer is finished, so the openings look as crisp as before.

Our Queen Anne in the borough has a round turret room. Can drywall follow the curve?

Within limits. Thinner board bends to a gentle radius, sometimes hung in two layers, and is taped and finished like a flat wall. A tight curve, or one where most of the old plaster is still sound, is usually better repaired in place than replaced.

More in Newtown

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.