Randy’s Painting & Drywall

Nazareth, Northampton County

Drywall texture matching & removal in Nazareth, PA.

A third of Nazareth's historic district went up between 1900 and 1938, overlapping the years when sand-finish plaster was popular. Texture in those houses is part of the plaster, and it is matched in its own way.

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Close-up of a wall part-way through a skim coat, the compound’s knife strokes catching the light.
A skim coat, close up.

Drywall texture matching & removal for Nazareth homes

A third of the buildings in the Nazareth Historic District went up between 1900 and 1938, many of them for workers at the cement plants around town. Plaster was still the standard wall, and in the early 1900s a finish coat with fine sand mixed in was popular; raked with a broom, it left swirls or stipples. On a wall like that, the texture is in the plaster itself, and a smooth patch shows as a flat spot however carefully it is painted.

Spray textures arrived later, along with drywall. About a third of the borough's homes date from 1940 to 1979, and in Bushkill and Lower Nazareth townships about a quarter of homes come from the 1960s and 1970s alone. Upper Nazareth is newer still, with nearly half its homes built since 2000 on land that was farmed. Each group raises its own texture question, and its own answer on testing.

Nazareth

Sand in the borough's plaster, spray on the townships' board

On a sand-finish wall, the repair takes sand too. The patching material gets a fine aggregate and is floated to the grain of the wall around it, then the repair is judged in raking light before it is primed, because paint shows a difference in grain rather than hiding it. Houses from the early 1900s, on the streets laid out parallel to Center and Main, are the likeliest to have one; the borough's stone buildings, most of them older than 1858, carry older lime plaster.

Township texture is another matter. Original texture in a 1960s or 1970s house may hold asbestos, so a sample is tested before anything is opened, and positive results go to a certified asbestos abatement contractor. Houses built in Upper Nazareth since 2000, nearly half the township, came well after the mid-1980s cutoff; there the only question is whether to match the builder's spray or skim it away.

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.

Worth knowing

  1. Feel for the grain

    A sand finish can often be felt as a fine grit, even under paint, and it shows plainly in raking light. That check decides between a sand match and a drywall one.

  2. No smooth islands

    Skimming part of a sand-finish wall leaves a smooth island in a grainy field. Either the repair takes the sand, or the whole wall is skimmed.

  3. Tatamy's two eras

    Tatamy has almost as many homes built since 2000 as before 1940. In a borough that mixed, the first question in any room is which era the wall belongs to.

The work

How the work goes

The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to drywall texture matching & removal.

A two-story stairwell wall patched and primed in white over a wood banister, a chandelier hanging below.
A stairwell wall, patched and primed.

  1. Read the wall

    The texture is studied in side light: its pattern, its height, how it was applied. Then Randy talks through the choices with you: match it, change it, or take it off. The walkthrough and written estimate are complimentary.

  2. Test older texture first

    Texture or compound from before the mid-1980s should have a sample tested before anyone sands or scrapes it. If it tests positive, removal is work for a certified asbestos abatement contractor.

  3. Repair and prime

    The patch is finished flat and primed before texture goes on, so the new texture absorbs and dries the same over fresh compound as over old paint. Primer also keeps the patch from flashing through the paint later.

  4. Match it, or bury it

    To match, mix and pressure are tried on a scrap until the pattern dries the same, then texture is applied and feathered past the repair. To remove, the wall is skimmed in thin coats until the pattern is gone.

  5. Prime and paint the whole wall

    Primer evens out new and old surfaces. The whole wall is painted, corner to corner, so the sheen reads as one.

Questions

Drywall texture matching & removal, Nazareth.

Our borough house is from the early 1900s and its walls feel gritty. Is that texture?

It may be a sand float finish: plaster with fine sand in the finish coat, popular in the early 1900s. It is part of the plaster, not a coating added later, so a repair is matched with sand rather than with drywall texture. Seen in low side light, the grain is easy to read before a match is chosen.

Do newer houses in Upper Nazareth need the texture tested before a repair?

The testing rule covers texture and compound applied before the mid-1980s, and nearly half of Upper Nazareth's homes were built after 2000. Texture original to one of those houses falls outside that window. If the house is older, has been remodeled, or its history is uncertain, a sample is tested before work starts.

Can a sand-finish wall be made smooth instead?

Yes. Thin coats of compound fill the grain until the surface is flat, then the wall is sanded and primed, the same work as taking any texture off. It changes the character of an early-1900s room, so it is worth seeing a sample of each finish before deciding.

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 installation & repairNew drywall hung, taped and finished; cracks, holes and water damage repaired invisibly.
  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.