Macungie, Lehigh County
Exterior painting in Macungie, PA.
A one-square-mile borough whose zoning protects the porches and cornices of its pre-1940 houses, and where the 1980s built more homes than any other decade. Both call for repair before paint.
Exterior painting for Macungie homes
A porch column with rot at its base can be repaired, or it can be taken off. On an older house in Macungie those are not equal choices. The borough's zoning covers every principal building from 1940 or earlier, and it treats removing a front porch roof, porch columns or historic features on a street-facing side as partial demolition, which needs a special exception from the Zoning Hearing Board.
Painting sits on the other side of that line. The ordinance defines maintenance and repair as work that does not alter the appearance or harm the stability of exterior features, and it asks owners of these houses to keep the roof, cornice, columns, beams, posts and lintels in repair. A careful repaint, with the wood beneath it mended, is the kind of upkeep it describes.
Macungie
Porch columns, cornices and the 1940 line
About one home in six in the borough predates 1940, and the zoning names the historic character of Main Street as part of the borough's identity, aiming to keep older buildings in use rather than let the street become a faceless commercial strip. Across the surrounding township, log and frame buildings gave way over time to brick and stone, and on older masonry houses the wood is what takes paint: porches, cornices, trim and sash.
The ordinance also says what it leaves alone. Features added after 1940, such as a modern porch, aluminum siding or a carport, can come off without the special exception, and features visible only from an alley are not regulated. More than a third of the borough's homes date from the 1980s, and their exteriors raise questions of wear, not of the ordinance.
Worth knowing
Lintels and posts count
The ordinance lists lintels, posts and beams among the features owners must keep up to avoid demolition by neglect. Peeling paint on any of them is the early sign that water is getting in.
Repair in kind
Where a porch post or a run of cornice is too far gone, it is rebuilt to match in wood, then primed on every face before paint. The street side keeps its shape.
The rule stops at the line
The borough's rule on older buildings ends at the borough line. In Ancient Oaks, built in phases from 1961 to 1989, and on Lower Macungie's newer streets, the question is simply wear.
The work
How an exterior goes
The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to exterior painting.
Every side, walked
Randy walks every side of the house with you, because the south wall and the north wall rarely need the same work. Both the walkthrough and the written estimate are complimentary.
Causes first
Where paint is peeling to bare wood, the source of the water is found and dealt with. Soft, rotted wood is repaired or replaced, because no paint holds on wet or decayed wood.
Washing
Dirt, mildew and chalk are washed off at a pressure that cleans without gouging the grain. The siding then dries completely before any primer or paint goes on.
Scraping and priming
Loose and flaking paint is scraped back to a firm edge. Bare wood is primed promptly, before the sun has time to weaken its surface.
Caulk where water gets in
Open joints where trim meets siding and around windows are caulked, and holes are filled. The bottom edges of lap siding are left open on purpose, so water can drain out and the boards can dry.
Paint in the right conditions
Finish coats go on when the temperature will hold for the paint, away from walls baking in full sun, and early enough to set before the evening dew. On most days that means following the shade around the house.
Questions
Exterior painting, Macungie.
The columns on our pre-1940 porch are rotting. Can we take them down?
Not without the Zoning Hearing Board, if the porch faces the street: the borough's zoning counts removing porch columns or a porch roof on a house from 1940 or earlier as partial demolition. Rot at the base of a column is usually repairable, and once the column is sound, primed and painted, the question goes away.
We would like to take the aluminum siding off our older house and paint the wood. Is that allowed?
The ordinance on older buildings exempts removing features added after 1940, and aluminum siding is one of its examples, but confirm it with the borough for your house. Then plan for the wood underneath: after years under siding it can hide damage, old nail holes and failed paint, and it needs repair and priming before a finish coat.
Our 1980s house needs exterior paint for the first time in years. What usually needs the most work?
The joints. Caulk put in when the house was built has had decades to harden and split, so it is cut out and renewed where trim meets siding and around windows and doors. Trim and doors, which take more sun and more handling than the walls, get the most careful preparation after that.
More in Macungie
Other services here.
- 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.
- 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.
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.