Randy’s Painting & Drywall

Bethlehem, Northampton and Lehigh Counties

Interior painting in Bethlehem, PA.

Mount Airy stair halls, South Side row homes and the postwar streets between them: three eras of wall under the paint, and each is prepared its own way before color goes on.

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The same period foyer finished: white walls, a white staircase and a hanging lantern over a pale floor.
After: the same foyer, finished.

Interior painting for Bethlehem homes

Three kinds of wall sit under the paint in this city, and a house's age decides which one it has. Roughly a third of the homes were built before 1940, a quarter between 1940 and 1959, and another quarter by 1979, and each era finished its walls its own way. All three take a color well once they are sound, and each fails differently.

Plaster on wood lath, found in the older blocks on both sides of the Lehigh, waves and cracks as the lath swells and shrinks with the seasons. Much of the plaster of the 1940s and 1950s went onto gypsum lath instead, harder and flatter, though fine cracks tend to follow the joints of the boards behind it. Drywall from the decades after shows its tape seams and fastener heads once a deeper color or a little sheen goes on. Knowing which wall a room has is the first step in painting it.

Bethlehem

Mount Airy stair halls and South Side row homes

Mount Airy, on the West Side, holds large and ornate houses built mostly between 1910 and 1930, and the numbered avenues nearby are lined with turn-of-the-century twins. Houses of that size and date often open on a stair hall, with wide casings and woodwork made to be seen. That hall is usually the hardest room in the house to paint well: tall, lit from a landing window, and seen from below, where every wave in the plaster shows.

Across the river, the South Side's brick row homes went up for families who worked in the mills, most of its historic district between about 1900 and 1935. Rooms there are narrower and the trim plainer, and the plaster has usually been patched by several owners in several materials. Past the city line the houses turn newer: two-thirds of Bethlehem Township's homes have been built since 1980, and the work there is drywall, long walls and builder trim.

Two painters on extension ladders cutting in a cream ceiling above arched windows and honey wood paneling, beside a marigold wall.
Cutting in a cream ceiling above arched windows.

Worth knowing

  1. Landing windows

    A window on a stair landing throws light down the stairwell at a low angle. That wall gets the most careful preparation in the house, because it is lit the hardest.

  2. Know the wall

    A 1920s wall and a 1950s wall can look alike under paint and behave quite differently. The age of the house is the first clue to which one you have, and the repair follows from it.

  3. Postwar ceilings

    Straight hairline cracks across a 1940s or 1950s ceiling usually trace the lath joints above. They are bridged with tape and compound before the ceiling is painted, or they open again.

The work

How the work goes

The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to interior painting.

A staircase with black handrails and newel posts, white balusters and black treads, under a tall gray wall.
A black-and-white staircase under a tall wall.

  1. The walkthrough

    Randy walks the rooms with you and looks at the walls in the light they actually get. He tells you plainly what they need, then puts it in writing. The walkthrough and the written estimate are complimentary.

  2. Repairs first

    Cracks, holes, nail pops and failing plaster are dealt with before anything else, and every patch is sanded flat. Paint doesn’t hide a poor patch; it shows it.

  3. Primer where it’s needed

    Patches, bare drywall and stains are primed. Joint compound takes up paint differently from a painted wall, and an unprimed patch can flash through the finish as a dull spot.

  4. Finish coats

    Ceilings, walls and trim are cut in and rolled or brushed, each in the sheen chosen for it. A big change of color takes more coats than a refresh, and the number is set by the wall, not the calendar.

  5. Seen in the room’s own light

    Before the drop cloths come up, the walls are looked at in the light the room really has, from its windows and its lamps. Low sun and lamplight show what an overhead work light hides.

Questions

Interior painting, Bethlehem.

Does the review board in the Central Bethlehem Historic District have a say over interior colors?

Its review covers exterior changes that can be seen from a public way, and outside that includes paint colors. Painting the rooms inside is not an exterior change, so it falls outside that review. If the work also touches windows or anything else seen from the street, check with the city first.

Our Mount Airy house still has its original stained woodwork. Should it be painted?

Think hard before you do. Woodwork with its original stain and varnish is the one thing in an old house that paint cannot easily give back, and a sound finish can usually be cleaned and left as it is. Where trim was painted long ago, the job is careful preparation and a harder sheen than the walls, so it stands up to hands.

Our South Side row home has patches everywhere. Will they show through new paint?

They will unless they are dealt with first. Plaster, compound and filler each take up paint differently, so the patches are sanded flat at the edges and the whole wall is primed before color. Where they are many, a skim coat over the wall is often simpler than chasing each one.

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. Exterior paintingSiding, trim, porches, stucco and brick, prepared to stand up to Pennsylvania weather.
  5. Drywall installation & repairNew drywall hung, taped and finished; cracks, holes and water damage repaired invisibly.
  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.