Emmaus, Lehigh County
Level 5 drywall finish in Emmaus, PA.
New drywall in a built-out borough comes with additions and remodels, not new houses. In Emmaus those projects meet walls from the 1950s, and that meeting is where Level 5 fits.
Level 5 drywall finish for Emmaus homes
Houses now run to the borough line in every direction, and only about one home in nine dates from 1990 or later. In a town with little open land left, new drywall rarely means a new house. It comes with an addition off the back, a kitchen opened into the next room, or an attic made into a bedroom, and those are the moments Level 5 can be chosen, because the standard is written for board that has never been painted.
The rooms those projects join are mostly older. The 1950s were the borough's biggest building decade, about one home in five, and more than half of all its homes predate 1960. Walls of those years may be plaster on rock lath or early drywall, and where a new room opens into one of them, the old walls are often skimmed as well, so the two absorb paint alike.
Emmaus
Built out to the borough line: new rooms against 1950s walls
The population rose by almost a third in the 1950s, from 7,780 to 10,262, and by the 1960s the borough had reached the size it is now. About 57 percent of its homes were built before 1960, and a little over a quarter before 1940, when plaster was still the standard wall. Most rooms in town are therefore plaster or first-generation drywall, and for them the route to a smooth wall runs through repair and a skim coat, not Level 5.
Level 5 belongs to the new work, and to the new walls only: the board in an addition is bare and can take the full standard, while the 1950s walls it joins are smoothed by skim coating. Just over the line the picture changes. About a third of Lower Macungie Township's homes went up between 2000 and 2009, and Upper Milford built nearly half of its homes from 1970 to 1999, so newer drywall houses are close by.
Worth knowing
Where old meets new
An addition usually opens into an older room through a wide doorway or a wall taken out. The old walls in view are skimmed so both rooms take paint the same way.
Plan it with the addition
The new walls can be finished to Level 5 only before they are primed. The time to ask is when the addition is drawn, not when it is ready for paint.
Not every new room
A finished basement lit by small windows and ceiling fixtures seldom needs Level 5. A family room with a wall of glass usually does.
The work
How the work goes
The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to level 5 drywall finish.
A walkthrough in the room’s light
Randy walks the rooms with you and says which walls need Level 5 and which don’t. It helps to look at the hour the light is hardest. The walkthrough and written estimate are complimentary.
Joints finished to Level 4
Tape is bedded in compound at every joint; flat joints get two more coats, inside corners one, screw heads three. Each coat dries hard before the next, with the house kept warm and steady.
A skim coat, edge to edge
Compound is spread over the entire surface and wiped back tight with a wide knife or trowel, leaving a thin film over paper and joints alike. Where one pass doesn’t cover, a second follows.
Sanded, then primed
The dry surface is sanded smooth without scuffing the paper beneath. Primer goes on before any color, so the finish coats absorb evenly across the whole wall.
Judged in its own light
Finish coats go on last. The standard’s test is the one that counts: the wall seen from five feet back, under the light the room will actually have.
Questions
Level 5 drywall finish, Emmaus.
We are adding a family room onto our 1950s house in Emmaus. Should the new walls be Level 5?
If the room will have big windows, a sheen or a deep color, yes, and the time to say so is before the drywall is primed. Plan for the older walls it opens onto as well; a skim coat there keeps the two rooms reading as one under paint.
Are the walls in a 1950s Emmaus house plaster or drywall?
It can be either. By the late 1930s most house plaster went onto gypsum rock lath, and drywall spread through the decades after the war, so houses of the 1950s have both. Randy will tell you which you have at the walkthrough, because the answer changes the work.
Our new addition gets afternoon sun along one long wall. Is that reason enough for Level 5?
Usually, yes. Low sun crossing a wall at a shallow angle is the textbook case for it, and an addition's walls are bare board, which is what the standard was written for. Walls the sun meets head-on matter less.
More in Emmaus
Other services here.
- 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.
- Exterior paintingSiding, trim, porches, stucco and brick, prepared to stand up to Pennsylvania weather.
- 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.
Nearby
Level 5 drywall finish nearby.
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.