Randy’s Painting & Drywall

New Hope, Bucks County

Level 5 drywall finish in New Hope, PA.

When the Delaware comes up, soaked drywall is cut out and replaced from the floor, and new board meets old painted board partway up the wall. Making those two surfaces one again is Level 5 work.

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A room in an older house with its walls patched and part-way through a skim coat, a radiator cover under the window.
Walls part-way through a skim coat.

Level 5 drywall finish for New Hope homes

The Delaware has topped major flood stage at the river gauge at New Hope many times: in 1955, at a record 24.16 feet, and three times in three years from 2004 to 2006. After high water, soaked drywall is cut out a little above the line it reached and new board goes in below, so the wall that results is two surfaces, fresh paper and compound under a band of old paint. It will not take a finish evenly until it is made one.

That is the Level 5 case in a river town: the new board finished to the standard and skimmed together with the old wall above it, then primed so the whole height absorbs paint alike. It only works in a dry house. Joint compound needs steady temperature and humidity to dry well, and a finish laid over damp framing or masonry is likely to fail, so the drying comes first.

New Hope

River-level walls after high water, and Solebury's newer rooms

The land rises steeply from the Delaware, so high water is a concern for houses at river level and along Ingham Creek, not for the whole borough. Many of the borough's buildings are masonry, about three in ten stone and two in ten brick in the 1984 survey, and plaster on a stone wall can often be saved once the wall has dried. Where drywall went up instead, after a flood or a renovation, the new board is a Level 5 candidate.

Up the hill and out into Solebury Township the houses are newer: more than half of Solebury's homes have been built since 1980, and the borough has its own large share from the 1970s and 1990s. The New Hope art colony was centered at Phillips Mill, just north of the borough, and rooms built around paintings, with deep colors and light trained on the walls, are where a Level 5 surface repays the extra pass.

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.

Worth knowing

  1. Dry first, then finish

    Compound, primer and paint all want dry framing and dry masonry. After high water, the house sets the drying schedule, not the calendar.

  2. A straight cut line

    Cutting the soaked board out at one level height, a little above the water's reach, leaves a single straight joint to tape and bury under the skim.

  3. Light on the art

    Track lights and picture lights trained on a wall rake across it the way low sun does. In a room hung with paintings, the walls they light are the ones to finish to Level 5.

The work

How the work goes

The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to level 5 drywall finish.

A tall two-story gray wall rising over an open kitchen, a painter at work at its base.
A two-story wall, finished.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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, New Hope.

The lower part of our walls was replaced after the river came up, and the paint looks patchy. Why?

New paper and compound absorb paint differently from the old painted board above them, so the same paint dries to a different sheen and depth on each. Skimming the whole wall, new and old, and priming it makes one surface that takes paint evenly.

Does finishing interior walls in the historic district need a Certificate of Appropriateness?

No. The borough's certificate covers exterior work that can be seen from a public street or way, painting included. Interior walls are outside its reach, though a call to the borough is worth making if a project also touches the outside.

Our house in Solebury was built in the 1990s. Is it too late for Level 5?

For the walls as they stand, the equivalent is a skim coat over the painted drywall, which gives the same even face. True Level 5 comes with new board, in an addition or a rebuilt room. Either is worth doing where art lights, a sheen or a deep color would bring out the old seams.

More in New Hope

Other services here.

  1. Skim coatingRough, patched or uneven walls resurfaced smooth, often after wallpaper comes down.
  2. Plaster repairCracked, loose and failing plaster in older homes, repaired and made sound.
  3. Interior paintingWalls, ceilings, trim, doors and millwork, prepared properly and finished clean.
  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.