Bethlehem, Northampton and Lehigh Counties
Plaster repair in Bethlehem, PA.
About ten thousand Bethlehem homes predate 1940, and their plaster runs from lime in the oldest brick and stone houses to the gypsum of the 1920s. How it fails depends on the house's age and what its walls are made of.
Plaster repair for Bethlehem homes
Roughly a third of Bethlehem's homes, about ten thousand houses, were built before 1940, while plaster was still the standard wall. Another quarter went up between 1940 and 1959, as drywall was taking over, and some of those have plaster too, usually two coats over gypsum lath rather than three over wood.
The older houses divide by side of the river. North of the Lehigh, the historic district's buildings run from the mid-1700s into the early 1900s; to the south, brick row homes went up for families living on mill pay; on the West Side, twins and the large houses of Mount Airy came between about 1895 and 1930. Each puts its plaster on a different wall and wears it differently.
Bethlehem
North Side masonry, South Side party walls, Mount Airy ceilings
The Central Bethlehem Historic District is mostly two-and-a-half-story brick and stone, and in buildings that old the plaster on outside walls was often laid directly against the masonry. It lasts as long as the wall can dry, so a tide line of staining near the floor, or paint that blisters under a window, is read as a moisture question before a plaster one.
South of the river, rows built close together share brick party walls, and plaster on a party wall answers to two foundations. Mount Airy's large houses date mostly from 1910 to 1930, when gypsum plaster, and increasingly gypsum lath, had replaced lime and wood. In rooms that size a ceiling crack can run the full width; if the plaster on both sides is still attached and dry, it is cosmetic and can be bridged rather than taken down.
Worth knowing
Generations of patches
Plaster in the Historic District's older houses has usually been patched in several eras and materials, which shrink and take paint differently. Tying them together under one finish is what stops the old outlines from showing through.
Fountain Hill, same questions
Next door, more than four in ten Fountain Hill homes predate 1940, so the plaster questions of the city's older blocks carry across the borough line.
The township is newer
About two-thirds of Bethlehem Township's homes were built in 1980 or later. There, a cracked wall is usually drywall, and so is the repair.
The work
How the work goes
The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to plaster repair.
Find the cause
Every repair starts with why the plaster failed: a leak, a settling corner, a ceiling carrying too much. Randy walks the rooms with you, and the walkthrough and written estimate are complimentary.
Reattach what’s loose
Plaster that has lost its keys but is otherwise sound can be drawn back to the lath with screws and broad plaster washers. It doesn’t have to come down.
Bridge the cracks
Cracks are opened slightly, bridged with fiberglass mesh tape and filled with setting-type compound, which hardens by chemical reaction and shrinks less than ordinary joint compound. A finer compound goes on last, because setting compound is hard to sand.
Rebuild what’s missing
Where plaster is gone down to the lath, the old edges get a bonding agent and the hole is built back up in layers, each stepped over the last. Larger openings can take a piece of board shimmed to the plaster’s thickness instead.
Finish to the wall around it
The repair is feathered into the old surface, or the whole wall is skimmed so old and new read as one. On a wavy old wall, the patch follows the wall’s contour; a dead-flat patch would stand out.
Questions
Plaster repair, Bethlehem.
Does HARB need to approve plaster repairs in a Central Bethlehem Historic District house?
No. The Historical and Architectural Review Board reviews exterior changes that can be seen from a public way, paint colors included, and plaster inside the house is not one of them. If the repair goes with outside work, such as repointing or a new color, that part goes to the board, so check with the city before it starts.
The crack in our South Side row home runs where the party wall meets the front wall. Is that structural?
It can be, which is why a crack where two walls meet gets a closer look than one in the middle of a wall. A fine line that stays put is often two houses settling slightly differently over the years, and it is bridged and finished like any crack. One that keeps widening, or comes with sloping floors or sticking doors, should be seen by a structural engineer before it is patched.
We're renovating a West Side twin. Is it better to strip the plaster to the studs?
Only where it has failed. Sound plaster keeps the depth the original casings and baseboards were set to, and stripping it means resetting all of that trim, plus the dust and noise of demolition beside the other half of the twin. Sections ruined by a long leak, or broadly detached from the lath, are the ones to replace.
More in Bethlehem
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.
- 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.
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.