Randy’s Painting & Drywall

Quakertown, Bucks County

Plaster repair in Quakertown, PA.

Quakertown built in masonry by preference, so much of its old plaster sits against stone, brick or stucco-covered walls. How that plaster holds up depends on what the outside of the wall is doing.

Request a private consultation Call or text (484) 546-3660
A stripped period wall of failing plaster, patched in places, with a bucket and loose paper on the floor.
Before: a period wall stripped back to failing plaster.

Plaster repair for Quakertown homes

More than a quarter of the borough's homes were built before 1940, and most of Quakertown lies inside a National Register district whose nomination describes a town that preferred masonry: stone and brick, some of it stuccoed, in large, square houses two and a half stories tall. Inside, those houses were finished in plaster.

That pairing shapes every repair. Plaster on the inside of a masonry wall is only as dry as the wall, so cracked stucco, open joints or a porch roof draining against the house tend to show up indoors first, as stains or paint that will not stay put. The plaster is often still sound underneath; the work is to stop the water, let the wall dry, and then repair what actually failed.

Quakertown

Plaster against stone, brick and stucco

The borough built in waves. Twenty-four dwellings went up in 1859 alone, many of them three-story brick houses, as the town filled in toward the new railroad; after the trolley arrived in 1896, blocks of row houses followed within two decades; and the 20th century added substantial, generally masonry Foursquares, bungalows and Colonial houses. The earliest of these were plastered in lime, often straight onto the brick or stone; by the Foursquare years, gypsum had taken over.

Twins and rows, a strong thread in the district, add a shared wall to every diagnosis, and a stain on it may start on the other side of the roof line. Front porches, which the nomination finds on most of the houses, shelter the lower front wall but bring a porch roof that meets the house, a joint worth checking whenever the front rooms show damp.

A period foyer and staircase mid-renovation, the floor strewn with stripped material and a painter at work.
Before: a period foyer mid-renovation.

Worth knowing

  1. Fix the stucco first

    On stuccoed stone or brick, hairline cracks let rain into the masonry behind. They are repaired, and the wall allowed to dry, before the plaster inside is patched.

  2. Exterior work: ask the borough

    Most of the borough lies within the National Register district, which on its own doesn't restrict private owners. For exterior repairs that go with the plaster work, check with the borough's code and zoning office.

  3. Richland is mostly newer

    About two-thirds of Richland Township's homes were built in 1980 or later and only about six percent before 1940, so plaster there is the exception.

The work

How the work goes

The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to plaster repair.

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

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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, Quakertown.

Our stuccoed stone house in Quakertown has damp patches on the inside walls. Is the plaster ruined?

Probably not all of it. Damp plaster on a masonry wall usually means water is getting in through cracked stucco, open joints or a flashing. Once that is repaired and the wall has dried, plaster that is still hard and attached can stay, and only the crumbling or loose areas need rebuilding.

Is the plaster in our 1910s Foursquare on the brick itself, or on lath?

Often on lath. Gypsum plaster, standard by then, was more vulnerable to water than lime, so plasterers set it on lath over furring strips against masonry walls, leaving an air space. Houses built a generation or two earlier more often have lime plaster laid directly on the brick or stone. An opening for a pipe or outlet usually shows which.

The plaster around the front windows of our row house keeps cracking. What causes that?

In a masonry house, cracks running from window corners usually come from movement around the opening, such as an old lintel settling, or from water working into the wall at the sill. Repairing the plaster without checking the masonry outside the window tends to bring the cracks back, so both are looked at together.

More in Quakertown

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. 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.