Allentown, Lehigh County
Skim coating in Allentown, PA.
About four in ten Allentown homes predate 1940, and four in ten more went up between 1940 and 1979. Both generations of wall end up patched, and both can be skimmed back to one surface.
Skim coating for Allentown homes
Deep colors are honest in the worst way. Charcoal or oxblood on an old rowhouse wall shows every filled crack, every ridge where a patch was feathered short, and the faint outline of whatever used to hang there. Flat white forgives a great deal; satin and dark paint forgive almost nothing.
The city's housing makes that a common problem. Rowhouses and twins are its largest group of homes, and the oldest have had well over a century of repairs. Skimming the whole wall gives a new color one surface to sit on, which is why it so often comes right before a move to something darker or glossier.
Allentown
Old Allentown stair halls and postwar walls
Old Allentown's rowhouses went up from the 1850s to the 1910s, the Old Fairgrounds' rows and twins between 1888 and 1910, and West Park's houses mostly from 1895 to 1930. Inside, almost every one was plastered over wood lath. The stair hall is often the hardest wall in the house: tall and narrow, scuffed and patched along the whole run of the stairs, with light falling down its length. Skimming it means staging over the steps so the compound can be worked edge to edge.
Homes built from 1940 to 1979 make up more than four in ten across the city, and more than half of neighboring Salisbury Township's date from 1950 to 1979. Their walls have their own wear: shelves taken down, outlets moved, a remodel that left one wall smoother than the next. On those walls a skim coat is less a rescue than a reset, and it is often what lets a room go darker without every old repair showing.
Worth knowing
The color decides the effort
For a flat, light color, careful patching may be enough. For satin, gloss or a deep shade, skimming the full wall is the safer course.
Old paint has to hold
A skim coat bonds to the paint beneath it, so it can only be as sound as that paint. Chalky or flaking layers are scraped back and primed first.
Pops get reset, not buried
In postwar drywall, a popped fastener gets a new screw driven beside it and is reset before skimming. Covered over as it is, it tends to push back through.
The work
How the work goes
The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to skim coating.
Walkthrough and estimate
Randy walks the rooms with you, looks at how sound the plaster and old paint are, and explains what each wall needs. The walkthrough and written estimate are complimentary.
Repairs first
Loose plaster is reattached, cracks are opened and bridged with mesh tape, and deep holes are filled with setting-type compound, which shrinks less than ordinary joint compound. A skim over an unsound wall only hides the problem for a while.
Clean, dull, seal
Walls are washed and glossy paint is dulled so the compound can grip. Torn paper facing and leftover wallpaper paste are sealed with an oil- or shellac-based primer, because water in the compound would make them bubble.
Thin coats, edge to edge
Compound is spread over the whole wall and wiped back tight, then left to dry hard before the next pass. Thin coats, never one heavy one: thick compound shrinks and cracks as it dries.
Sand, prime, paint
The dry wall is sanded smooth and cleaned of dust. Primer evens out how the surface absorbs, so the paint dries to the same sheen everywhere.
Questions
Skim coating, Allentown.
Why does a dark color show so much more on the walls of our Old Fairgrounds rowhouse?
Deep hues and any sheen pick out small differences in height and texture that a pale flat color hides, and old plaster is full of them. A skim coat takes the surface back to one texture and one plane before the color goes on, so what you see is the color rather than the history of the wall.
Can the stair hall in an Allentown rowhouse be skimmed while we still use the stairs?
Usually. The treads are covered and the staging is set so the stairs stay passable between working sessions, though there may be stretches when another route is easier. The walkthrough is where access during the job gets worked out.
We're rewiring our Old Allentown rowhouse. Should the skim coat wait until that's done?
Yes. Anything that cuts into the walls, from new circuits to moved outlets and plumbing, goes first, so its patches end up under the skim with everything else. A repair made after the final finish is hard to hide, which is why skimming belongs near the end of a renovation.
More in Allentown
Other services here.
- Level 5 drywall finishA skim coat over the entire surface, for walls that hold up under raking light and dark paint.
- 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.
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.