Quakertown, Bucks County
Skim coating in Quakertown, PA.
Quakertown is a masonry town of twins, rows and big square houses, and more than a quarter of its homes predate 1940. Plaster on stone and brick walls gets patched in its own particular ways.
Skim coating for Quakertown homes
Square, solid and mostly masonry: that is how the National Register nomination describes the borough's houses, stone and brick with some of it stuccoed, two and a half stories tall. Inside, plaster on walls that heavy tends to stay put for generations, but it still collects cracks at window corners, filled holes from decades of hanging things, and patches where pipes and wiring were run.
Skim coating finishes what those repairs start. Once the cracks are taped and the loose spots rebuilt, thin coats go over the whole wall, so the old surface and the repairs read as one plaster wall again under paint. It keeps the plaster's mass and the original trim, which in houses this solid are worth keeping.
Quakertown
Masonry twins, rows and Foursquares
About 27 percent of the borough's homes were built before 1940, and most of the borough lies inside the Quakertown Historic District, listed in 2011 with 2,197 contributing buildings. The trolley, from 1896, brought blocks of row houses for factory workers, and the early 1900s added solid masonry Foursquares and Craftsman houses, most notably in the middle and northeast of the borough, along with Tohickon Heights, the area's first large subdivision, advertised in 1906.
A Foursquare's big square rooms show any unevenness across broad, unbroken walls, which makes them strong candidates for a full skim. The borough's largest postwar decade, the 1970s, added about a fifth of its homes, and drywall from those years tends to need popped fasteners reset and old patches flattened before any compound goes over it.
Worth knowing
Richland walls, one at a time
In Richland Township's newer houses, a skim is usually for the one wall a remodel or a removed fixture scarred, not for whole rooms.
Later houses in the district
The brick Capes, ranches and Colonials built later on single lots are usually drywall or gypsum-lath plaster, and they skim like the 1970s houses rather than the old masonry ones.
Masonry holds the cold
Thick stone and brick walls stay chilly through winter, so the rooms are kept heated before and during the work, which lets each coat dry evenly.
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, Quakertown.
Our Quakertown Foursquare was split into two units years ago and has patched ceilings where walls came out. Can a skim coat hide that?
Yes. The strip where each wall stood is filled flush with the ceiling around it and the joints taped, then the whole ceiling is skimmed, not just the strip. Patched alone, the old line tends to show the moment light crosses the ceiling.
A crack at the same window corner in our Quakertown twin keeps coming back. Will a skim coat stop it?
Not on its own. A crack that returns after filling usually means some movement, so it is opened, bridged with mesh tape in setting compound and only then skimmed over. If it keeps widening, the masonry or framing needs a look from a structural engineer before any finisher touches it.
Is the trim painted before or after the walls are skimmed?
After. Sanding a skim coat makes fine dust that would settle into fresh trim paint, and the compound is feathered tight to the casings and baseboards, so the woodwork is painted once the walls are skimmed and primed.
More in Quakertown
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.