Hellertown, Northampton County
Wallpaper removal in Hellertown, PA.
More of Hellertown's homes date from 1940 to 1959 than from any other period. In those postwar Capes, and in Main Street's older houses, the wall under the paper sets the plan.
Wallpaper removal for Hellertown homes
On Main Street, once the King's Highway, the houses run from about 1800 into the early 1900s. New streets followed: the Mountainview section from 1940, and in the early 1950s, Durham Terrace's 154 one-and-a-half-story Cape Cods. Census estimates put about 37 percent of the borough's homes in the 1940s and 1950s, a bigger share than any other era.
Each layer has its own wall. The oldest houses are plaster on lath. Postwar rooms might be either one, plaster laid over gypsum board or early drywall, and it pays to know which before any water goes on, because drywall has a paper face that can tear and plaster does not.
Hellertown
Paper under the eaves of a postwar Cape
A one-and-a-half-story Cape puts its upstairs bedrooms under the roof, and in Durham Terrace a central stair leads up to two of them. Rooms like that have short knee walls and sloped ceilings meeting flat ones at angles, and paper carried up and over those planes is slow to take down cleanly. Overhead on a slope, the soak has to stay light enough not to run, and the creases where planes meet are where paste hides and where cracks like to open.
Main Street's older houses are a different job: plaster on lath that has usually been patched more than once, often under more than one layer of paper. Out in Lower Saucon Township, where about half the homes have gone up since 1980, the paper is on drywall, and a torn face there is sealed with shellac or an oil-based primer before it is skimmed.
Worth knowing
Ceilings take longer
Paper on a sloped or flat ceiling comes down overhead, against gravity. It is slower than wall work, and the room is fully covered before it starts.
Watch the angles
Where a sloped ceiling meets a wall, paste collects in the crease and old cracks hide. Both are cleaned out and repaired rather than painted over.
Small rooms are seen up close
Upstairs Cape bedrooms are small, so their walls are viewed at arm's length. Paste residue and patch edges are easy to spot there, and a skim is often worth it.
The work
How the work goes
The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to wallpaper removal.
The walkthrough
Randy looks at the paper, the age of the house and the walls with you, and explains what removal is likely to uncover. The estimate comes in writing, and both are complimentary.
Water and wiring
Because the work is wet, power to the outlets and switches on papered walls is shut off and their covers come off before any soaking. Floors are covered against runoff.
Soak, wait, lift
Vinyl facings that will peel off dry are peeled first. The backing and older papers are soaked with warm water and remover, given time to soften, and lifted with a wide blade; steam handles stubborn or painted paper.
Wash off the paste
Every trace of adhesive is washed away. Paste left on a wall shows through paint and stops new paper from bonding.
Seal and repair
Torn drywall face is sealed first with an oil- or shellac-based primer, because water-based products make it bubble. Cracks and loose plaster are repaired, and walls are skim-coated where they need to be made even.
Prime for what comes next
The wall is primed for paint, or with a wallcovering primer if new paper is going up. That primer also makes the next removal easier.
Questions
Wallpaper removal, Hellertown.
Our Durham Terrace Cape has paper on the sloped ceilings upstairs. Can it come off?
Yes, in the same way as paper on a wall, softened and lifted gently, only more slowly, because the work is overhead and the soak must stay light. The ceiling is usually skimmed before it is painted.
The paper upstairs is lifting at the seams near the roofline. Is that a bigger problem?
Not necessarily. Seams lift as old paste fails, and rooms tucked under a roof see wider swings of heat and humidity than the rest of the house. Staining or soft spots near the lifted paper, though, suggest water, and that is worth tracing before any repair.
Do you work in Lower Saucon Township too?
Yes. Randy serves Hellertown and the township around it, Leithsville, Seidersville and Wassergass included. Houses there from the 1980s on are drywall, so the first check is whether the face holds when the paper lifts.
More in Hellertown
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.
- 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.
- 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.