Hellertown, Northampton County
Wood staining in Hellertown, PA.
A Main Street whose oldest houses date to about 1800, Capes of the early 1950s built around a central stair, and newer decks in the township around the borough. Each wears in its own place.
Wood staining for Hellertown homes
The borough's houses come in three generations, and the wood worth staining sits somewhere different on each. Along Main Street, which was the King's Highway in the 1700s, houses from about 1800 into the early 1900s carry porches and entry doors; each of Durham Terrace's Cape Cods, built from 1951 to 1954, has a central stair to its upper floor; and Lower Saucon Township, which mostly surrounds the borough, has built about half its homes since 1980.
About six in ten of the borough's homes are detached, so many have wood exposed on more than one side of the house. January averages below freezing at the foot of the mountain, and flat surfaces that are soaked one day and frozen the next are where a finish gives out first.
Hellertown
Main Street porches and Durham Terrace stairs
Main Street's oldest houses are older than the borough, which was formed from the township in 1872. Porch floors and steps on houses of that age may have been patched and refinished many times, so the job starts with finding out what is on them: paint, a solid stain, or a penetrating finish worn back to gray. Only the last can simply be cleaned and recoated; the others are renewed as a film or taken down to bare wood.
In a Durham Terrace Cape, the central stair is the most-used wood in the house. Seventy years of daily traffic wear a finish through at the middle of each tread and along the handrail while the edges still look new, and where those parts are stained rather than painted, they are refinished together so the color comes out even.
Worth knowing
Steps through the winter
Porch and deck steps take water on every tread and through the cut ends of their stringers, and that end grain freezes wet all winter. It is sealed along with the treads.
Front doors on Main Street
An old entry door with a weathered finish is stripped, its color rebuilt with stain and a clear exterior coat laid over it. Under a porch roof it tends to outlast a door facing open sun by a wide margin.
Before rebuilding
Refinishing a porch and rebuilding one are different jobs. Before boards, posts or steps are replaced, check with the borough about permits.
The work
How the work goes
The same care on every job, in every town. The full guide to wood staining.
The walkthrough
Randy looks at the wood with you: what finish is on it now, how it has weathered, which boards take the full sun. The walkthrough is complimentary, and so is the written estimate.
Cleaning
Dirt, mildew and loose gray fibers come off with a cleaner and gentle washing; too much pressure furs and gouges the soft grain. On cedar, redwood and oak, no steel wool or steel brushes, which leave dark iron stains in the wood.
Old film removed
Where solid stain or paint has peeled on a deck, the loose film is stripped or sanded away. A penetrating stain cannot soak through an old film, and a new film over a failing one peels with it.
Drying
The wood dries fully before any stain goes on, usually a couple of dry days after washing, longer in shade. Stain on damp wood soaks in unevenly and fails sooner.
Brushed in by hand
Penetrating stain goes on by brush, a few boards at a time with a wet edge to avoid lap marks, out of hot sun where possible. The wood gets only what it will absorb, and any excess left on the surface is wiped off.
Recoating
A penetrating finish is renewed with a cleaning and a fresh coat, no stripping. Shaded parts of a deck can go longer between coats than the boards in full sun.
Questions
Wood staining, Hellertown.
The stair in our Durham Terrace Cape is worn through on the treads. Can it be restained to match the rail?
Usually. The old finish comes off the treads and rail together so they take the new color evenly, and the color is tested before the whole stair is done. Treads take the heaviest wear in the house, so the clear coat over the stain matters as much as the stain itself.
Can an old painted porch floor on Main Street be stripped and stained?
It can, but it is a bigger job than it sounds. Every trace of paint has to come out of the grain before stain will take, and old floors often hide patched and replaced boards that take stain differently. On many old porches, a fresh porch-floor coating is the more sensible finish.
The solid stain on our Lower Saucon deck peels every spring. Why?
A film on a deck traps the moisture that flat boards always hold, and a winter of freezing and thawing breaks it loose. Recoating over it only thickens the layer that is failing. The long-term answer is to strip it once and switch to a penetrating stain, which wears away instead of peeling.
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.
- Wallpaper removalOld wallpaper and wall linings stripped without tearing up the wall beneath.
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.