Cape Cod Painters — Mashpee, Falmouth, Barnstable, Sandwich & the other Barnstable County towns

Census figures for Barnstable County put the median home's construction year at 1977. The two biggest building decades were the 1970s (32,298 units still standing) and the 1980s (33,181), and detached single-family houses make up 81.6% of all units. A third of the housing, 33.1%, is classified as held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use. That share passes 50% in Truro, Chatham, Wellfleet, Eastham and Dennis.

County averages hide wide spreads between towns. Mashpee's median year built is 1988, only 2.5% of its units predate 1940, and its 11.9% share of attached single-family homes is the highest of the fifteen towns, with another 7.5% of units in 2–4-unit buildings. Sandwich is 91.2% detached houses, with a median year of 1982. Falmouth's median is 1973, and 13.9% of its units were built in 1939 or earlier. Barnstable has the largest housing count of any Cape town at 27,656 units, spread over seven villages: Barnstable Village, Centerville, Cotuit, Hyannis, Marstons Mills, Osterville and West Barnstable.

Historic oversight is layered. The Old King's Highway Regional Historic District runs north of Route 6 through parts of Sandwich, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Dennis, Brewster and Orleans, with a committee in each town. Brewster lists color among the things its committee reviews. The Cape Cod Commission puts the share of Sandwich's historic resources protected by a district or National Register listing at nearly 100%.

Paint color can go to a public hearing

Falmouth has seven local historic districts, including Woods Hole, Quissett, Waquoit and West Falmouth. The town says a Certificate of Appropriateness is needed when a building's exterior appearance, materials or color will change, and that certificate requires a public hearing. Along Route 6A, the Old King's Highway committees also review exterior changes. Confirm your district's rules before settling on a palette, and leave time for the hearing in the schedule for an exterior repaint on the Cape.

Newer houses in Mashpee need different prep

A house framed in 2005 has had far fewer repaints than one framed in 1905, so prep on a younger Mashpee exterior can lean toward washing, spot priming and caulking instead of stripping old layers. Mashpee's 1,277 attached single-family units raise a separate question: when siding and trim run across a shared wall, find out whether a neighbor or an association has a say in color and timing before work is scheduled.

The pre-1980 half of the housing stock

56.4% of county housing units were built before 1980. The EPA's renovation rule covers paid work that disturbs paint in homes built before 1978, so sanding or scraping an older sill, sash or porch rail starts with knowing what's in the layers. Falmouth's Historical Commission posts a reference document titled "Lead paint and wooden window restoration" alongside its district maps. Our lead-safe painting page explains the containment steps.

Painting a house that's empty part of the year

The Census counts 55,061 county units as held for seasonal or occasional use, which means houses that stand empty for part of the year. If nobody will be living in the house during the job, settle a few things up front: how the painters get in, who looks the place over after a rainy day, and how you'll hear about progress. A closed-up house is also a chance to do rooms that are hard to tackle while it's occupied. See interior painting and cabinet painting for Barnstable County homes.