Deck Painting & staining throughout Cambridge, MA.

Single-family houses are a small part of Cambridge's housing. Census estimates put detached single-family homes at 9.9% of units and attached single-family homes at 6.5%, while 29.1% of units are in buildings of two to four units. For a household in one of those buildings, the outdoor wood that needs finishing may be a front or rear porch or an exterior stair rather than a ground-level deck.

On a stacked porch, the finish on each level has to cope with foot traffic, water sitting on flat boards and drips from the floor above.

Porches on two-families and triple-deckers

In North and West Cambridge, a Historical Commission staff memo counts more than a thousand two-family houses built between 1885 and 1935, and the Commission describes a 1913 shingle-sided triple-decker on Lexington Avenue with a full-length front porch. A porch of that age may have painted floorboards, a painted ceiling, turned or square balusters and tall posts, and each of those surfaces takes a different product.

Painted porch floors stay painted: once a board has been coated, stain cannot soak in. The usual system is scraping loose paint, priming bare spots and finishing with a porch-and-floor enamel. Rails and balusters get exterior trim paint by brush. Porch ceilings may need a mildew wash before they are recoated.

• Porch floors, steps, rails, posts and ceilings
• Rear porches and exterior stairs on multi-family buildings
• Cleaning, brightening and staining of wood decks
• Solid or semi-transparent stain matched to the wood's condition

Shade, trees and drying time

The city's 2020 canopy assessment measured tree cover at 25.5% of Cambridge, up from 23% in 2014, and removing a tree of 6 inches in diameter or more on private property requires a city permit and mitigation. A large tree beside a deck cannot simply be taken down without that permit, so the finish has to suit the shade it casts.

Shaded wood dries slowly after rain and collects leaves, pollen and mildew in the gaps between boards. Cleaning with a deck cleaner, rinsing at moderate pressure so softwood fibers are not torn up, and then waiting for the boards to dry out properly is what lets stain penetrate. A semi-transparent or penetrating stain is generally more forgiving on a damp, shaded deck than a thick film that can trap moisture.

Lead, permits and noise

Porches on buildings from before 1978 may have lead in their older coats of paint. Census figures show 67.9% of the city's housing units were built before 1980. Scraping more than 20 square feet of exterior paint on pre-1978 housing falls under the EPA's lead-safe rules, which means sheeting under the work area and collecting chips from the yard below. The lead-safe painting page covers this.

Painting and staining are finish work, but rotted treads, posts or joists may need a carpenter first. Cambridge's Inspectional Services Department requires a building permit to construct, alter or repair a structure, with an exception for ordinary repairs as the Building Code defines them, so structural porch work should be cleared with ISD. Power washing can be loud enough to fall under the city's construction-noise hours: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. on Saturdays.

Shared porches and getting started

When a multi-family building is a condominium, stacked porches and stairs may be common elements controlled by the association. Check the master deed before choosing a color, and see the Cambridge condo painting page for how association work is organized. Income-eligible owners of two- to four-unit buildings can ask the city's Home Improvement Program about loans for exterior repairs.

For seasonal timing, read how New England winters affect deck stain. Properties in North Cambridge, Wellington-Harrington, Baldwin and the rest of the city can be looked at on a free on-site visit.