Exterior Painting across Abington, Massachusetts.

Outside, the age of a house shows up in the paint layers. Census figures count 1,369 local housing units built in 1939 or earlier and 4,106 built before 1980, out of 6,479 in total. On a house that old, the siding may carry decades of coatings, and the bottom layers can be oil-based or lead-based paint.

Single-family detached houses make up 63.2% of the town's housing units. A detached house exposes four elevations plus trim, porches and entries, and each side weathers at its own pace, so the scope has to account for all of them.

Reading the siding

Wood clapboard and cedar shingles both take paint or solid stain, but they fail in different ways. Clapboard tends to peel at the lap edges and around windows where water collects; shingles tend to cup or split when old coatings trap moisture behind them. Vinyl and fiber-cement sidings need their own products, and dark colors on vinyl can cause warping in direct sun unless the paint is rated for it.

The north and shaded sides of a house usually show mildew first, while the south and west sides fade and chalk. A walk around all four sides tells you more about the job than a look at the front.

• Wash to remove chalk, dirt and mildew
• Scrape and sand loose paint to a sound edge
• Replace or epoxy rotted trim and sills
• Spot-prime bare wood, caulk open joints, then two finish coats

Lead-safe scraping outdoors

Exterior prep on an older house is where lead risk is highest, because scraping and sanding make chips and dust that land in soil and garden beds. The EPA's lead-safe rule requires certified firms for paid work that disturbs paint on homes built before 1978. Outdoors that means plastic sheeting on the ground, no open-flame burning or uncontained power sanding, and a careful cleanup of chips at the end of each day. Details are on our lead-safe painting page.

Historic listings and color choices

Two National Register listings in town are the Island Grove Park district on Park Avenue, which the National Park Service associates with Beaux Arts and Bungalow/Craftsman styles, and the North Abington Depot, a Romanesque station from the 1890s designed by Bradford Lee Gilbert. The town's Historical Commission, founded in 1975, surveys and records historic places.

According to the National Park Service, National Register listing alone places no restrictions on what a private owner does with a property unless a project involves federal money. We did not find a local historic district with design review in town, but it is worth a call to the town before changing the look of a notable old house.

Older buildings in town also give useful color cues. The First Congregational Church of 1849 is a Greek Revival building with flat flushboard siding, and the 1832 Joseph Cleverly House on Adams Street is Federal in style. A period house can take its palette from those styles, while a mid-century ranch leaves more room to experiment. Our color combinations page can help narrow it down.

Timing the season

Exterior paint needs dry surfaces and temperatures within the label range overnight as well as during the day. Late fall can still work on mild stretches, as our post on painting in November explains, but cold dew slows drying. An estimate can be done any month so a spring slot is ready. For what tends to go wrong on New England siding, see common exterior paint failures. Area notes are on our South Abington and East Abington pages, and a deck refresh is covered on deck painting in Abington.