Exterior Painting across Arlington, Massachusetts.

Exterior work here starts with two questions: what the house is clad in, and whether it sits inside one of the town's seven local historic districts. The answers decide the prep, the products and whether anything has to go past a commission before the ladders go up.

Census estimates show 47.1% of housing units built in 1939 or earlier. The Massachusetts Historical Commission's 1980 town survey explains why: subdivisions plotted in Arlington Heights and East Arlington in the 1870s filled in after 1880, trolley lines added more around the center, and by 1915–1940 highland subdivisions and infill multifamily housing had left almost no land undeveloped.

Clapboard, shingle and stucco

The MHC survey describes several distinct generations of houses: sidehall Greek Revival and center-hall Italianate houses from 1830 to 1870; architect-designed Shingle, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival houses of the 1880s and 1890s south of Mass. Ave. and west of Pleasant Street; Queen Anne and Colonial Revival two-families from about 1900 to 1915; and plain Colonial Revival and stuccoed Craftsman two-families that made up the bulk of building from 1915 to 1940.

Each surface fails differently. Painted clapboard tends to peel where moisture gets behind it, at sills, corner boards and the bottoms of walls. Painted or stained shingles can cup and split, and a paint film over them can trap water. Stucco cracks with movement and needs a breathable masonry coating, not the same paint used on the trim. The scope should name each surface on the house and how it will be prepared.

• Scrape and feather loose paint; prime bare wood the same day
• Replace rotted clapboard or trim with matching profiles
• Fill and seal hairline cracks in stucco before coating
• Paint gutters, downspouts and storm-window frames as part of one scope

Historic districts: color is free, materials are not

Arlington's seven local historic districts (Avon Place, Broadway, Central Street, Jason/Gray, Mount Gilboa/Crescent Hill, Pleasant Street and Russell) include more than 300 properties. The Historic District Commissions are required to review most exterior design changes there, including minor alterations and removal of trim. Their design guidelines are equally clear on the other side: the commissions do not review paint colors, and like-kind repairs get a Certificate of Non-Applicability.

A few guideline details bear directly on a paint job. Shutters may come down for painting only after the owner gives the commission prior notice and written assurance that they and their hardware will go back up promptly. Replacement siding and shingles must replicate the originals, and vinyl or aluminum is prohibited unless found historically appropriate. Unpainted masonry may not be painted. Gutters and downspouts, other than copper, should be painted to match the house. Even a painter's yard sign must stand on the owner's property rather than the tree strip.

National Register listing is a separate thing

The Arlington Center, Kensington Park, Orvis Road and Peirce Farm districts are on the National Register of Historic Places, and the town has 64 Register listings in all. Those are a different list from the seven local districts, which are the ones with a commission reviewing exterior changes. Individually designated properties outside the local districts fall to the Arlington Historical Commission. If you aren't sure which applies, ask the town before work begins.

Timing and the season

Exterior paint needs dry wood and temperatures inside the product's application range for several hours after it goes on, which narrows the workable window as fall advances. Our post on painting an exterior in November covers where that line falls. A late-season visit is still useful: the estimate can be written now and the work booked for spring.

For houses in Jason Heights, Brattle or anywhere else in town, the same inspection applies. Porch floors and decks are covered on our Arlington deck page.