Exterior Painting right here in Belmont, Massachusetts.

The town's 2014–2016 historic resources survey identified nine areas with a shared historic character, and their exteriors vary widely. Belmont Park's small lots were mostly built up between 1894 and 1899 with Queen Anne, Shingle and Colonial Revival houses. Clark Hill reflects a 1909 subdivision of English Revival and Craftsman designs. Belmont Hill mixes early Federal, Second Empire and Colonial houses with brick Georgian Revival mansions, and Snake Hill holds seven early-1940s houses by architect Carl Koch that the survey calls one of the earliest Modern house neighborhoods in the country.

Each of those styles puts paint on different things. A Queen Anne may have layered shingles, brackets and turned porch posts; a Georgian Revival brick house mostly needs its wood cornice, windows and doors; a Modern house of the 1940s has broad, plain surfaces where every flaw in prep shows.

Repainting inside a local historic district

The town's website describes three established local historic districts: Pleasant Street, which runs from Stella Road to Snake Hill Road and takes in the Town Hall complex; Common Street; and Richardson Farm, established in 2013. The Historic District Commission's rules reach paint directly. Keeping the same color still requires a Certificate of Non-Applicability, and changing color requires a Certificate of Appropriateness, because the commission reviews exterior changes visible from a public way, including color and materials.

The town recommends an informal meeting with the commission before filing a formal application. The commission reviews work using its written design guidelines for the districts, dated December 2009. Since the certificate has to come before the scraping, it belongs at the start of the schedule, not the end.

Scraping old paint safely

Census figures show 87.3% of the town's housing units were built before 1980. On any house built before the 1978 lead paint ban, the lower layers under today's paint may contain lead, and those are the layers that come loose during scraping. The EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule requires anyone paid to disturb paint on a pre-1978 house to be certified.

Outside, that means ground covering to catch chips, limits on power sanding and open-flame removal, and a cleanup that leaves nothing in garden beds or the neighbor's yard. Our lead-safe painting page has more detail.

• Scrape and feather failing paint down to a sound edge
• Replace or epoxy-repair rotted trim, sills and clapboards
• Spot-prime bare wood the same day it is exposed
• Recaulk joints, then apply two finish coats

Two-family exteriors

Two-unit buildings account for 29.7% of local housing, and another 8.7% sit in buildings of three or four units. A two-family exterior is one paint job shared by two households, and the scope may include porches and stair rails serving each unit. If the units are separately owned, both owners need to agree on the scope and the color before work starts.

Season and scheduling

Exterior coatings need surface and air temperatures inside the range printed on the can, plus enough dry hours for each coat to set before evening dew. Late fall narrows that window; our post on painting a house exterior in November explains the limits. An estimate done in the off-season leaves time for historic district certificates before spring.

For what tends to go wrong on older siding, read common exterior paint failures in Massachusetts. Area notes are on our Waverley and Cushing Square pages, and porches and decks are covered on deck staining and painting in Belmont.