Exterior Painting across Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

An exterior coating fails from the outside in. Sunlight breaks down the binder, water slips behind cracked caulk, and freeze-thaw cycles push the film off wherever moisture is trapped in the wood. A repaint that lasts deals with those three things during prep instead of counting on extra paint to cover them.

This is an inland town, so the salt spray that coastal houses fight is not part of the picture. The stresses here are the ordinary New England ones: UV on south- and west-facing walls, mildew on shaded sides, and splash-back along foundations where siding sits close to the soil.

Reading the trim on the older houses

The 1981 state survey lists shallow-pitched roofs, wide bracketed eaves, flush-board siding and round-arched windows with molded lintels as common features of the mid-century houses, and it singled out the town center for its Italianate collection. Brackets and lintels are full of end grain and joints where paint cracks early, so they get hand-scraped, spot-primed and re-caulked wherever a joint has opened. Flush boards have no clapboard shadow lines to hide lap marks or sanding scars, so they need careful sanding and a steady wet edge.

The same survey names turned porch posts and patterned gable shingles as markers of the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival style among the modest 1870s–1890s houses built along South, Crescent, Summer, Auburn and Plymouth Streets. Each course of a fancy-cut shingle has a bottom edge that needs paint worked into it by brush, and turned posts collect thick layers in every groove. In Stanley, around the National Register-listed Bridgewater Iron Works site, the survey found Federal houses on Main, Wall and High Streets as well.

Historic district review

The town's Historic District Committee decides whether exterior architectural features in the historic district are appropriate, and covered work needs a certificate of appropriateness. Exactly which painting projects are covered is spelled out in the committee's rules, so if your house is in the district, contact the committee before choosing colors or replacing trim. Its page links to Historic New England's Historic Colors of America as a recommended palette, a useful reference for period houses anywhere in town.

Scraping safely on pre-1978 siding

Census estimates put 44.6% of local homes before 1980. A house built before 1978 may hold lead paint in its lower layers even after several newer coats. Once paid work disturbs more than 20 square feet of exterior paint, lead-safe practices apply: plastic sheeting on the ground, misting to keep dust down, no open-flame burning, no power sanding without a HEPA shroud, and a daily cleanup that leaves no chips in garden beds. The lead-safe painting page has the details.

When the weather allows

Exterior paints need surface and air temperatures above a product-specific minimum, often 35 to 50°F, along with dry wood and several rain-free hours after application. Around here that generally means late spring through early fall, with shoulder-season days workable once the dew has burned off. Starting each wall after the sun has moved off it reduces blistering and lap marks.

If the deck is due as well, it is stained after the body and trim are finished; see deck staining. The Titicut and Scotland neighborhood pages cover those parts of town.