Exterior Painting across Burlington, Massachusetts.

Burlington's housing is mostly single-family: the Census counts 7,314 detached houses, or 70.5% of all units. The town master plan explains where they came from. After Route 128 was finished in 1954, subdivisions laid out half-acre lots on curving streets and cul-de-sacs and filled them with ranch houses and split levels. The plan names 20,000 square feet as the predominant residential lot size.

For an exterior painter, that layout is practical. A ranch is a one-story house and a split level is not much taller, and a 20,000-square-foot lot generally leaves space around the walls for ladders and staging. On these houses the harder question is usually the condition of paint and wood that may have been recoated several times since the house was new.

Lead rules start at the clapboards

By Census count, 6,446 homes in town (62.2%) date from before 1980. For any house built before 1978, the EPA's RRP rule requires a certified firm once paid work disturbs more than 20 square feet of exterior paint. On a full repaint, scraping alone can pass that number quickly.

In practice, that means plastic sheeting on the ground to catch chips, no open-flame burning or uncontained power sanding, misting to keep dust down, and a daily cleanup of the yard and beds. It adds time, and it is one reason two quotes for the same house can differ. Our lead-safe painting page covers the steps in detail.

What we check on a walkaround

Every point goes into the written estimate, so you see which repairs are included and which are optional.

• Peeling patterns. Paint lifting in sheets down to bare wood often points to moisture behind the siding or too many stacked coats, not just age.
• Rot at the bottom. Sill boards, lower clapboards, door trim and garage jambs near the ground get splashback and stay wet longest; soft spots are cut out and replaced before priming.
• Fascia and soffits. Gutters that overflow keep fascia boards wet; we look there before anyone climbs a ladder with a brush.
• Additions. The town master plan notes that many owners are expanding ranches and split levels or rebuilding. New siding next to 1960s siding often needs a different primer to take the same color evenly.

Older houses near the Town Common

Before the postwar boom, Burlington was small. The master plan identifies the Town Common and Simonds Park as its historical center, with 18th-, 19th- and early-20th-century wood-frame buildings in a range of styles nearby. Individually listed National Register properties in town include the Francis Wyman House, the Second Parish Meeting House on Lexington Street, and the West and Center schoolhouses on Bedford Street.

A National Register listing does not by itself control a private owner's paint color. Our research did not find a local historic district in Burlington, though the Historical Commission has applied a demolition delay to an 18th-century house before. If your home is one of the early buildings, call the Historical Commission before changing original trim or siding. On these houses we hand-scrape, keep original profiles, and use primers suited to old, dry wood.

Scheduling the outside work

Exterior coatings need dry wood and air and surface temperatures above the minimum on the paint label, so we plan Burlington exteriors for late spring through early fall and watch the forecast for dew and rain. Sides that dry slowly in the morning get painted later in the day.

If your deck is due too, our deck staining in Burlington can follow the house so the stain doesn't get spattered by siding work.