Exterior Painting throughout Cambridge, MA.

The Cambridge Historical Commission, set up in 1963, oversees more than 3,100 buildings in two local historic districts (Old Cambridge and Fort Washington), four neighborhood conservation districts (Avon Hill, Half Crown-Marsh, Harvard Square and Mid Cambridge) and individually designated landmarks. Whether the color on your clapboards is anyone else's business depends on which of those lines your lot falls inside, so that question comes before scraping starts.

Outside the districts, color is generally the owner's call, though the Commission notes that some properties under preservation easements also need their paint colors approved. Inside the districts, the rules differ from one to the next, and the differences are worth knowing before choosing colors.

What the districts review

In the Old Cambridge Historic District, which takes in most of Brattle Street, the Common and its surroundings, Berkeley and Follen Streets, and parts of Elmwood Avenue, Craigie Street, Garden Street and Harvard Yard, every exterior change is reviewed whether or not a building permit is needed. The Commission's list names paint color specifically, along with storm windows and gutters. Exterior colors there have to be approved by the Commission.

In the small Fort Washington Historic District, paint is among the publicly visible changes the Commission regulates, and a certificate has to be issued before the work goes ahead. The Half Crown-Marsh conservation district, west of Harvard Square, does not review most repairs or paint colors. In Mid Cambridge, work done in kind, matching what exists exactly, and changes not visible from a public way receive a Certificate of Non-Applicability. The city's pages do not say whether paint color is reviewed in Avon Hill or the Harvard Square district, so owners there should ask Commission staff before committing to a new scheme.

Choosing colors the way the Commission suggests

Even where approval is not required, the Commission's painting guidance is a useful reference. It advises that, with few exceptions, 19th- and early 20th-century houses take a three-color scheme: one color for the body, one for all decorative trim, and a third for sash and doors, meaning only the movable parts of windows and doors. Giving the sash its own color changes how a facade reads from the street.

Any Cambridge owner can book a one-hour on-site color consultation with Commission staff, which includes a follow-up letter and a later look at paint samples on the house. It is free for properties where color approval is required and $100 for everyone else.

Two-families, triple-deckers and wood siding

A Commission staff memo citing its Northwest Cambridge survey counts more than a thousand two-family houses built in North and West Cambridge between 1885 and 1935. Around the Huron Avenue streetcar line, the turn-of-the-century stock is Queen Anne two-families and Colonial Revival triple-deckers. When a building of that type rises several stories of clapboard or shingle, with porches and plenty of trim per wall, staging and ladder access drive the schedule as much as square footage does.

Wood shingles and clapboards are scraped to sound paint, bare wood is spot-primed, open joints are caulked, and then two finish coats go on. Where siding is shingle, the choice between solid stain and paint depends on what is already on the wall: stain cannot soak into shingles that have been painted, so going back to stain means removing the paint first.

• Clapboard and shingle siding, trim, sash and doors
• Porch ceilings, columns, rails and floors
• Spot priming and caulking at joints and window heads
• Three-color schemes laid out before work begins

Lead, permits and timing

Census estimates show 67.9% of Cambridge homes built before 1980. On a pre-1978 house, scraping more than 20 square feet of exterior paint brings in the EPA's lead-safe work rules: ground sheeting, containment of chips and debris, and cleanup of the yard and neighboring surfaces. In dense blocks with houses close together, that containment protects the house next door as well. Our lead-safe painting page has the details.

Cambridge limits construction noise audible 50 feet from the lot line to 7 a.m.–6 p.m. on weekdays, with a 9 a.m. start on Saturdays, which matters for power washing and sanders. Exterior paint needs dry wood and mild temperatures, so the season matters too; read the best time of year to paint in Massachusetts and whether November painting can work. Homes near Harvard Square, in West Cambridge, Mid Cambridge and beyond can be seen on a free site visit.