Exterior Painting right here in Hudson, Massachusetts.

Three questions shape an exterior repaint here. Is the house inside the local historic district? Was it built before 1978? And what shape is the wood in under the old paint? The answers decide whether you need a certificate before work starts, which scraping methods are legal, and how long the new coat will last.

More than half of local housing units are detached single-family homes (53.8%), and 23.4% of all units were built in 1939 or earlier. Where an older house still has its wood clapboard and trim, the wood holds paint well, but only when each repaint starts with real surface preparation.

Inside the Silas Felton Historic District

Downtown is a local historic district under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 40C, overseen by a five-member Historic District Commission. Its rules list repainting a structure, or parts of it, among the exterior changes that need a Certificate of Appropriateness when visible from a public street, and the application asks for paint color samples. Ordinary maintenance that does not change color, material or appearance is exempt, so repainting in the existing colors is treated differently from a new scheme.

The commission uses 1870 to 1955 as its guideline period, and roughly 65 buildings in the district were identified as historically significant. The Hudson Historical Society records that a July 4, 1894 fire destroyed more than forty buildings in the heart of the town, and Freedom's Way National Heritage Area notes that much of downtown was rebuilt afterward. If you plan a color change on a house there, submit the samples and wait for approval before scheduling. Our downtown Hudson page has more on the district.

• Same colors, same materials: maintenance, generally exempt
• New body, trim or door color visible from the street: certificate required
• Replacing wood clapboard with vinyl or aluminum: reviewed case by case, not automatically approved

Scraping old siding safely

Sixty percent of the town's units were built before 1980, and exterior siding and trim on houses of that age can carry lead in the bottom layers. The EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule covers paid work that disturbs more than 20 square feet of exterior paint on a pre-1978 home. The rule requires containment so dust and chips stay in the work area, prohibits open-flame burning and power tools without HEPA exhaust control, and ends with a cleanup and verification step. Read how that works on our lead-safe painting page.

A new coat holds only as well as the surface beneath it. Loose and peeling paint comes off, bare wood gets primed the same day, failed caulk at corner boards and window casings is replaced, and soft wood is repaired before it is painted over. Our post on common exterior paint failures in Massachusetts shows what each kind of peeling usually means.

Newer siding and later houses

About 29% of units date from 1970 through 1999, and another 20.8% from 2000 or later. Houses from those decades may be clad in fiber cement, engineered wood or vinyl rather than old wood clapboard, so identify the material before choosing a product. Fiber cement and engineered wood paint well with a quality acrylic. Vinyl can be painted too, but the color must fall within the manufacturer's guidance for light reflectance, because a much darker shade can make the panels absorb heat and warp.

Timing the work

Exterior acrylics need surface and air temperatures above the label minimum through the drying period, plus dry siding. In Massachusetts that generally means late spring through early fall, with shoulder-season days possible when the forecast cooperates. Our article on whether you can paint an exterior in November walks through the limits, and how long exterior paint lasts here helps you plan the next cycle. Wherever the house sits, from Gleasondale to Gospel Hill, look hard at any elevation that stays shaded and damp, because mildew and slow drying show up there first.