Exterior Painting throughout Plainville, MA.

A state survey from 1980 describes the town as rolling upland with sandy to gravelly soil, two large lakes, several smaller ponds, and large areas of bog and marsh, especially toward the east. Those wet stretches matter to an exterior job. A wall that faces a pond or a low, marshy yard stays damp longer after rain and dew, and paint on damp wood blisters and grows mildew sooner than paint on a sunny, well-drained side.

A walk around the house before the estimate shows where that happens, such as a north wall, a side shaded by trees, or the sill and lowest courses just above the foundation. Those spots need the most prep.

Victorian cottages and their trim

The Massachusetts Historical Commission lists side-hall cottages, in Greek Revival, Italianate and some Second Empire styles, among the most widespread house types of 1830 to 1870, and calls side-hall cottages of Victorian Gothic/Queen Anne or plain mid-Victorian design the most widespread type of 1870 to 1915. A small number of Second Empire cottages went up on Bacon Street around 1865 to 1875. On a wood-sided cottage, trim pieces such as corner boards, window casings, brackets and porch posts tend to lose paint first, at the joints.

Bringing them back means scraping loose paint, sanding feathered edges, replacing rotted pieces, priming bare wood, and caulking the seams that open each winter. On a house this old, that hand work can take longer than painting the siding itself.

Lead paint on older siding

About 53% of local housing units predate 1980, the nearest Census cutoff to the 1978 federal lead paint ban. Dry-scraping or power-sanding old exterior paint can scatter chips into garden beds and onto neighboring lots. Contractors who disturb paint on pre-1978 homes must be EPA RRP certified and use practices such as ground sheeting, misting while scraping, and careful cleanup. The details are on our lead-safe painting page.

Houses from the 1970s through the 2000s

The 1970s were the single largest building decade in the Census table, with about 16% of units, and another 38% were built from 1980 to 2009. On a newer house, the painted parts may be limited to trim, fascia, doors, shutters and any wood or fiber-cement siding. With fewer old coats underneath, the prep is often lighter than on a 19th-century cottage, though rot at fascia and sills still needs checking.

Vinyl and aluminum siding can be painted, but the color has to stay within the light-reflectance range the siding maker allows, or the panels can warp in summer sun. Manufactured homes are about 7% of the housing stock, and one with vinyl or metal siding calls for the same check.

Historic review and timing

The only local entry we found on the National Register is Angle Tree Stone, a boundary marker off High Street, not a house. We also found no local historic district under state law Chapter 40C, but confirm current rules with the town before changing an older facade.

Exterior paint needs dry surfaces and air and surface temperatures within the label range through the cure. In this part of Massachusetts that generally means late spring through early fall. Our article on the best time of year to paint goes into the details.