Exterior Painting throughout Randolph, MA.

Randolph's outside walls span more than two centuries. The Randolph Historical Commission's 2013 preservation plan says the oldest surviving houses are late-1700s, 1½-story side-gabled Capes, still found along streets such as Lafayette, Mill, Oak, Orchard, Union and North and South Main. Federal two-story houses followed, then Greek Revival and Italianate homes built during the boot-industry boom of 1840–1872, and Victorian and Queen Anne houses after that.

Those older houses are a minority now. The census counts 14.3% of units as built in 1939 or earlier and puts the median construction year at 1966, and the plan describes the postwar decades as a wave of modest ranches and Capes built on open land and old farms. The trim to prepare varies with the style: an Italianate house may have brackets under the eaves, a Queen Anne may have porch spindles and patterned shingles, and a ranch has long runs of fascia and soffit.

What's under the current paint

The consultants who wrote the preservation plan surveyed the town street by street and found that many historic buildings have been altered or had original materials replaced. For a painter, that means looking before assuming. A 19th-century house may now wear vinyl or aluminum on the walls with original wood only on the trim, while a postwar Cape might still have its first wood clapboards or shingles under several coats.

Wood that has been painted many times can fail as a thick, brittle film: long cracks, curling edges and bare gray wood where the coating has let go. That kind of failure needs scraping back to a sound edge, sanding, spot priming of bare wood and caulking of open joints before any finish coat. Painting over it only adds weight to a layer that is already lifting.

Lead-safe scraping outdoors

In the census, 69.6% of the town's housing units were built before 1980, and federal rules treat painted surfaces on pre-1978 homes as potential lead hazards. When paid work disturbs that paint, the EPA's RRP rule requires a certified firm and lead-safe methods. Outside, that means plastic sheeting on the ground extending out from the wall, closed windows nearby, no open-flame burning or uncontained power sanding, and a careful cleanup of chips at the end of each day.

Garden beds, play areas and a neighbor's driveway close to the property line all matter when setting up containment. Our lead-safe painting page covers the requirements.

Historic houses and town review

Randolph had not adopted a local historic district as of the 2013 preservation plan. A study committee proposed one for part of North Main Street in 2003, the article was withdrawn after opposition, and the 2013 plan recommended trying again. The town's demolition-delay bylaw, as the plan describes it, deals with tearing buildings down, not with paint colors.

Rules can change after a plan is written, so the owner of an older house near the town center may want to check with the Historical Commission before a major exterior change. The plan's leading example of rehabilitation is the 1806 Jonathan Belcher House on North Main Street, then getting a full exterior restoration paid for partly with Community Preservation funds.

Exposure and timing

Randolph sits inland, on what the 1979 state survey calls rocky, glacially shaped uplands with ponds, bogs and swamps. A wall that stays shaded and damp, such as the north side of a house near wet ground or under trees, tends to grow mildew and needs a wash and a mildew treatment before paint.

Exterior paint needs dry surfaces and temperatures above the minimum printed on the can, both while it goes on and overnight while it cures. Our blog post on the best time of year to paint in Massachusetts goes through the seasons. For work inside, see our interior painting page for Randolph.

• Wash and mildew treatment
• Scraping, sanding and spot priming bare wood
• Caulking open joints and around windows
• Two finish coats on siding, trim, doors and shutters