Interior Painting across Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

The housing here covers a wider span of ages than the median build year suggests. Census estimates put that median at 1984, yet 11.9% of homes were standing by 1939 and 15.8% went up in 2010 or later. Old, middle-aged and new houses start from very different surfaces, so the first visit is mostly about finding out what the walls, ceilings and woodwork are made of and what is already on them.

The 1970s account for 18.4% of today's units, the largest single decade in the Census table. Trim and doors in a house that age may carry several layers of earlier finishes, including oil-based enamel, which water-based paint will not grip without a bonding primer.

Lead dust comes first in pre-1978 rooms

Paint applied before 1978 can contain lead, and 44.6% of local units were built before 1980 (the Census groups by decade, so the exact pre-1978 share is a little lower). Sanding, scraping or cutting into that paint indoors releases fine dust that settles on floors and window sills. When paid work disturbs more than six square feet of painted surface in a room, lead-safe renovation rules call for a certified firm, plastic containment, HEPA vacuuming and a cleaning check before the room is reopened. The lead-safe painting page walks through that process.

Windows, doors and stair parts take the most friction, which is why the EPA points to them as common sources of lead dust. A test kit result or an XRF reading from a licensed inspector settles the question before anyone picks up a sander.

Plaster in the older houses

The state's 1981 survey of Bridgewater singled out the town center for a collection of mid-19th-century Italianate houses it called unequalled in the county. It also recorded Federal houses on Main and South Streets and in Stanley, Greek Revival cottages along South, Crescent and Elm Streets, and Queen Anne and Colonial Revival homes around the State College. Houses from those periods were built with plaster walls and ceilings, typically over wood lath.

Hairline cracks over doorways, nail pops where lath has shifted and bulges where the plaster keys have broken are the signs to look for. Hairline cracks can be opened slightly and filled with a setting compound. A bulging section has to be pinned back with plaster washers or cut out and patched before any finish goes on, otherwise the new paint simply outlines the problem. Ceilings get the same inspection, since fresh paint will not hold up a sag.

Some old ceilings still carry calcimine, a chalky coating that flakes under latex. It has to be washed off, or sealed with a primer made for it, before a ceiling paint will stick.

Newer drywall interiors

In houses from the last few decades the issues are flatter and more cosmetic: flat paint that marks easily, tape seams that show under raking light, and dented corner bead in hallways. Moving to eggshell or satin in busy rooms makes walls easier to wipe, and semi-gloss on trim and doors stands up to hands and vacuum bumps. A thin skim coat over a ridged seam before painting removes a flaw that a second coat of paint would only highlight.

Sequencing a whole-house job

Ceilings first, then walls, then trim and doors is the order that keeps drips off finished surfaces. Furniture moves to the center of each room under drop cloths, switch plates come off, and rooms are finished one at a time so the house stays usable. Kitchen cabinets are a separate process with their own primer and cure time; the cabinet painting page explains it. For the older village of Scotland, where the 1981 survey found a nearly intact Federal-period cluster, see the Scotland neighborhood page.