Interior Painting for Franklin, MA homeowners.

The Census puts the median year of construction for local housing at 1985, but that middle number hides two very different stocks of rooms. About 13.8% of the town's 13,011 housing units were built in 1939 or earlier, and 41.2% predate 1980. At the other end, 36.8% went up between 1980 and 1999, the period the master plan links to large-scale subdivisions of single-family houses. A bedroom in a Greek Revival house near the Common and a family room in a 1997 subdivision house need different preparation, even if both get the same color.

The sections below walk through what changes from one era to the next: wall surfaces, lead, ceilings and woodwork. The goal is a finish that suits the house, not one approach applied to every room.

Rooms built before 1940

The town's 2025 master plan describes a common ringed by houses from the mid-to-late 1800s and turn-of-the-century neighborhoods radiating out from Downtown. It names Greek Revival, Italianate, High Victorian Gothic, Second Empire and Queen Anne among the styles still standing. Interiors from that period can hold tall baseboards, layered window casings, paneled doors and many coats of earlier paint.

If your walls are plaster, cracks along the ceiling line or around door frames are worth a closer look before any color goes on. Hairline cracks can be filled and primed. Plaster that sounds hollow when tapped, or that moves under light hand pressure, may be pulling away from the lath and should be reattached or repaired first; paint alone will not hold it. Oil-based paint on old trim also needs a bonding primer before a modern water-based finish will stick.

Lead dust in pre-1978 rooms

Federal lead rules apply to homes built before 1978. The Census groups the 1970s into a single bucket, so the closest local figure is the 5,359 units, 41.2% of the total, built before 1980. In any of those houses, sanding a window sill, scraping a door edge or cutting into old plaster can release lead dust, even when the top coat is recent.

Lead-safe interior work means plastic sheeting and containment around the work area, dust-minimizing sanding methods, HEPA vacuuming and a careful wipe-down before the room is reopened. That matters most in houses with young children or a pregnant household member. Our lead-safe painting page explains the Massachusetts requirements in more detail.

Houses from the 1980s and 1990s

The master plan counts more than 5,100 residential structures built in those two decades, most with three or more bedrooms, and Building Commissioner data from the 2013 plan shows 1,774 new single-family homes completed from 1993 through 1999 alone. Those houses are now roughly 27 to 46 years old.

The common issues in drywall houses of that age are different from plaster ones: nail pops in ceilings, settled seams, scuffed flat paint in hallways, and, where the plan includes them, two-story foyers or great rooms that need staging to reach. A tall stairwell wall needs ladders or planks set on the stairs, so it should be measured and planned during the estimate rather than discovered on day one.

• Nail pops reset and spackled, not just painted over
• Seams and corner bead cracks taped or caulked as needed
• Washable finishes for kitchens, mudrooms and kids' rooms
• Ceilings done before walls so drips do not land on new color

Ceilings, trim and doors

Ceilings show every flaw under a raking light from a window, so a flat finish and careful patching serve them best. Trim and doors take the most abuse in any house; a semi-gloss or satin enamel cleans up far better than wall paint. In older homes, the question is whether existing trim was finished in oil, because latex applied straight over oil tends to peel. A simple rubbing-alcohol test on a hidden spot answers that before work begins.

If you are also thinking about the kitchen, our cabinet painting page covers that work separately. Condo owners can find association-specific details on the condo painting page.