Interior Painting throughout North Attleborough, MA.

Inside a house, the wall surface decides the prep. Plaster cracks along lath lines and around door frames; drywall shows nail pops, tape seams and dents. Paint will not hide either one, and a satin or eggshell sheen makes flaws more visible than flat paint does.

The town's housing stock spreads across many decades. Census figures put 2,720 units in the 1939-or-earlier group, 1,586 in the 1950s, 1,733 in the 1970s and 2,382 in the 1980s, the largest single decade in the table. A room in an 1890s house and a room in a 1985 colonial are two different jobs, even when the color is the same.

Plaster walls in the oldest houses

The High, Church and Gould Streets district holds mid-to-late 19th-century houses built for businessmen and professionals, many tied to the jewelry industry, in Greek Revival and Queen Anne styles. The Cottage–Freeman district was built up from about 1890 as housing for jewelry workers. Houses of those eras that still have original walls may have plaster on wood lath.

Hairline cracks in plaster can be opened, filled and taped; loose areas that move when pressed need re-attaching with plaster washers or patching before paint. Calcimine or distemper coats, which some old ceilings still carry, wash off when wet and must be removed or sealed before modern paint will stick.

Lead dust indoors

Sale of lead-based paint for homes was banned federally in 1978, according to the EPA, and 57.2% of the town's units date from before 1980. Indoors the risk is dust: sanding a window sash, scraping a stair rail or opening a painted-shut window can release it onto floors where children crawl.

On pre-1978 trim, the work area is sealed with plastic, sanding is done wet or with HEPA dust extraction, and cleanup includes HEPA vacuuming and wet wiping. The details are on our lead-safe painting page.

Ceilings, trim and doors

Ceilings are painted first, with a flat finish that hides roller marks and minor waves. Water stains need a stain-blocking primer, or they bleed through; if the stain came from an ice dam, the leak should be fixed first, as our post on ceiling stains after ice-dam leaks explains.

Trim gets semi-gloss or satin enamel for wear. If the existing trim paint is oil-based, a bonding primer goes on before water-based enamel. Doors are best done flat on sawhorses or in place with the hardware removed rather than taped.

Renters, landlords and multi-unit buildings

Renters occupy 27.9% of the town's occupied homes, and 16.1% of units sit in buildings with two to four units. The EPA says landlords of pre-1978 rental housing must comply with its lead-safe renovation rule when work disturbs painted surfaces. Turnover painting between tenants is a good time to deal with failing window paint and scuffed hallways.

If you're preparing rooms yourself before we arrive, our guide on preparing your home for an interior paint job lists what to move and what to leave.