Interior Painting throughout North Reading, MA.

Census estimates put the median year built for housing in North Reading at 1975. That single number hides a wide spread: 10.4% of units date to 1939 or earlier, 43.2% were built between 1950 and 1979, and 8.6% have gone up since 2010. Each of those groups calls for different preparation before a roller touches a wall.

The age of the house tells you three things worth knowing before a project starts: what the walls are made of, whether old paint layers may contain lead, and what kind of trim is waiting to be sanded or caulked.

Plaster in the oldest houses

A 1981 town report from the Massachusetts Historical Commission describes surviving mid-18th-century center-chimney houses, several high-style Georgian houses at the town center and on Elm Street, Federal-era houses at the center, at Harmony Vale and along Park and Elm streets, and Greek Revival side-hall cottages built between 1830 and 1875 that it says survive in good numbers throughout the town.

Walls in houses of those periods are usually plaster over wood lath, sometimes with later skim coats or wallpaper underneath the paint. Plaster that has lost its grip on the lath sounds hollow when tapped and can bulge or crack in long lines. Small cracks get cut out and filled; loose areas may need plaster washers or adhesive reattachment before any finish coat. Painting over wallpaper is possible but rarely the best idea, and our post on painting over wallpaper explains when it works.

Lead dust in rooms painted before 1978

In the Census data, 56.7% of North Reading's housing units were built before 1980. Residential lead paint was banned federally in 1978, so many homes here could have lead somewhere under the current coats, most often on window sashes, sills, door jambs and stair parts that have been scraped and repainted many times.

Massachusetts treats disturbing that paint as regulated work. When sanding or scraping is needed on pre-1978 surfaces, the job calls for containment, dust control and cleanup under EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule. Our lead-safe painting page covers what that looks like in an occupied home, which matters if young children live there or visit.

Mid-century and 1970s interiors

The Census counts 873 units from the 1950s, 827 from the 1960s and 864 from the 1970s, together 43.2% of the town's housing. Depending on the year, walls in those houses may be plaster over gypsum lath or early drywall, and ceilings in some of the later houses were sprayed with a textured finish.

Common problems in these rooms are nail pops, taped seams that show through flat paint, and glossy oil-based trim that a water-based coat won't stick to without sanding and a bonding primer. Textured ceilings from before the 1980s can contain asbestos; testing a sample before scraping or repairing one is the safe step.

Choosing finishes for how a room is used

Our interior paint finish comparison goes through sheen choices room by room. For keeping a house livable during the work, see painting with kids and pets at home.

• Ceilings: a flat ceiling paint hides the small flaws that raking light from windows exposes
• Living rooms and bedrooms: matte or eggshell, in a scrubbable formula if kids or pets are around
• Kitchens and baths: satin or a moisture-resistant product, since steam and grease shorten the life of flat paint
• Trim and doors: semi-gloss or satin enamel; a waterborne alkyd levels out like oil without the long cure

Related work on the same house

Kitchen cabinets are a separate process with their own prep and curing schedule; see cabinet painting in North Reading. For siding, trim and doors outside, see exterior painting in North Reading.