Perkasie, PA

The older housing in the borough carries the full vocabulary: turned porch columns, spindle railings, bracketed cornices, window hoods, and fish-scale shingle in the gable ends.

That detail is the reason these houses are worth what they are worth, and it is also why an exterior here takes longer than a plain-sided ranch of the same square footage. Every bracket, spindle, and shingle edge needs individual scraping, sanding, and spot priming. There is no fast pass that produces a good result on a house like this.

Where the detail has rotted, and on gable shingle and porch spindles some of it always has, the piece gets rebuilt or replaced rather than filled.

This is where Perkasie differs from the suburban townships. A lot of properties here, even inside or near the borough, have a detached garage, a shed, a workshop, or a small barn.

Almost nobody in this market advertises for that work, so it tends to sit undone until it is a real problem. We take it. Wood outbuildings get the same treatment as a house: scrape, sand, spot prime, replace rot, then finish. Metal buildings and metal roofs get rust taken back to sound material, a metal-specific primer, and a coating built for thermal movement, because a metal panel moves far more than wood does. More on the exterior painting page.

Houses this old in a town this old have been papered, repeatedly, and often over plaster that was never properly primed.

That is why a lot of Perkasie interior calls turn into wallpaper removal and wall restoration once the first corner comes up. Layered paper, cracked plaster behind it, and the adhesive that has to be fully washed off before any primer will bond.

It is not bad news. It is a different job than a repaint and it should be quoted as one from the start.

Upper Bucks runs a little colder than the city, and that matters at the ends of the exterior season.

The usable window here is slightly shorter than it is in Philadelphia. Late spring through September is reliable. October gets marginal faster up here, because night temperatures fall below proper cure range earlier, and a coating that never fully hardens before its first freeze does not last.

Booking over the winter for spring work is the way to get the date you want.