Who does exterior painting in Cambridge, MA?
EA Paint & Light Carpentry, Inc. does exterior painting in Cambridge, MA, from Northborough, about 27.2 miles away. The median Cambridge home was built in 1946 and 71% predate 1980, so the preparation drives the price more than the square footage. One insured crew paints and replaces rotted wood on the same written estimate. Call (508) 466-5846.
What Cambridge houses are built out of — and why it changes the price
Cambridge has about 53,948 homes across 6.4 square miles of Middlesex County, and the median one was built in 1946. That makes it a largely post-war city: capes, ranches and early colonials, very often with asbestos-cement shingle or aluminium siding installed over the original wood. 71% of the housing here went up before 1980 and 16% of the buildings are detached single-family homes.
That is not trivia. It decides which products go on the wall, how many hours the preparation takes, and whether the job is governed by the federal lead rule. An estimate for exterior painting that does not start from the age of the house is a guess with a number attached.
Exterior Painting on a post-war house
What is under the siding matters
A great many houses of this age had asbestos-cement shingle or aluminium put over the original clapboard. Both can be painted and neither can be sanded: asbestos cement must not be disturbed, and aluminium needs washing, an etching primer and a coating that will move with it. Knowing which one is on the wall changes the entire specification.
The water table and the bottom course
The rot on a post-war house is almost always in the last 300mm — the water table trim, the bottom course of siding, and the sill behind it, where splash-back and snow have sat against the wall every winter since it was built. It is also the part a low bid quietly leaves out.
Garrison overhangs
The overhanging second storey on a garrison colonial has a soffit and a fascia that take weather from below and drain badly. They are the first thing to go soft on this style and the easiest thing to paint straight over.
Pre-1978, so lead-safe throughout
Contained prep, HEPA extraction, wet sanding, sheeted ground. It is slower and it is what the EPA rule requires on a house of this age.
Free on-site estimate in Cambridge, with the prep itemized rather than assumed.
Lead paint in Cambridge
Roughly 71% of Cambridge's homes predate 1980, so on most jobs here the age of the house decides how the work runs before anything else does. Federal law treats housing built before 1978 as lead-bearing, and disturbing paint in one means contained prep, HEPA extraction and wet methods rather than dry scraping. It is slower and it is not optional. Ask any contractor bidding your job how they intend to handle it — the answer tells you a great deal.
What is included
- Clapboard, cedar shingle and shake siding
- Vinyl and aluminum siding (paintable formulas)
- Trim, corner boards, window casings and sills
- Soffits, fascia, rake boards and frieze
- Front doors, storm doors and shutters
- Porches, columns, railings and ceilings
- Garage doors and overhangs
- Foundation, bulkheads and lattice
How far Cambridge is
Cambridge is about 27.2 miles from Northborough — about an hour out, which is toward the edge of where we work. We come out here for full exteriors, whole-house interiors and carpentry that is worth a crew's week — not for a single bedroom, because the drive would cost you more than the painting. The estimate is still free, and if the job is too small to be worth your money we will say so on the phone.
Written, itemized, fixed price. Nothing discovered in week three.
The rest of what we do in Cambridge
- Interior Painting in Cambridge
- Light Carpentry & Wood Repair in Cambridge
- Cabinet Painting & Refinishing in Cambridge
- Power Washing & Deck Staining in Cambridge
Or see everything on the Cambridge page, and the full exterior painting page for how we work generally.
Exterior Painting in nearby towns
Somerville · Watertown · Medford · Belmont · Arlington · Brookline