Floors, walls, trim and paint in Hatboro

Hatboro is one of the oldest towns around and one of the most compact: 1.42 square miles, with York Road as its main street and Pennypack Creek running beneath it through the middle of town. Its first land titles date to 1711, the Union Library Company, founded in 1755, still operates on its original site, and the railroad arrived in 1874. The population jumped after the war, passing 7,300 by 1960. Today the housing runs from older homes near the center to established streets of colonials, Cape Cods and split-levels, plus newer townhomes at Hatboro Station. Lots are smaller and streets narrower than in the townships around it.

Each of those house types asks for something different. Upstairs rooms in a Cape have knee walls and sloped ceilings, so paneling and wallpaper have to be laid out around the slope rather than stopped wherever they run out. Split-levels and raised ranches put a family room at or below grade, where we take a moisture reading before recommending LVP or engineered over solid wood. Post-war colonials usually have eight-foot ceilings and plain trim, which makes a taller baseboard and new casing one of the most visible changes for the money. With smaller lots and narrower streets, we settle deliveries, a staging spot and where the saw goes before the first day, not on it. Most of Hatboro's houses predate 1978, so we confirm the year before any painted surface is disturbed.