Floors, walls, trim and paint in Lansdale

Lansdale exists because of the North Pennsylvania Railroad. The line came through in the 1850s, the town took the name of railroad engineer Philip Lansdale Fox, and the borough incorporated in 1872 on just 269 acres. It has grown to about three square miles and is still a densely built commuter town, with trains at the downtown station, Pennbrook and 9th Street. Two building booms shaped the housing: the population jumped 77 percent between 1920 and 1930 and another 46 percent between 1960 and 1970. So many Lansdale houses are either pre-war singles and twins or houses from the 1960s, and the two need different things.

In the pre-war houses, walls are plaster, and plaster that has moved for a hundred years needs a skim coat before paint or wallpaper will look smooth. We treat that as part of the job, not an extra discovered on day two. Twins share a wall and usually a tight lot, so deliveries and the cutting station are planned around your neighbor's side as well as yours. Original trim is worth keeping where it is sound, and new pieces are matched to it rather than mixed in. The 1960s houses are a different job: eight-foot ceilings, plainer trim, and floors that are often sound underneath but tired on top, which makes them good candidates for LVP or engineered over a checked and leveled subfloor. Most of Lansdale's houses predate 1978, so we confirm the year before any painted surface is disturbed.