House Painters in Riverton, NJ

Riverton was laid out in 1851 by Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan for a group of ten Philadelphians, and it is often called one of the first fully planned residential subdivisions in the country. It began as a summer retreat on the Delaware, reached by steamboat, and was incorporated as a borough from part of Cinnaminson in 1893. It is less than a square mile, and nearly a third of that is water. The borough still has its sidewalks, gas lamps and Victorian houses, and the Riverton Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1999, includes 371 contributing buildings across about eighty acres. Out on its pier in the river stands the Stick-style clubhouse of the Riverton Yacht Club, founded in 1880. Borough Ordinance 10-2025, in the copy we read, says no Certificate of Appropriateness is needed to repaint already-painted surfaces in any color, but masonry and materials not intended to be painted are not exempted, and other exterior changes visible from the public way need one. A free estimate here is mostly a conversation about what the house is and what it needs.

Victorian and early-twentieth-century houses have a lot of exterior detail: deep cornices, brackets, porch posts and spindles, wood windows, and clapboard or shingle walls carrying a century of paint. The houses nearest the river also get damp air off the Delaware. On houses like these, preparation is most of the job. We scrape back to sound paint, feather the edges so they don't show through, spot-prime bare wood with a primer that lets old wood breathe, and point out rotted pieces instead of hiding them under caulk. We finish with premium Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams exterior systems, and we would rather keep an original profile than strip it to bare wood for a sharper first year.

The Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2020 to 2024 counts about 1,100 homes in Riverton and dates 74 percent to 1939 or earlier and 95 percent to before 1980, and the paint on their trim has been built up layer on layer ever since. Old oil-based paint on trim and doors needs a bonding primer before a modern waterborne finish, or the new coat will peel off the old one, and the scraping and sanding that get it ready are the slow part of the job rather than the painting. The site is left cleaned down at the end of each day rather than the end of the week. Our article on lead paint in older New Jersey homes explains what testing involves if you want to read up on it first. Federal law also applies: the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule requires a certified firm for paid work disturbing more than six square feet of paint in a room, or twenty outside, on pre-1978 housing. NJ Painting Co. is not EPA Lead-Safe Certified, so on a Riverton house that part of the job belongs with a contractor who is, and we say so at the estimate.

Color takes real thought in a town this cohesive. A house in a historic streetscape is seen next to its neighbors, so our free color consultation looks at the block as well as the fan deck, and trim colors often do more of the work than body colors on these houses. Inside, we paint plaster walls and original woodwork, bring staircases and banisters back to a clean finish, and refinish kitchen cabinets in houses where the kitchen was updated decades ago and is due again. We can also price a single room, such as a bedroom or a dining room, with the same prep standard as a whole house. NJ Painting Co. is family-owned, licensed and fully insured, with more than twenty years in the trade. Estimates are free and the work carries a two-year workmanship warranty.