House Painters in Manville, NJ

Manville is a Somerset County borough of about two and a half square miles. Until 1929 it was part of Hillsborough Township; that year a referendum created a separate borough, named for the Johns-Manville Corporation, whose plant drew homes and shops to the land around it. Almost all of Manville uses ZIP code 08835, with a small corner in 08844. The Millstone and Raritan rivers meet at the borough's northeastern edge, and the eastern section known as the Lost Valley sits on the floodplain between them, reached from the rest of town only through the Kyle Street tunnel and the Bridge Street bridge.

The housing is mostly mid-century. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2020 to 2024 counts about 4,600 homes in Manville and dates 87 percent of them to before 1980. The 1950s were the busiest decade, at 26 percent, with the 1960s at 18 percent and the 1940s at 16 percent, and another 18 percent were built in 1939 or earlier. Only about 6 percent have gone up since 2000. We found no local historic district or preservation commission in Manville, so the exterior color of a private house is the owner's decision.

Water shapes more Manville jobs than anything else. The National Weather Service sets flood stage on the Raritan at the Manville gauge at 14 feet. Hurricane Floyd crested there at 27.1 feet on September 16, 1999, and the US Geological Survey reports that the provisional peak during Ida in September 2021 went higher still. The state's Blue Acres program has made buyout offers in the borough since. In a house that has taken on water, paint comes last: we check drywall, baseboards and door casings for moisture, point out anything that has stayed wet rather than paint over it, seal water stains with a stain-blocking primer, and use mildew-resistant finishes in basements and lower rooms. Outside, siding and trim near the ground get washed, scraped back to sound paint, spot-primed and caulked before premium Sherwin-Williams or Benjamin Moore exterior coats go on.

With nearly nine homes in ten built before 1980, the federal lead rule comes up on most Manville houses. Under the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, anyone paid to disturb paint in pre-1978 housing must be certified, unless the work stays within six square feet per room inside or twenty square feet outside. NJ Painting Co. is not EPA Lead-Safe Certified. Where a Manville job would scrape or sand more than that, a certified contractor has to do that part, and we will tell you so at the estimate rather than after.

Inside, we repaint living rooms and bedrooms, refinish kitchen cabinets, and coat garage and basement floors in epoxy. NJ Painting Co. is a family-owned company based in Morganville, Monmouth County, and every Manville estimate is free.