Cambridge & Somerville · Since 2009
We fix the wall, then we paint it.
Painting and plaster repair for the older houses of Cambridge and Somerville. If the crack over your parlor door keeps coming back, it is because somebody painted over it instead of repairing it. That is the job we do differently.
Free on-site estimate. Written fixed price within two business days, with the repair work itemized separately from the painting.
- Since 2009in Cambridge & Somerville houses
- Plaster firstwe repair the wall before we paint it
- Lead-safecontainment on every pre-1978 home
- Fixed pricein writing, before anything is opened
Plaster repair and painting, inside and out
The three we are called for most, all done by our own crew. Nothing here goes to a subcontractor, and we do not also do roofs, kitchens or additions.
Plaster repair & skim coating
The reason most Camberville walls look tired is not the paint. Lath-and-plaster cracks along the same lines every winter, and a coat of paint just moves the problem six months down the road.
Interior painting
Walls, ceilings, trim, doors and the stairwell nobody else wants to stage. Rooms come back to you clean, with the furniture where you left it.
Exterior painting
Clapboard, cedar shingle, trim and porches — including the three-deckers most crews would rather not stage. Scraped, primed and caulked before a drop of color goes on.
We also do prep carpentry and rot repair, cabinet refinishing, and porch and deck finishing — all with our own crew.
See all six servicesHouses around here, finished last season
Every one of these was inside a fifteen-minute drive. The timelines are the real ones, including repair and drying days.
Parlor and hallway, 1904 two-family
Trim, portico and shutters
Two-story stairwell and landing
Example projects Illustrative work for a demonstration site — real jobs of this kind, shown with stock photography rather than the contractor's own.
A five-person crew that knows these houses
Ray Doucette started Camberville Paint & Plaster in 2009, after a decade of watching good paint go onto walls nobody had bothered to repair. There are five of us now. We run one or two jobs at a time, which is why we sometimes ask you to wait three weeks, and why the people on your first morning are the people who shake your hand at the end.
Nearly everything we touch was built between 1890 and 1930 and sits within about four miles of Davis Square. We know what the plaster does in February, which sills go first on a west-facing porch, and how to keep the dust out of the rest of a house somebody is living in.
Neighbors, mostly
Nearly all of our work comes from someone down the street who had us in first.
They spent a day and a half on the walls before any paint came out, which I did not expect and which is obviously why the crack over the parlor door has not come back. Ray also talked me out of the more expensive option on the ceilings.
Meredith K. We had three quotes for the outside of our three-decker. Camberville was not the cheapest, but they were the only one who went up and actually looked at the rear sills before pricing it. Two were rotted. Better to know before.
Tom & Aline R.
Example reviews Written for this demonstration to show how a review section reads. They are not real customer reviews, and no rating markup is published to search engines.
Cambridge, Somerville, and a short drive out
We stay close on purpose. A short drive is what makes it possible to come back the same week when something needs a second look, which is the entire point of hiring a local crew.
Most of our work
- Cambridge
- Somerville
Also regularly
- Medford
- Arlington
- Belmont
- Watertown
- Everett
- Charlestown
Just outside this list? Call anyway. If it is a short drive and the house is the kind we are set up for, we will usually come and look.
Want to know what yours would cost?
Half an hour on site and you get a fixed written price, with the repair work itemized separately from the painting. No deposit, no pressure, and no sales visit dressed up as an estimate.