Painting lake homes on Buffalo Lake and Lake Pulaski
A lake home in Buffalo has one wall that behaves differently from the other three. The side facing the water sees fog and dew most mornings from spring through fall, so it stays wet hours longer than the street side. That is where we find mildew on the siding and peeling on the bottom courses. The homes on Buffalo Lake are a mix of older cottages that were added onto over the decades, 1970s and 1980s year-round houses with cedar and hardboard, and newer builds with LP SmartSide. Around Lake Pulaski the stock is similar, with more 1990s and 2000s homes on the newer lots. On any of them, we wash the lake wall with a mildewcide, give it an extra drying day, prime every bit of bare wood and use a paint or stain that can handle wet-dry cycling. We schedule the lake side for the driest stretch of the job.
Painting Buffalo's in-town homes and newer subdivisions
Downtown Buffalo is the Wright County seat, and the blocks around it have housing from the late 1800s forward: wood-sided two-stories and bungalows with tall trim, porches and a century of paint. Those need the full prep, scraping to a sound edge, feather-sanding, priming bare wood, caulking, and brushed trim so the millwork keeps its profile. Ringing that core are 1950s through 1970s ramblers and splits with a mix of wood lap, hardboard and early aluminum siding. Farther out along Hwy 55 and Hwy 25 are the 1990s and 2000s subdivisions, mostly two-stories and splits with hardboard, vinyl and first-generation LP siding that is now at the age where the factory finish chalks and the bottom edges lose their paint. Those are the homes we see most on estimates. Hardboard gets a wash, a light sanding where the finish has gone fuzzy, a bonding primer on every bare edge and two coats, and any swollen board we find during prep gets swapped out before primer.
Scheduling a painting job in Buffalo
Buffalo jobs start with a walkthrough, a written estimate and color samples on the house. Lake homes have their own logistics: tight lakeside lots, steep grades to the water, docks and lifts to work around, and a lot of glass on the water side. We set ladders and lifts with the slope in mind, mask the windows and doors on the lake wall, and keep wash water and paint out of the lake. Exterior season in Buffalo runs from roughly May to mid-October, with the lake walls held for the driest days. On those walls we start after the morning dew has dried and stop early enough that the finish sets before evening.
Exterior painting in Buffalo
Between the two lakes and the older downtown, Buffalo is an exterior painting town for us, and the lake wall is where most of the prep hours go. Our exterior painting page covers the wash, scrape, prime and two-coat process and what pushes the cost up on a lake home versus a subdivision house. How an exterior repaint goes, and what moves the cost.
Interior and cabinet painting in Buffalo
Buffalo's lake homes turn inside in winter: knotty pine that someone wants painted white, cabinet enamel on a 1990s oak kitchen, ceilings stained by an old roof leak that we patch, retexture and repaint. The in-town older homes bring plaster patching and brushed trim. We keep a crew on interior and cabinet work from November through April. See interior painting and cabinet and trim enamel.
Neighborhoods we paint in Buffalo
- Downtown Buffalo
- Buffalo Lake
Painting and repair services in Buffalo
Painting
Exteriors and build
Questions we hearCommon painting questions in Buffalo
Do you paint lake homes on Buffalo Lake and Lake Pulaski?
Yes, and they make up a good share of our Buffalo work. The lake-facing wall gets a mildewcide wash, an extra day to dry, primer on any bare wood and a finish that handles wet-dry cycling. We set up for the slope and the dock and keep everything out of the lake. Expect the lake side to take longer than the street side; that is normal.
Can you handle the old wood-sided houses near downtown Buffalo?
Yes. Those homes want the full prep: scraping to a sound edge, sanding the edges flat, a bonding primer on bare wood, caulk at the joints that opened up, and brushed trim so the profiles stay sharp. Older paint may contain lead, and we prep those homes with the containment and cleanup the rule requires. We brush the trim, sash and porch details by hand so the old millwork keeps its profile.
How do you pick paint colors for a house on Buffalo Lake?
We sample on the lake wall, because that is the side people see most and the light there is different. Sun off the water washes colors out, so a body color often needs to be a shade deeper than the chip to read right from the dock, and a bright white trim can glare. We brush two or three samples, and you look at them from the yard and from the water side before we order.