The oldest houses in the county need the most patient prep.

Victorian trim, bayou cottages and block ranches

Tarpon Springs is the north end of the county and the oldest town in it. Around Spring Bayou and the historic district the houses are Victorian and craftsman frame homes from the 1880s onward, with turned porch posts, gingerbread trim, wood siding and deep porches. Further out it turns into the same block ranch homes as the rest of Pinellas.

A frame house with a century of paint on it is a scraping job before it is a painting job. Loose paint comes off, bare wood gets primed, every seam gets caulked and every nail head gets set. Anything soft gets replaced. It is hours of prep per elevation, and skipping it is why old siding peels again in two years.

The trim on these houses is the point. Gingerbread, brackets, porch rails and casings get brushed rather than sprayed so the profiles stay crisp, and the colors get chosen to make the detail read from the street rather than disappear into the wall.

• A century of loose paint scraped, bare wood primed, seams caulked
• Soft trim, brackets and porch boards replaced first
• Historic district rules checked before trim work starts
• Salt rinsed off homes near the river and the bayou
• Trim brushed by hand so the profiles stay sharp

The river, the bayou and the salt

The sponge docks sit on the Anclote River a short way from the Gulf, and Spring Bayou opens onto it. Houses near either one take salt on the wind and humidity off the water year round. Salt settles on the siding and dew pulls it in, and it goes after the coating and after every hinge and nail on the house.

So the wash near the water rinses salt out of the surface, and the metal gets handled before the walls. On a frame house that means checking every nail head, because a rusting nail bleeds a brown streak through fresh paint within a season.

The shade around the bayou keeps the north side of every house damp, and mildew grows on wood as happily as on stucco. It gets killed with a cleaner at low pressure, never blasted, because high pressure drives water into old wood siding and raises the grain.

Historic rules, and what is worth keeping

Parts of Tarpon Springs are designated historic, and the rules care about the outside of the house. Paint color alone usually does not need a review, but replacing siding, trim or porch parts can. We ask before touching anything that might, and it is worth a call to the city before that work begins.

A lot of the wood on these houses is worth refinishing rather than painting over. A heart pine front door, a stair rail, a porch ceiling. Wood floors are not our trade and we say so. Wood staining and varnishing are on our profile, and this is the town where it comes up most.

Inside, plaster and old drywall have moved for a century. Cracks get opened and retaped, holes get patched and textured, and stains get a primer that blocks them. Drywall contractor is on our profile next to painting for exactly this kind of house.

Getting a price in Tarpon Springs

Call (586) 201-9682 or send the form. On a frame house, photos of the siding and trim up close show us how much scraping is ahead and let us give a real number. The estimate is free and written, and it separates the prep from the paint so you can see where the hours go.