Painting a Lakewood Double: What the North Side Tells You

Lakewood has more century homes per square mile than any city in Ohio, and a huge share of them are doubles — two-family colonials and foursquares built between 1905 and 1930, shoulder to shoulder from Clifton to Madison. They are good houses. They are also the most honest houses we paint, because the lake tells you exactly where the last paint job was cheated. Here is how we read one, and what each part costs.

Start on the north side

Wind and moisture come off Lake Erie from the north and west, and those elevations dry slowest and freeze first. Whatever is failing on a Lakewood house is failing there. Walk that side before the front: if the sills, the bottom rails of the sash, and the lowest courses of siding are sound on the north side, the rest of the house will be easier than it looks. If they are bare, the north side sets the scope and the price for the whole job, because it is where the prep hours live.

Siding: which tier is your double in?

Most Lakewood doubles are one of three things: original wood clapboard, wood clapboard that was wrapped in aluminum in the 1960s or 70s, or cedar shake in the gables over one of the first two. The material matters less than the condition, and the condition decides the tier.

• Aluminum siding, or wood with sound paint: standard tier — wash, prep, two sprayed coats — $281 per 100 square feet
• Wood clapboard peeling to bare wood: restoration tier — full scrape and sand, prime, caulk, two finish coats — $2,700 per 100 square feet
• Whole-house pressure wash before either: $1,500 flat
• A typical Lakewood double runs roughly 2,200 to 2,800 square feet of painted wall. Count the north and west sides separately if they are in worse shape; we price each elevation in its own tier.

Windows: the double-hung wood sash and its storms

A Lakewood double carries a lot of windows — twenty to thirty is normal, and the originals are wood double-hung sash with wood storms and screens. Sound paint means a repaint. Lifting paint, cracked glazing, or bare corners on the storm frames means restoration. Storms and screens come off the house for either.

• Repaint window, one color: $75; two colors (sash and frame different): $150
• Restored window, sash and trim — scrape to sound wood, sand, re-glaze, prime, two brushed coats: $506
• Storm window or screen refinished off the house: $75 per piece, so $225 for the usual two storms and a screen
• Complete restored unit, sash plus three storm pieces: $731

Porches, soffits, and the parts that face the sidewalk

Every Lakewood double has a front porch, usually stacked two high, and it is the part of the house that faces the sidewalk from six feet away. Porch ceilings, columns, rails, and the soffit and fascia line get the same full prep as the windows. Soffit and trim, scraped, primed, and finished in two coats, is $150 per linear foot in two colors or $125 in one, plain or dentil profile. Storm doors are $300 each. Materials are billed at cost on top of every line.

For the owner of a double: price it per unit

If you own a Lakewood double as a rental, the numbers above let you price the exterior on a spreadsheet before we meet: siding square footage by tier, window count by condition, storm pieces, soffit feet, wash. The instant estimator on this site runs the same unit prices in about two minutes. For a walkthrough, or to have us read the north side for you from photos, text 440-382-5701 — most Lakewood estimates are back within 24 hours, and the price will match what you just read.