Painting in Cobb County, from historic Marietta to East Cobb subdivisions

The City of Marietta has five National Register historic districts, including Church-Cherokee Street, Northwest Marietta and Whitlock Avenue, and in 2013 part of Kennesaw Avenue became the city's first locally designated historic district. Church-Cherokee alone holds Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne and Folk Victorian houses, with wood siding, porches and original windows that reward careful scraping and priming.

A few miles east, East Cobb's 1980s and 1990s subdivisions are a different job. Their hardboard siding is reaching the end of its life, and newer infill homes sit among them along the same corridor. There the work is probing for soft panels, resealing joints and repainting, often alongside a kitchen or interior update.

Marietta's historic houses also tend to have porches and original wood windows. Porch floors get a floor enamel rather than wall paint, ceilings and columns are scraped and primed, and windows with cracked glazing are reglazed before they are painted, which is far less disruptive than replacing them and keeps the look the districts protect.