Painting the Good Neighbor City: Middleton condos, townhomes and houses

What we do in Middleton

• Refinishing condo and townhome kitchen cabinets in Middleton

  Written for the owner of a condo, a townhome or one half of a duplex. It covers what to ask the association before booking, how meals work while the doors are out being sprayed, how to keep the people through the wall in the loop, and which colors open up a compact kitchen that gets little daylight.

• Painting a Middleton condo or townhome while you live there

  For owners who stay put while their rooms are painted: clearing the building's contractor rules, the order rooms go in so a bed and a couch are always free, getting fresh air into a unit with windows on one side, and why the hallway outside your door is the board's decision.

• Condo and townhome decks, doors and trim in Middleton

  Outdoor wood in a townhome row is partly yours and partly everyone's. This page sorts out who keeps up a balcony or a shared deck, how to match a color from an approved list, painting a single front door in a row, and why decks near Pheasant Branch need a careful cleaning first.

Middleton homes at a glance

Owning one home inside a bigger building

Living in a condo or townhome changes who has a say in a painting project, not how the paint goes on. Wisconsin's condominium statute treats everything outside the units as common elements, so the lobby, the stairs and the corridor carpet belong to the association even though you cross them every day. Inside your own door, the walls, ceilings, trim, interior doors and kitchen cabinets are normally yours to change.

Outside is where ownership blurs. A balcony or deck that only your unit opens onto can be what the statute calls a limited common element: set aside for your use, though not always yours to maintain. Front doors and deck stain often have to come from an approved color list, and the Middleton decks and doors page explains how to read one. Your declaration and the association's written rules answer both questions.

One email to the property manager usually covers the rest: whether the job needs approval or just notice, which hours contractors may work, where a van can park while ladders come in, and whether the elevator needs a reservation. Send that reply along with your request, and George plans the days around it. Some boards also ask to see a contractor's insurance before work begins, and our post on warning signs when hiring a painter lists other things worth checking.

The walls inside your unit are where your freedom is widest, which makes a condo a fine place to try something bolder. Our ideas for an accent wall help choose which wall and which color, and the condo interior painting page covers living at home while the rooms get done.

From Peatville to a city of 1963

Settlers of mostly English descent arrived in the 1840s and called the place Peatville, after the peat dug from its soil. It took the name Middleton in 1848, when it was separated from the town of Madison, and many German settlers followed in the 1850s. The train depot built in 1856 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and now serves as a visitor center.

Middleton became a village in 1905 and a city in 1963. The Census tells the growth story: 2,110 residents in 1950, 4,410 in 1960, 8,246 in 1970 and 21,827 by 2020. Today the city's conservancy system includes the Pheasant Branch Conservancy and the creek corridor, and it keeps about 30 miles of shared-use paths and trails. Its motto, fittingly, is "The Good Neighbor City."

Postwar trim and newer builder finishes

That growth after 1950 still shows in the housing. About 40% of Middleton's homes were built before 1980, yet under 4% predate 1940, so an older house here usually means one from the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s rather than a Victorian. The median home dates from 1986.

Trim in those postwar houses often hides oil-based enamel under its newer coats. Water-based paint won't stick to that for long unless the surface is cleaned, scuff sanded and given a bonding primer first, and decades of quick touch-ups usually need sanding flat along the way.

At the other end are the roughly 33% of homes built in 2000 or later. Condo or house, they tend to have builder flat paint on the walls and a factory finish on the cabinets. Neither is a problem with the right primer. The condo cabinet page applies that to a unit kitchen, and the main cabinet refinishing page lays out how the service works.

Lake Mendota's west shore and the conservancy shade

According to the Wisconsin DNR, Pheasant Branch Creek drains the city of Middleton and Madison's west side, then passes through Pheasant Branch Marsh on its way into Lake Mendota. Yards along the corridor, near the marsh or close to the lake can stay damp after rain, and many sit in shade for part of the day.

The National Park Service's brief on exterior paint problems links mildew to damp, shaded places like north walls and the areas under eaves, and it notes that surfaces facing the sky wear out first. A deck is almost entirely sky-facing. On a shaded deck here, the cleaning that clears mildew matters as much as the stain, and so does waiting for a truly dry stretch.

Outside, we stain and refinish decks and paint entry doors, garage doors, entryways and trim, though not whole-house siding. The decks and exterior page covers that work in more detail.

Other towns we serve

• Madison
• Waunakee
• Verona
• Fitchburg
• Sun Prairie
• DeForest
• Windsor
• McFarland
• Monona
• Cross Plains
• Dane

Helpful guides

• Warning signs to watch for before you hire a painter
• Accent walls: which wall, which color, and when to leave it plain
• How much paint you need for a room, with the math worked out