Pimmit Hills · Fairfax County, Virginia
House Painters in Pimmit Hills, VA
Almost every house here started as the same 833-square-foot house. Very few still are. We quote the original and the additions as the different jobs they are.
Based in Falls Church — our own back yard. 5-year written warranty. Licensed & insured in VA · MD · DC
No HOA approval needed
Additions quoted separately
Local — Falls Church based
BBB A+ Rated
5-year written warranty
Pimmit Hills is easy to describe and hard to quote. It is a 1950s subdivision in Fairfax County, wedged between Tysons, McLean and the City of Falls Church, and almost every house here started life as the same house. Very few of them still are.
That is the whole job on this street. You are almost never painting one building. You are painting an original core plus whatever was added to it, and the parts do not behave the same way.
The house that was built, and the house you own
Ground broke here in 1950. The developer put up around 1,650 homes on 663 acres and sold them to returning servicemen for $9,950 with no money down. Most were an identical floor plan: 833 square feet, three small bedrooms, one bathroom. A later run along Olney Road, built in the early to mid 1960s, went up as two-story houses at around 1,750 square feet.
Then seventy years happened.
Schematic, not to scale. Dashed lines are the seams — where two eras of construction meet.
- Core to addition. Different material, different age, different absorbency. The most common place a finish flashes.
- Failed caulk at the join. Where water has usually been getting in unnoticed for years.
- The horizontal seam. Newer siding sitting directly above original 1950s material — the first thing we look at on a two-story addition.
Painting a house that was built in stages
The technical problem specific to Pimmit Hills is not any one substrate. It is the joins.
Why one color can read as two
An addition put on in 2004 and an original wall from 1950 can be painted the same color on the same day and still not match a few years later.
The fix is not a better paint. It is treating the surfaces as different surfaces:
Prime for absorbency, not out of habit
New siding, old siding and bare repairs all drink differently. Priming to even that out is what stops the finish coat flashing at the seam.
Wash and dull the newer section properly
Factory-finished siding is smoother and slicker than a wall that has been painted four times. Paint sticks to it differently and it will show.
Never spot-paint one elevation
Repainting only the addition to tidy it up is the most common way a house ends up visibly two-tone. Break at a corner, not mid-wall.
Quote the parts separately
An 833-square-foot original and a 3,000-square-foot rebuild are not the same job with a different number on the end. We price what is actually there.
What each kind of addition means for the job
| Addition / Area | What to Know |
|---|---|
| Rear Bump-Outs | The most common addition here, and the one with the most trim transitions. The seam is usually where caulk has failed and where water has been getting in unnoticed. |
| Second Stories | Turn a one-story ladder job into a real access job, and often put newer siding directly above original 1950s material. That horizontal seam is the first thing we look at. |
| Front Porches | Almost always painted wood or composite, almost always the most exposed woodwork on the house, and almost always what a buyer looks at first. |
| Garages & Basements | Block, concrete, and often bare or badly coated interior surfaces. These need the right product, not leftover wall paint. |
| Whole-House Rebuilds | Some houses here have been expanded so thoroughly that only the footprint is original. Those get quoted as what they are, not as a Pimmit Hills cottage. |
What a 1950 house has under the paint
The original stock is older than most of what we work on, and it is worth being straight about what that means.
Anything built in 1950 predates the 1978 ban on lead in household paint, so original layers may contain it. That is manageable and it is routine — it is not a reason to panic, and it is covered properly on our locations pages for the older markets. What matters at estimate stage is that nobody starts sanding an original wall before anyone has established what is in it.
- Original wood windows and trim, often still there, often painted shut, and usually worth refinishing rather than replacing if the sashes are sound.
- Thin, hard-worked wall surfaces. Seventy years of patching leaves texture differences a single coat will not hide.
- Crawl space and slab moisture, which shows up as failure low on interior walls in the original section and nowhere else in the house.
No HOA — the color really is your decision
Pimmit Hills has a citizens' association rather than a homeowners association. In its own words it is "a civic organization, not a homeowners association," and its stated purpose is not to impose restrictions.
Architectural review board
Approved color palette
Application before you paint
Waiting on a decision
That is unusual in Fairfax County and it is freeing. It also means nobody is going to stop you making a mistake — which is the argument for large samples on the actual wall, in the actual light. We leave them up for a few days.
When we will tell you not to paint
Teardowns are active here. Builders buy original houses, remove them, and put up something four times the size. If you are within a year of selling to one of them, exterior paint is money you will not get back — and we would rather say so at the estimate than take the job.
Probably not worth it
- You are close to selling to a builder
- The house is going down within a year or two
- You want the exterior done purely to list it as a teardown
Worth doing properly
- You are staying
- You are selling to a family, not a builder
- The coating has failed and the wood underneath is now at risk
That last one is not cosmetic and it does not wait.
Our painting services in Pimmit Hills
Exterior painting
Original walls, additions and the seams between them
Carpentry & pre-painting prep
Trim, sills, fascia and failed caulk joints
Window & door refinishing
Original sashes and painted-shut windows
Interior painting
Walls, ceilings, trim and doors
Drywall & plaster repair
Seventy years of patching
Cabinet painting
Refinishing and refacing
Wallpaper removal
And proper wall preparation
Power washing
Before exterior work
Deck staining & painting
Decks and railings
Where we work in and around Pimmit Hills
The neighborhood runs from Route 7 up toward the Beltway. These are the streets we are asked about most.
Recent Pimmit Hills projects
Real houses, real streets.
200+ 5-Star Reviews on Google
Frequently asked questions
Get a free Pimmit Hills painting estimate
Tell us what has been added to the house and roughly when, and we will come out and walk it with you. Written, itemized, and free.
Additions and original walls quoted separately
Based in Falls Church — this is our own back yard
We will tell you if painting is not worth it
Nearby areas we serve
We work throughout Northern Virginia — see every area we cover.