House painting in Delafield.

In the City of Delafield, the American Community Survey (2020–2024) puts the median year built at 1985, give or take five years, across 3,445 housing units. Behind that median, 7.4% of units date from 1939 or earlier and 20.8% from before 1960, while 44.8% were built in 1990 or later. Single-family detached houses make up 58.6% of units and buildings of five or more units 27.2%, and owners live in 61.7% of occupied homes.

The Town is almost all owner-occupied houses: 87.4% of its 3,298 units are single-family detached and 92.3% of its occupied homes are lived in by their owners. Its median year built is 1991 (±3), yet a larger share of its housing than the City’s, 10.8%, dates from 1939 or earlier. Both are small samples with wide margins, so treat the figures as approximate.

At the estimate, that age spread decides the work. On a house from before 1960, much of the exterior time goes into scraping old coats back to a sound edge and priming bare wood. On a house from the 1990s or 2000s, the first questions are the siding material and how the caulk at trim and corners has held. In a condominium, exterior color and repainting may be the association’s decision rather than yours, so read your documents before you plan outside work.

Wisconsin’s lead-safe rules, set out below, turn on 1978, which the Census decades don’t split. The nearest bracket: between 31.1% (built before 1970) and 43.8% (before 1980) of the City’s owner-occupied homes, and between 15.3% and 31.2% of the Town’s.

The City of Delafield’s zoning code says no one may start a use, put up a structure or obtain a building permit without site plan and appearance approval from the Plan Commission (section 52-59). Section 52-60 then lists what is exempt, and two exemptions cover most house painting: single-family dwellings and their permitted accessory structures, and minor exterior alterations, painting named first, that do not alter the color, size, shape, architectural character or illumination of the property.

Outside the downtown district, then, repainting a single-family house needs no appearance approval, and repainting any other building in its existing colors needs none either. A new color on a condominium, apartment or commercial building is different: the painting exemption stops at a color change, and the City’s planning checklists page says its Site Plan Checklist is “required when changing building colors.” The review asks that principal building colors and the accents on trim, fascia and signage be coordinated and harmonious (section 52-62(2)h). If you sit on an association board planning a new scheme, start with the City Planner; Plan Staff meetings, where City departments go through a proposal before it reaches the Plan Commission, are held by appointment on Wednesday mornings.

We found no painting permit in the City’s building code either: section 8-20 requires a permit for erecting, enlarging, altering, moving or demolishing a building, and does not name painting. The same zoning article’s upkeep criteria do ask that buildings be cleaned and painted in a color harmonious with the original design, or repaired, to present a neat appearance, and the building inspector enforces upkeep (section 52-64). Chapter 22 of the City’s code is titled Historic Preservation, but it is marked reserved and holds no rules. The specific color rules are downtown and on the lakeshore, below.

Lakefront lots get one more layer. Under section 52-25, every application to repair, remodel, add to or build a boathouse goes to the City’s Lake Welfare Committee and then to the Plan Commission, which decides, before any building permit is issued. Owners within 300 feet get written notice and a chance to comment. The review weighs architectural design, color and material, fit with the house, the lakeshore setting and, specifically, how the boathouse looks from the lake.

The City’s boathouse checklist (updated August 5, 2024) wants applications at least 28 days before the committee meets, with elevations that identify material type and color, a color photo of the house if the boathouse is being remodeled or built to blend with it, and photos taken from the lake toward the boathouse and the neighbors on both sides. The code doesn’t say whether a repaint alone counts as a repair, so before repainting a boathouse, and above all before a color change, ask the City Planner, and mention it at the estimate so the start date can wait for the answer. On Pewaukee Lake, the Village of Pewaukee writes color into its own condition for a new boathouse in its lakefront overlay: colors consistent with the house on the lot (Pewaukee’s boathouse rule).