City of New Berlin · Waukesha County, WI
House painting in New Berlin.
Interior, exterior, cabinet and fence painting across the City of New Berlin, where each decade from the 1950s through the 1990s built 13% to 17% of today’s homes. Bonded and insured, with a written workmanship warranty, and done by the owner and his own employees.
- Bonded & insured
- Free, no-pressure estimates
- Written warranty up to 10 years
Request an estimate in New Berlin
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Our services
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Interior painting
Walls, trim, ceilings and whole-home refreshes with clean, low-disruption job sites.
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Kitchen cabinet painting
Degreased, sanded and sprayed for a smooth, hard-wearing kitchen finish.
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Epoxy floor coatings
Cold-tolerant epoxy and polyaspartic coatings for garages and basements.
New Berlin homes
Five decades of houses, in similar numbers
Farming dominated New Berlin’s economy until the 1960s. The Encyclopedia of Milwaukee’s entry on the city names alfalfa and apples among its crops, dates its incorporation as a city to 1959, a move to avoid annexation by Brookfield, and follows the population from 5,334 in 1950 to 26,901 in 1970 and 39,584 in 2010.
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Five years after New Berlin became a city, a dispute over 431 acres annexed to it prompted Muskego’s own incorporation in 1964. The houses arrived the same way, a decade at a time. Of the city’s 17,577 housing units in the Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 American Community Survey, 12.6% were built in the 1950s, 15.9% in the 1960s, 16.6% in the 1970s, 14.6% in the 1980s and 17.2% in the 1990s. Only 7.5% are older than 1950, and the median year built is 1978 (±3 years).
Most of those units are houses: 69.0% are single-family detached and 6.6% single-family attached. Another 23.9% are in buildings of two or more units, and owners live in 76.5% of occupied homes. If you own a condominium, your association may control exterior color and the repaint schedule, so read its rules before you plan the work.
That spread makes for very different repaints within one city. A 1950s house may carry many coats of paint, while a 1990s house may be on its first or second repaint. The older one usually needs the most scraping, sanding and spot-priming where coats have let go. On the newer one the work is more often worn caulk, bare cut ends on trim and faded paint on the sunniest walls. At the estimate we look at which kind of failure your house has before we price the prep.
Age is also the first test of the lead-safe rule below, and that test is 1978, a year the Census bins do not split. The closest they allow is a range: between 42.1% (built before 1970) and 59.4% (built before 1980) of the city’s owner-occupied homes. If you know the year your house was built, add it under Project details in the estimate form.
Helpful at the estimate
- The year the house was built, if known
- Every exterior material: wood, vinyl, brick, stone or stucco
- Whether it is a city landmark or in a historic district
- Any fence you want painted or stained
Homes built before 1978
Lead-safe rules for homes built before 1978
Wisconsin’s Lead-Safe Renovation Rule applies to a home or property built before 1978 when the work will disturb more than 20 square feet of painted surface outside, more than 6 square feet of painted surface per room inside, replace windows, or involve demolition. That work must be done by a certified Lead-Safe Renovator working for a certified lead company. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services publishes a list of certified companies, updated monthly, so you can check any contractor.
Landmarks Commission
Landmarks, historic districts and Arcadian Hills
The city’s Landmarks Commission was created by Common Council ordinance on May 23, 1989. It has nine members, eight appointed by the Mayor and one by the Common Council President. The city lists three historic districts: the Arcadian Hills Residential Historic District, Historic Coffee Street, and the Historic Park at Prospect Hill, the old Yankee settlement that the Commission designated a historic district on November 19, 1991. Its landmark list runs from farmhouses and farmsteads to barns, cemeteries and the Linnie Lac Dam.
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Arcadian Hills is the residential district. Herman and Anna Marks recorded it in September 1934 as the seventh platted subdivision in New Berlin, 25 years before New Berlin became a city, and it was the first there planned with curving roads instead of a grid. Its 16 homes went up between 1937 and 1953 on lots of about an acre, in Ranch, Cape Cod and Minimal Traditional designs, many with attached garages and breezeways. The city notes that their stone, brick, clapboard and stucco exteriors keep a good degree of historic integrity.
Four exterior materials on 16 houses is a fair picture of what a repaint there involves. Clapboard and wood trim are scraped, sanded and spot-primed. Whether to paint stone or brick that has never been painted is a decision to make before the estimate, not during the job. With stucco, the first question is whether it already carries paint.
What landmark or district designation requires before exterior work, we could not confirm. The city publishes its municipal code on eCode360, and when we tried to read it in October 2026 the site asked for a login. The Commission’s own page does not say whether painting needs its review. If your house is in a district or on the landmark list, ask the Department of Community Development at City Hall, 3805 S. Casper Drive, before exterior work is booked, and we will plan the start date around the answer. The city also asks the public to view historic properties, other than the Historic Park, only from the public corridor, because they are private property.
Exterior
Exterior painting between four weather stations
Four NOAA climate-normals stations sit at similar distances from the middle of New Berlin: Brookfield WWTP to the north-northwest, Waukesha WWTP to the west-northwest, Hales Corners / Whitnall Park to the east-southeast and West Allis to the east-northeast. Three of them agree closely. In the 1991–2020 normals, the median last spring night of 36°F or colder falls between May 10 and May 14 at Brookfield, Waukesha and Hales Corners, and the median first fall one on October 2 or 3. West Allis, the most easterly, runs about two weeks longer, from May 8 to October 10. Greenfield, east of the city, sits between Hales Corners and West Allis, and our Greenfield page sets their dates side by side.
NOAA’s nearest published threshold to the 35°F floor on low-temperature exterior paint is 36°F, and standard latex needs 50°F, so June through August is the dependable stretch for a New Berlin exterior, with September next. May and early October can work with the right product and a cooperative forecast. Our season guide sets these stations beside four more.
The prep is the same wherever the house sits. We wash, scrape failing paint back to a firm edge, sand and spot-prime bare wood, and cut out cracked caulk at trim, siding joints, windows and doors before the finish coats go on.
Exterior scope
- Siding, trim, fascia and soffits
- Entry and garage doors
- Fresh caulk at joints, windows and doors
- Wood fences, painted or stained
Fences
Fence rules that shape painting and staining
The city’s 2025 fence guidelines decide where a fence may stand by what it is made of. Fences of materials the city treats as maintenance-free, a list that includes cedar, pressure-treated wood, metal and PVC, may sit on the lot line; a fence of anything else must stand at least two feet inside it. Every fence must have its structural and support side facing away from the neighbors, and every fence must be kept in good repair.
For painting and staining, that usually puts the finished face of a lot-line fence on the neighbor’s side, so coating it means working from their yard. Talk to them before the job is booked. A shared fence on the lot line, finished on both sides and maintained by both owners under a prior agreement, is allowed with a survey; if yours is one, the agreement is the place to settle who paints or stains which side, and when.
No permit is needed for a fence that meets the guidelines. A residential fence needs a permit in two cases: in the front yard above 50 inches and up to 74, with Department of Community Development review and approval, and anywhere above 74 inches, with Plan Commission approval. Repainting or restaining an existing fence is not mentioned. We paint and stain wood fences; the board prep and the choice of finish are in our fence notes.
Permits
Does repainting need a city permit?
The city’s permits page lists the projects that typically need a building, electrical or plumbing permit, from new homes, decks and sheds to furnaces, water heaters and kitchen remodels. Painting is not on the list, and we found no city page that requires a permit for it.
The list does include additions and alterations, interior or exterior, and structural alterations, so a repaint that comes with carpentry is worth a call first: replacing siding boards or rotted trim, for example, or rebuilding parts of a porch. The page asks residents to contact city staff to check whether a specific project needs a permit. Applications go to the Department of Community Development on the second floor of City Hall, and the page says building permit review can take up to 10 business days.
New Berlin painting questions
Do I need a permit to repaint my house in New Berlin?
Painting is not on the city’s list of projects that typically need a building, electrical or plumbing permit, and we found no city page that requires one. The list does include additions, alterations and structural work, so if your repaint comes with carpentry, check with city staff at City Hall (262-786-8610) before work starts.
My house is in Arcadian Hills or on the landmark list. Does a repaint need the Landmarks Commission?
We could not confirm it. The city lists Arcadian Hills as one of its three historic districts, but the Landmarks Commission’s page does not say what review applies to painting, and the municipal code on eCode360 asked for a login when we tried to read it in October 2026. Ask the Department of Community Development before exterior work starts, and tell us what they say so the schedule can follow it.
Can my fence be painted or stained on both sides?
Often only with your neighbor’s help. The city’s fence guidelines let fences of cedar, pressure-treated wood, metal, PVC and other materials it treats as maintenance-free sit on the lot line, require fences of other materials to stand at least two feet inside it, and require the structural side to face your own yard. On a lot-line fence the finished face is on the neighbor’s side, so ask them before the job is booked. A fence that meets the guidelines needs no permit.
How it works
What to expect, from first call to final walkthrough
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Free, no-pressure estimate
An honest look at your home.
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Clear written quote
A straightforward, honest scope.
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Thorough prep
Wash, scrape, sand, repair, caulk, and prime.
Where we work
Waukesha County
- Waukesha
- Brookfield
- Menomonee Falls
- Pewaukee
- Elm Grove
- New Berlin
- Muskego
- Hartland
- Delafield
- Oconomowoc
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from
U.S. Census Bureau (tables B25003, B25024, B25034, B25035, B25036): American Community Survey 2020–2024 housing tables, read October 22, 2026.
Encyclopedia of Milwaukee (University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee): Entry on the city’s history, read October 22, 2026.
City of New Berlin: Landmarks Commission page, read October 22, 2026.
City of New Berlin: Historic districts, read October 22, 2026.
City of New Berlin: Arcadian Hills Residential Historic District, read October 22, 2026.
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City of New Berlin: Historic Park, read October 22, 2026.
City of New Berlin, Department of Community Development: Permits, read October 22, 2026.
City of New Berlin, Department of Community Development, 2025: Fence guidelines (PDF), read October 22, 2026.
City of New Berlin Municipal Code (eCode360): Code home page, which asked for a login, read October 22, 2026.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (stations USC00471062, USC00478937, USC00473391, USC00479046): U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, read October 22, 2026.
U.S. Census Bureau (internal point used for the station directions): 2024 Gazetteer file of Wisconsin places, read October 22, 2026.
Wisconsin Department of Health Services: How to hire a lead-safe contractor, read October 18, 2026.
Census figures are survey estimates with margins of error. City rules change, so check with the office named above before you plan exterior work.
Wisconsin · Google reviews
Tyler Cooper
Great team they have, and great quality of work. Family owned company that gets the job done correctly. :)
Patryk Pogorzelski
Amazing work very professional would definitely hire them again!
Painting in New Berlin, done properly.
Tell us about your project and we’ll call or email to set a time.