Keeping Elmwood's shingle and Colonial Revival houses sound
Elmwood's detached houses, in Brown Shingle, Arts and Crafts and Colonial Revival styles, went up as a streetcar suburb after the 1906 earthquake on tracts first marketed in 1905. That makes the typical job exterior wood: split or loose shingles, painted Colonial Revival trim, and original wood windows and doors, plus small apartment buildings from the 1950s to the 1970s.
The Rialto Cinemas Elmwood marquee on College Avenue. Photo: Sharon Hahn Darlin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
ZIP codes
94705
When the homes were built
1905 onward; apartments 1950s-1970s
Main streets
College Avenue, Ashby Avenue, Claremont Avenue, Russell Street
Landmarks
Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, Alta Bates hospital, Claremont Branch Library
Brown Shingle houses in Elmwood's early tracts are wrapped in wood shingles that have been rained on for more than a century. Shingles split, cup and lift, and gaps at corners let water reach the sheathing. A handyman can pull damaged shingles, slip in new ones staggered with the existing courses and fasten them without splitting their neighbors. New shingles should be stained to blend with the weathered ones rather than painted, which would change the character of the house. More about carpentry, shelves and trim
Original wood windows and front doors
Elmwood's first houses followed the Elmwood Park tract advertised in 1905, and many keep wood windows and paneled front doors from that era. Sash that has been painted shut, broken cords, loose glazing and doors that drag across the threshold are the everyday problems. Freeing and re-cording sash, reglazing, adjusting hinges and planing doors keep original openings working, which on a house in a style defined by its woodwork is usually the right choice. More about door and window repair
Repairs in the 1950s-70s apartment buildings
Toward Southside, Elmwood's small apartment buildings mostly date from the 1950s to the 1970s. Their doors, closet tracks, window hardware and bathroom grout wear out on a different schedule from the fittings of a 1910 house nearby. Owners and managers need these handled between tenants in one visit. A handyman can work through a unit's list of doors, hardware, caulking, patching and fixture swaps in a single trip. More about general handyman repairs
Interior touch-ups on old plaster
The plaster walls inside Elmwood's early-1900s houses have often been painted many times and patched in several materials. Fresh paint over a hairline crack or an old patch shows every flaw. Good interior touch-up work here starts with filling cracks in a compatible compound, spot-priming the patches so they do not flash through, and then cutting in carefully along any original picture rails and trim rather than rolling the paint over them. More about interior painting and touch-ups
How the houses here are built
Detached houses in Brown Shingle, Arts and Crafts and Colonial Revival styles across the old subdivisions, with small apartment buildings, mostly from the 1950s to the 1970s, toward Southside.
Brown Shingle houses are clad in wood shingles traditionally stained or left to weather rather than painted; Colonial Revival houses use painted wood siding and trim. Both are wood-frame with plaster interiors, while the postwar apartment buildings are more likely to be drywall construction.
Elmwood sits on gently rising ground below the hills, where its wood-shingled walls take the brunt of Berkeley's wet winters.
Good to know before a job in Elmwood
The old tracts and Berkeley's first single-family zoning
The original Elmwood Park tract was bounded by Claremont and College avenues and by Prince and Russell streets. Other named subdivisions include Claremont, Berry Bangs, University Villa, Bateman, Parkside and Homeview. Elmwood was the first Berkeley subdivision given single-family residential zoning, and most lots here hold one detached house. For repair work that usually means side yards and shared fences between houses rather than common walls.
Access around College and Ashby
The main commercial strip spreads a block or two in each direction from College and Ashby avenues, with a second small cluster at College Avenue and Derby Street, and Alta Bates hospital sits near Ashby and Telegraph. Blocks next to those shops and the hospital are the busiest for parking. If your house is near either, note a driveway or the nearest quiet side street when booking.
How a request works
Describe the job
A sentence and a photo or two is enough. It takes about a minute.
A local handyman gets in touch
By call or text, to ask what the photos don't show and give you a price.
You decide
Agree a time and price with the handyman directly, or don't. Requesting costs nothing.
Questions from Elmwood homeowners
Should replacement shingles on our Elmwood Brown Shingle house be painted to match?
Generally no. Brown Shingle houses are defined by stained or naturally weathered wood shingles. New shingles are better stained to blend with the old ones. Painting only makes sense if the shingles were already painted long ago, in which case matching the existing paint is the goal.
Is our house inside the original Elmwood Park tract?
The first tract, advertised in 1905, was bounded by Claremont Avenue, College Avenue, Prince Street and Russell Street. Houses in the wider neighborhood sit on neighboring subdivisions such as Claremont, Bateman and Berry Bangs, built in the same post-1906 growth.
Our apartment building near Dwight Way was built in the 1960s. Does it have plaster walls?
Unlikely. Elmwood's apartment buildings are mostly from the 1950s to the 1970s and are likely to have drywall, which is patched with tape and joint compound. The plaster walls belong to the neighborhood's early-1900s houses, and they need a different repair approach.
Can sash windows painted shut decades ago be made to open again?
Usually. The paint seal is cut along the stops, the sash is freed and cleaned, and broken cords are replaced so the window balances again. Cracked glazing putty is renewed at the same time. It keeps the original window, which matters on a house whose style is built around its woodwork.
