Eight Boulder neighborhoods, eight different jobs.

Boulder neighborhood by neighborhood

Mapleton Hill · 80304

Boulder's first fashionable address, laid out in the 1880s on the money that came out of the mines above town.

• The neighborhood sits inside a designated historic district. Exterior color and material changes go to Landmarks review before any work starts, and the review is substantive rather than a rubber stamp.
• Essentially the entire housing stock predates 1978, so the federal lead-safe rule governs how any painted surface gets disturbed, contained and cleaned.
• Queen Anne turrets, dentil molding, bracketed eaves and original double-hung sash. A single facade here can take longer than an entire modern elevation.

Whittier · 80302

The blocks east of Broadway between Pearl and the hill, dense with 1890s cottages and brick two-flats.

• Also a historic district, with the same review requirements and the same century of accumulated coatings to work through.
• Alley access and shared lot lines make containment a real constraint. Masking matters more than equipment here.
• A mix of owner-occupied homes and long-held rentals means two different conversations on the same block.

Newlands · 80304

North Boulder below Wonderland Lake, where 1950s ranches sit beside full scrapes and rebuilds.

• Build years on a single block can span seventy years, so the preparation plan is set house by house rather than street by street.
• Proximity to open space means more airborne dust and seed landing on wet film during spring and late summer.
• Surviving original ranches still carry wood fascia and soffit that reward real scraping and priming over a quick recoat.

Table Mesa · 80305

The large mid-century neighborhood below NCAR, built mostly between 1958 and the mid-1970s.

• Low horizontal rooflines with long uninterrupted fascia runs. The trim linear footage here surprises people.
• Direct foothills exposure means hard afternoon sun plus chinook winds hitting the same west elevations.
• Kitchens of the same vintage generally have solid cabinet boxes, which makes refinishing the highest-return project in the neighborhood.

Martin Acres · 80305

Compact post-war homes south of Baseline, Boulder's most affordable owner-occupied pocket.

• Small footprints mean a complete exterior is often a two or three day project rather than a week.
• Built almost entirely before 1978, so lead-safe practices are assumed from the start.
• A meaningful share is investor-owned, which puts fast durable turnovers alongside full homeowner repaints.

University Hill · 80302

The dense blocks west of campus, where single-family homes became student housing decades ago.

• Turnover work compresses into the weeks between academic leases, and the calendar fills months ahead.
• High-traffic interiors need washable eggshell and satin, not the flat builder paint most of these houses carry.
• Decades of patch-and-repaint have left layered, uneven surfaces that need real preparation to look right.

Chautauqua & Baseline · 80302

The homes along the foothills edge near the park, including some of the most exposed property in the city.

• The most aggressive ultraviolet load and the widest daily temperature swings of any Boulder neighborhood.
• Wildfire-aware material choices matter at this interface, and some properties carry additional review.
• Cedar, heavy timber and stone combinations call for stain systems rather than straight paint.

Wonderland Lake & north Boulder · 80304

The newer north end, where townhomes and contemporary builds meet the open space boundary.

• Townhome and attached product comes with association color standards and shared-wall containment requirements.
• Open-space wind carries dust across these lots more than anywhere else inside the city limits.
• Contemporary elevations with large flat surfaces show application quality unforgivingly, so technique matters.