Lyman and Duncan share a line along the Middle Tyger River, so for us Lyman is next door. SC 292 runs from Duncan up through Lyman toward Inman, and US 29 and I-85 are a few minutes away. If you live here, you are not waiting on an out-of-town crew.
A mill town first
Lyman grew up around a store at a spot called Groce’s Stop. In the 1920s Pacific Mills built the Lyman Printing and Finishing plant and a village of about 375 houses for its workers. Those houses were not the usual saltbox mill houses. They were four, five and six room houses, and the company kept them up until it sold them to the families living in them in 1955. Most of them are still standing. The mill ran until 2005, and a few of its buildings and smokestacks remain near downtown.
That history is why a lot of painting in Lyman is inside older houses.
What a Lyman mill house usually needs
Owners who have fixed up these houses tend to keep what makes them good: heart pine floors, six-panel doors, glass knobs and picture molding. Painting around all of that takes patience. A few things come up again and again in houses this age:
- Trim with a lot of layers. Old trim may have several coats, some oil and some latex. We clean it, scuff glossy spots, prime what needs it, and finish with a paint that levels out well.
- Doors. Six-panel doors look best brushed in the right order, panels first, then rails and stiles. We paint both sides and the jamb. See doors and garage doors.
- Cracks and old patches. A house that has settled for close to a century has cracks at corners and ceilings. We cut them out, tape where needed, and finish them smooth before primer. That is part of drywall repair.
- Ceilings. A fresh white ceiling does more for a small older room than almost anything else.
Some of these houses have vinyl siding now, which changes the outside job. If yours does, read our page on painting vinyl siding before you decide.
The newer side of Lyman
Lyman is also growing. New homes are going up off Strawberry Jam Road and Ben Hurt Road, and there are homes around Lake Lyman, the reservoir on the Middle Tyger River.
A new house here is usually solid. The common complaint is that the builder’s flat wall paint scuffs and won’t wash, and every room is the same color. Repainting with our Performance level, Sherwin-Williams Duration Home, fixes the first problem. A free color consult with your estimate takes care of the second. See interior painting for how we prep and paint a room.
Pricing and next steps
Every room is measured and priced on its own: its size, the repair it needs, and the paint level you pick. Want the ceiling, baseboards and door casing done too? We price those at the same visit. You get a written price before we start, and how we price explains the rest.