Buffalo housing: lake homes, 2000s subdivisions, old town
Buffalo, the Wright County seat, was platted in 1856 on Buffalo Lake, and the blocks around Central Avenue and Sturges Park still have the older houses: wood lap siding, some stucco, plaster inside, trim painted many times. The growth years brought the subdivisions. Copper Creek on the Lake Pulaski side started in the early 2000s and is mostly two-stories. Sundance Ridge sits near downtown with views over Buffalo Lake. Westcliffe is acreage lots between Buffalo Lake, Deer Lake, Goose Lake and Birch Lake. Bella Vista is a newer plat on the southwest side. Those 2000s and 2010s homes are vinyl and LP SmartSide with white trim, open plans and builder-flat interiors. Around the lakes themselves, homes span the 1960s to today, with cedar and hardboard on the older ones and fiber cement on the rebuilds. Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose Schools covers all of it.
Two big lakes and a lot of shoreline
Buffalo Lake is more than 1,500 acres and Lake Pulaski is about 700, and there are smaller lakes inside the city limits, so a lot of Buffalo homes have lake exposure. The water side takes reflected sun and wind; dark trim and stained decks on that side dry out and fade first. The road side is usually under trees and stays damp, so that is where cedar and hardboard peel. Lake ice keeps the shoreline cold later into spring, so we start Buffalo lake homes on the road side in May and save the water side for June onward. The subdivisions away from the water are open and sunny, with wind-driven rain finding caulk joints around windows. Season overall runs roughly May through mid-October, a bit tighter in the shoulder weeks than in the inner suburbs.
Where we have worked and how we get there
We have a finished job in Buffalo you can see: the living room interior in our gallery is a Buffalo house. Beyond that we work across the city, the Lake Pulaski side including Copper Creek, the downtown blocks near Sturges Park and the Wright County Heritage Center, Sundance Ridge, Westcliffe and the acreage around the smaller lakes. There are two ways in from our shop, both about 30 minutes: County Road 92 north to Hwy 55 and west through Rockford, or Hwy 12 west to Montrose and MN-25 north. Because it is a half hour, we plan Buffalo jobs in full days, bring everything the first trip, and schedule interiors in blocks of consecutive days through the winter so the house is not staged for weeks.
Interior painting in Buffalo
Our one photographed Buffalo job is an interior, a living room, and that is a fair picture of what we do here in winter: walls and ceilings in the 2000s two-stories, oak trim to white, sprayed kitchen cabinets, and the plaster and old trim in the houses near downtown. Buffalo is a half hour away and schedules in blocks. Before you book, read How interior painting goes, and what moves the cost.
Exterior painting in Buffalo
Buffalo exteriors split by where the house sits. Lake homes get two scopes, water side and shaded side. The 2000s subdivisions are vinyl and LP that mostly need washing, caulk and color. The older houses downtown are wood and stucco and need real prep. We run Buffalo exteriors from roughly May through mid-October and take the shoreline houses in the driest weeks. See exterior house painting and siding painting.
Where we work in Buffalo
- Lake Pulaski
- Buffalo Lake
- Copper Creek
- Sundance Ridge
- Westcliffe
- Bella Vista
- Downtown Buffalo
Painting services in Buffalo
Questions from BuffaloStraight answers.
Have you actually painted in Buffalo, or is this just a service-area page?
We have. The living room interior in our gallery is a Buffalo home, and we paint in Buffalo regularly: interiors in the 2000s subdivisions, lake homes on Buffalo Lake and Lake Pulaski, and the older houses near downtown. It is about 30 minutes from our shop, so we schedule Buffalo work in full days rather than half days.
Do you paint lake homes on Lake Pulaski and Buffalo Lake?
Yes. Lake homes in Buffalo get the same two-sided treatment as our Lake Minnetonka work: the water side is sun, wind and faded trim, the road side is shade, moisture and peeling. We scope and prep each separately and save the shoreline side for the driest, calmest weeks of the season, usually June onward.
Our Copper Creek house is on its original builder paint. What should we do first?
Inside first, usually. Builder flat scuffs and does not wipe clean, so walls in a washable finish and trim in a harder enamel is the upgrade you feel every day. Outside, LP and vinyl from the early 2000s usually need a wash, fresh caulk at the windows and trim, and a color refresh rather than a full scrape-and-prime job.
Can you paint the older houses near downtown Buffalo?
Yes. The homes around Central Avenue and Sturges Park have wood siding, sometimes stucco, and plaster inside, and they need more prep than the subdivisions: scraping to a sound edge, patching, priming bare wood, and care with older paint that may contain lead. We put those prep hours in the written estimate up front.