Measured after dark
The studio, in figures
Services
The evening index
01
The dusk re-side — $9.30–11.80 / sq ft
Fiber-cement lap or panel, 5/16″, blind-nailed, ColorPlus factory finish chosen under your own streetlight at an evening consult. Tear-off, wrap, flashings and the sweep are inside the number — the quote is the quote, and it is fixed before the first board crosses the threshold.
02
Vertical & batten elevations — from $8.85 / sq ft
Panel field with batten over the seams, vented gable panels, cement corner boards to carry the lines. The profile that photographs best at dusk and the one the Goswick flats keep asking for by name.
03
The quiet-wall package — from $11.90 / sq ft
Insulation-backed panel, R-3 to R-5 continuous at the face of the stud, on its own engineered track. For the wall that faces the bus lane: less echo in, less weather out, one pass. Quoted where the street earns it and subtracted where it does not.
04
Trim, soffit & fascia — $10–15 / lin ft
Cement casings and corners with sealed 3/16″ joints, ventilated soffit runs, aluminum-wrapped fascia. The millwork is what makes a re-side read built instead of re-skinned, measured to the linear foot, never eyeballed.
Evening consults Tuesday through Saturday, on your curb · the spring calendar darkens fast · (555) 043-7902 · dusk@nocturneexterior.example
How it goes
From curb to night walk
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
The first evening
The curb consult
Corner samples on your own wall, read as the light goes down and again under the streetlight. The fixed quote is issued to the measured square foot before we leave the curb, and the ColorPlus code is chosen the same night or not at all.
Week 1
The order & the planks
Order placed direct to the distributor against your code, scaffolding delivered on planks over the beds, plantings photographed before the first ladder goes up. Lead time in writing: three to four weeks, told straight.
Weeks 2–3
Close-in & hang
Tear-off to sheathing, repairs priced ahead, wrap and flashings on, then the hang: blind-nailed on gauge, 10 mm battens, butt joints left at 3/16″ and sealed. The house is watertight every night of the job.
Final week
The night walk
The final inspection happens at dusk, together — because that is when you will see the wall. Magnet sweep, touch-up kit, both warranties registered, and the porch light gets aimed at the finish, not the door bell.
Every contractor brought the same fan deck at noon. Nocturne came at seven with two corner samples and a streetlight, and the charcoal I had been talked out of twice was obviously right the moment dusk hit it. The wall went up in the color I actually live with, and the whole street has a theory about where the light went.
Before the first evening
Asked under the streetlight
The five every dusk consult reaches by the second streetlamp. If yours is not here, the studio line at the bottom of the page runs Tuesdays through Saturdays, park-side.
Is choosing a color at dusk a gimmick?
It is the opposite: it is the only honest light for a wall you see at seven. Noon sun flatters every sample equally and hides what saturation does under mixed light. If your wall faces east and you leave for work at dawn, we will read it at dawn instead — the consult follows your hour, not ours.
ColorPlus or sprayed on site?
Factory finish for anything the streetlight touches: four baked coats hold saturation after dark where site paint reads flat and chalky. Site spray earns its wider deck on sheltered walls two rows back from the avenue. We price both to the square foot and let the exposure decide.
What is the quiet-wall package?
Insulation-backed panel: a continuous R-3 to R-5 foam core laminated to cement board, fastened on its own track so the foam never carries the board. On a bus-lane elevation it drops the echo and the draft in one pass; on a sheltered row it is money spent on nothing, and we say so.
How do you handle a walk-up with no yard?
Planks over everything, tarps under every tear, scaffolding tied to the building and nothing leaned, and the dumpster sits in the loading zone on a permit we pull. The city is our landlord on these jobs and we treat it like one.
How long is the flat open?
A wall at a time, closed in the same day — the wrap goes onto bare sheathing before the finish siding starts, so the weather has to beat the tape, not the boards. A typical Goswick walk-up runs two to three weeks with storm days printed into the calendar as buffer.
Photographed at the walk, after dark
The night gallery
Six elevations from Odile Park to Ferrier Row, shot in the light they were chosen in. Factory finishes hold after dark what site paint has to be talked into.
The light-it-first guarantee
If the finish reads wrong in your own light within thirty days of the walk, we re-finish the elevation in any ColorPlus color the catalog runs — labor ours, board the manufacturer’s, argument ours. In seven years it has been invoked twice, and both times the second color was the one we quietly expected.
Why the consult is the product
One evening, then the wall
The envelope is the same on every job — wrapped, flashed, rain-screened, blind-nailed, warranted five and thirty. The decision that varies is the one you look at, and that one deserves your own hour instead of a rep’s floodlight. The consult is free, the evening is yours, and the quote is fixed before the samples go back in the van.
They re-aimed my porch light at the new wall and told me to live with the trim color for a week before the caulk touch-up visit. That was the moment I understood the whole studio: the wall is for after dark, and so is the service.
Third-floor walk-up, no yard, one grumpy co-op board. Planks, permits, tied scaffolding, and a schedule the board signed without a single amendment. The batten field glows at night and the management company has sent us three of our neighbors.
The quiet-wall package took the bus lane from a drum to a murmur. The studio quoted it for the west face only and knocked it off the courtyard side without my asking — a crew that subtracts is a crew you keep.
Book the evening
Address, the hour you are actually home, and the wall that bothers you most. The consult is free, it happens on your curb in your light, and the quote is fixed before the samples go back in the van. dusk@nocturneexterior.example