Libertyville, IL · Lake County
Interior and exterior painting, cabinet refinishing, trim and millwork, cedar and siding, decks and fencing. The washing, scraping, filling and priming are in the scope, not sold back to you later.
The Lake County painting year
Interior work runs every month. Exterior is weather dependent, so the spring slots go first.
Libertyville and all of Lake County
Two painters look at the same house and come back hundreds of dollars apart. The gap is rarely the paint and it is rarely the labour rate. It is what each of them intends to do before the first finish coat goes on.
Washing the surface and letting it dry. Scraping back what is failing and feathering the edges. Spot-priming the bare substrate. Caulking the joints so water cannot get behind the coating. Filling, sanding and masking. That work is most of the hours on any job worth doing, and it is the only thing that decides whether the finish still looks right in year seven.
So we put it in writing. You get the surfaces, the products, the number of coats and the price before anything is booked, which means you can compare quotes on the same basis instead of on a single number at the bottom of a page.
What we do
Walls, ceilings, trim and doors repainted room by room, with the prep and the protection done properly before a brush is opened.
Interior Painting detailsFull exterior repaints with the washing, scraping, priming and caulking that decide how long the finish lasts through an Illinois winter.
Exterior Painting detailsKitchen and bath cabinets stripped back, prepped and sprayed to a hard finish, for a fraction of what replacement costs.
Cabinet Refinishing detailsBaseboards, casings, crown, wainscot, built-ins and stair parts finished to a standard that stands up to close inspection.
Trim & Millwork Painting detailsCedar, LP, fiber cement and aluminum siding cleaned, prepped and coated, including rot repair before the coating goes on.
Cedar & Siding Painting detailsDecks and porches stripped, cleaned, brightened and re-coated so the wood is protected through the winter rather than just darkened.
Deck Staining & Sealing detailsHow it works
We look at the surfaces, not just the rooms. Prep is what the number is built from, so it is what gets measured.
You get the surfaces, the products, the number of coats and the price in writing before anything is booked.
Interior any month. Exterior inside the season, not squeezed into the end of it.
We walk the finished work with you under real light and fix anything on the list before the final invoice.
Text a photo of the room or the elevation and we will scope it, or call and we will walk it through with you.
Service area
We work the whole county. The estate housing along the lake needs a different approach than the newer subdivisions inland, and the century-old frame houses in Waukegan and Libertyville need a third. Same pricing basis everywhere: the surfaces and the prep, not the drive.
Contact
Text a photo of the room or the elevation and we will scope it. For a whole house or an exterior it is worth a walk round, which is free and takes about half an hour.
Questions
By surface area and by the amount of preparation the surfaces need, which is the part that varies most between two houses that look similar. A wall that needs washing, filling, sanding and priming is several times the work of one that needs a coat. You get the scope in writing — surfaces, products, number of coats — so you can compare quotes on the same basis rather than on a single number.
Interior work runs all year, and January through March is the easiest time of year to book. Exterior work is weather dependent and needs surface temperature and dryness within range, so it runs roughly April through October in Lake County. We would rather tell you to wait for spring than put a coat on in November that fails by summer.
A single room is usually a day or two. A whole-house interior runs one to two weeks depending on how much trim and how much prep. A full exterior is typically one to two weeks, and the weather decides more than the crew does. You get a schedule up front, and you are told when it moves.
No. Interior work is done room by room so the house stays livable, and each room is put back at the end of each day rather than at the end of the job. If a kitchen is being refinished you will lose the use of the cabinets for a few days, and we plan that with you rather than around you.
Washing, scraping back failing paint, filling and sanding, spot-priming bare substrate, caulking joints, and masking and covering everything that is not being painted. Prep is not a line item to be trimmed to win a quote — it is the part that decides whether the finish lasts. If a quote you are comparing is much cheaper, this is usually where the difference is.
Two finish coats over a properly prepared and primed surface is standard. A dramatic colour change, a deep colour, or bare substrate may need a primer plus two, and if that is what your job needs it will say so in the written scope rather than appearing as a surprise later.
Professional-grade product from the major manufacturers, matched to the substrate — exterior and interior lines are not interchangeable, and cabinets and trim need harder finishes than walls. The specific products are named in your scope. If you have a preference or an existing colour already on file, we will work to it.
We will talk through sheen, undertone and how a colour behaves in a specific room's light, which is where most colour regret comes from. For a whole-house scheme on a larger property, a designer is worth the money and we work alongside one regularly.
Houses built before 1978 may contain lead-based paint, and disturbing it has to be handled under lead-safe work practices. Across the older housing in Waukegan, Libertyville, Highland Park and Lake Forest this comes up regularly. It is discussed before work starts, not discovered mid-job.
Text a photo of the room or the elevation and we will scope it. Fastest way to a number.
Text a photoCall (224) 944-8652