A deck that is greying and splintering does not need a darker stain, it needs the old coating off. Stain sitting on top of failed stain traps moisture in the board, which is what causes the splitting. The process is strip, clean, brighten to an even tone, let it dry properly, then coat. Railings and spindles take longer than the deck floor and are the part most often skipped. In this climate a deck wants attention every two to three years, not every ten.
Scoped in writing before anything is booked, with the surfaces, the products and the number of coats named so you can compare it against anything else you have been quoted.
The Lake County painting year
Interior work runs every month. Exterior is weather dependent, so the spring slots go first.
Prep
Deck finishes fail for one of two reasons: the wood was dirty, or the wood was wet. Both are preventable.
Cleaning. Every deck we finish gets cleaned first. Lake County decks carry mildew in the shaded sections, ground-in dirt in the traffic lanes, and grey oxidised fibre on the exposed boards. Stain applied over any of that sits on top rather than penetrating, and it sheets off within a season.
Stripping. If there is an existing film-forming finish that is peeling, it has to come off. A solid stain or a deck paint that has started lifting cannot be recoated — the new coat is only as attached as the failing coat underneath it.
Brightening. After cleaning or stripping, a brightener neutralises the cleaner and opens the wood grain back up so the stain absorbs evenly. It is a step that gets skipped constantly and it is why some decks come out blotchy.
Drying time is the one nobody wants to hear. A cleaned deck needs to be genuinely dry before it takes stain — typically a couple of dry days, more if the weather has been humid. Staining damp wood traps moisture under the finish and it will fail. If we push your deck a few days, that is why.
New pressure-treated lumber needs to weather first. Fresh PT is saturated with treatment chemicals and will not absorb stain. Depending on the season, that is several months. Test it with a few drops of water — if they bead, it is not ready.
Products
The choice here determines how the deck looks, how long it lasts, and what you are committing to for every future recoat.
Transparent and toner. Shows the most grain, gives the least UV protection, and needs recoating most often — typically every year or two in Lake County sun. Best on new, good-looking cedar you want to keep looking like cedar.
Semi-transparent. The middle ground and what most decks around here end up with. Grain still visible, meaningfully better UV protection, and recoating every two to three years. It also wears rather than peels, which means the next recoat is a clean and reapply rather than a strip.
Solid stain. Hides the grain completely, gives the most protection and the most colour choice, and hides an ageing deck's flaws. The catch is that it forms a film, and films eventually peel rather than wear. Once a deck is solid-stained, every future refinish involves dealing with what is there.
Horizontal versus vertical. Deck boards take sun, rain, snow and foot traffic. Railings and skirting take far less. It is normal for boards to need recoating a full cycle before the rails do, and doing only what needs doing is cheaper than blanket recoating.
Timing. Late spring and early autumn are ideal. High summer heat makes stain flash off before it penetrates, and the boards are too hot to work by early afternoon.
Around the county
Deck work in Lake County is compressed into a narrow window and the calendar is the constraint. Late spring and early autumn are the two good stretches, and both fill fast. What varies by location is exposure. Decks on the lakefront through Highland Park, Lake Forest and Lake Bluff take wind-driven moisture and grow mildew in the shaded sections every year. Decks on open subdivision lots through Gurnee, Grayslake, Lindenhurst and Round Lake take full sun and lose their finish to UV rather than moisture. Wooded lots in Long Grove, Wauconda, Island Lake and Lake Zurich sit under canopy, which means constant organic debris, slower drying after rain and mildew as the main enemy. The other Lake County constant is winter: three months of snow banked on horizontal boards is harder on a deck finish than the entire summer is. That is why the boards need recoating on a shorter cycle than the railings do, and doing only what needs doing is cheaper than blanket recoating everything.
How 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.
By town
Towns we serve
Service area
Text a photo of the room or the elevation and we will scope it, or call and we will walk it through with you.
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.
Every two to three years in this climate, sooner on a deck with full sun exposure. Freeze-thaw cycling is hard on horizontal surfaces. Catching it before the old coating fails completely keeps it a re-coat rather than a strip.
Text a photo of the room or the elevation and we will scope it. Fastest way to a number.
Text a photoCall (224) 706-1302