Fencing is a volume job, and the two things that go wrong are coating only the visible side and staining new cedar too early. New pressure-treated and cedar fencing needs to weather before it will take stain properly, and putting a coat on too soon means it sits on the surface and sheds. We spray and back-brush so the stain is actually worked into the grain rather than laid across it. On the larger lots out toward Wadsworth and Old Mill Creek these runs get long, and pricing is by linear foot rather than by the day.
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
Fence finishes fail the same way deck finishes do, and for the same two reasons: dirty wood or wet wood.
New pressure-treated fencing has to weather first. This is the mistake we get called to fix most. Fresh PT is saturated with treatment and will not absorb stain — the finish sits on top and sheets off within months. Depending on when it went up, that wait is several months. Test it: sprinkle water on a rail. If it beads, it is not ready. If it soaks in, it is.
Cleaning. Fences collect more than decks do — mildew on the shaded side, dirt splashed up from the ground, and grey oxidised fibre on the sun-facing side. All of it has to come off first, at low pressure so the soft fibre is not torn out.
Drying. A cleaned fence needs genuinely dry wood before stain. A couple of dry days minimum, more in a humid Lake County stretch.
Repairs first. Loose pickets, popped fasteners and rotted post bases get dealt with before finishing. Staining a failing board is money spent on something coming out next year.
Both sides is a decision. Staining the neighbour's side is often worth doing for longevity and it doubles the surface area. Sometimes it needs a conversation with the neighbour first.
Products
A fence takes more abuse than almost anything else on a property. Sun on one side, ground moisture at the base, snow banked against it for three months, and no roof over any of it.
Penetrating semi-transparent stain is the right default. It soaks into the wood rather than forming a film, so as it ages it wears thin rather than peeling. That matters enormously on a fence, because recoating a worn fence is a clean and reapply, while recoating a peeling one means stripping hundreds of linear feet.
Solid stain gives more colour and more UV protection, and it is a reasonable choice on a fence that has already weathered unevenly and will not look good semi-transparent. It does eventually peel.
Avoid film-forming deck paint on a fence. Water gets behind it at every picket edge and end grain, and it fails from the edges inward.
End grain and post bases are where it starts. The cut top of a picket and the base of a post at ground level absorb far more water than the faces do. Those spots deserve extra attention and they are the first place a cheap job shows.
Expect two to four years from a good semi-transparent on a Lake County fence — sooner on the south-facing run, longer on the shaded one.
Around the county
Fences take the same Lake County weather a deck does, without any of the shelter. What changes by location is mostly what the fence is doing. The larger lots out toward Wadsworth, Antioch, Lake Villa and Wauconda run long stretches of fencing, often several hundred linear feet, where the per-foot price and whether both sides get done matter far more than on a small yard. Subdivision fencing through Gurnee, Round Lake Beach, Lindenhurst and Grayslake is mostly shorter runs of pressure-treated pine between neighbours, and the new-fence waiting period question comes up constantly because so much of it went up recently. Older neighbourhoods in Libertyville, Mundelein and Highland Park have more cedar and more decorative fencing, which is worth finishing properly rather than letting weather grey. Everywhere in the county, the same two spots fail first: the cut top of each picket and the base of each post at ground level, because end grain and ground contact absorb far more water than the faces do.
Fence quotes vary more than they should, and it is usually because they are describing different work.
Linear feet, measured. Fence pricing is per linear foot or per square foot of surface. If nobody measured, the number is a guess. Walk it with a wheel or a tape.
One side or two. This doubles the surface area and it is the single biggest swing in a fence quote. Confirm which you are being quoted.
Height. A six-foot privacy fence is twice the surface of a three-foot picket run at the same length.
Style. A solid privacy panel is straightforward. A picket fence has two faces plus two edges on every picket plus the end grain on top, and it takes far longer per foot than the linear measurement suggests.
Is cleaning included? A fence that has not been finished in years needs washing and often brightening first. A quote that is only for stain application on a dirty fence is a job that will fail.
Are repairs included or flagged? Loose pickets and rotted post bases should be identified before work starts.
What product, how many coats. Named in writing, so you can compare it against another quote on something other than the bottom line.
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.
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.
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