Everything people ask us, in one place.

Yes, and we’re happy to provide documentation before work starts — you should ask that of anyone you let into your home. That, plus the one-year written warranty stated on your estimate, is what actually protects you if something goes wrong.

Yes — a one-year written warranty on our work, with the terms stated on your estimate before you accept it rather than buried afterwards. If something we did fails within that year, we come back and put it right.

The finishing work is ours. If a job needs a trade we aren’t — a carpenter for structural rot, a plumber behind a water-damaged ceiling — we’ll tell you that rather than attempt it.

The estimate is fixed, itemized and agreed in writing before we start. We’ll set out the payment schedule at that point. There are no hourly surprises and no change to the figure unless you ask for additional work.

Tell us at the final walkthrough, which exists precisely for that. Anything you aren’t satisfied with gets corrected before we invoice. That’s a much easier conversation than one that happens after payment.

It depends on the size and condition of what is being finished, so we don’t publish flat prices — a number quoted sight-unseen is a number that changes later. What we can tell you is that the estimate is free, written, itemized and fixed, so the figure you approve is the figure you pay.

Call or send the form and we’ll get back to you to book a walkthrough. Email us photos as well and we can often give you a useful ballpark before we even visit.

For the walkthrough, yes — we want to look at the surfaces with you and hear what you’re after. Once work starts, plenty of customers give us access and carry on with their day. Whatever you’re comfortable with.

Yes. A single front door or one piece of furniture is a perfectly normal job for us, and it’s often how people try us out before booking something larger.

We are based in Glendale and work across the North Shore — Whitefish Bay, Shorewood, Fox Point, Bayside and Mequon — plus Wauwatosa and greater Milwaukee. Outside that, call and ask.

Both are options and it depends on the door. Spraying in place means your house is never without a front door, and it’s usually right for exterior doors with weatherstripping and multi-point locks. Taking the slab back to our Glendale shop gives us dust-free, temperature-controlled conditions and the best possible finish — we fit a temporary door meanwhile. We’ll tell you at the walkthrough which one suits your situation.

For an in-place spray, most single doors are done within a day, and the door is closable that evening. Full cure takes longer than dry-to-touch — typically several days — during which we ask you to be gentle with it and avoid slamming or sticking anything to the face.

Yes. Bring us a color code, a paint chip, or a photo of something you like and we’ll match it. Dark and highly saturated colors on a sun-facing door are worth a conversation first, because heat absorption affects both the timber and the coating.

Yes, and the preparation matters even more than it does on timber. Both need thorough deglossing and the right bonding primer, or the finish will peel at the edges within a couple of seasons. The spray process itself is the same.

Happy to do those too, and doing them at the same visit is more efficient than booking separately. Garage doors are a larger surface and priced accordingly.

Not if the containment is built properly, which is a large part of what you’re paying for. We mask glass, weatherstripping, hardware, brickwork and adjacent siding before any finish is atomised.

Reckon on about a week with the doors off. Nothing leaves your house — the fronts are sprayed in a booth we set up on site — but you will have open shelving and work going on in the room, and your central air has to be off while we are spraying. How much that gets in your way depends on the kitchen and the household, so we’ll walk you through the schedule at the estimate and you can plan around the days that matter.

Most kitchens don’t. Our standard is Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel, which sprayed properly is genuinely hard-wearing and is what the majority of jobs get. The step above it is Renner Aquaris, a waterborne two-component (2K) catalyzed polyurethane — it cures by chemical reaction rather than by drying, so the film ends up harder and stands up better to knocks and repeated cleaning. Being waterborne, it can be sprayed in a booth inside an occupied house without solvent fumes, which is a large part of why few refinishers offer it. The trade-offs are real: it costs more, and it’s fussier to touch up in a few years’ time. It’s worth it on a kitchen that takes a beating and usually isn’t on one that doesn’t. We’ll quote both and give you a straight recommendation.

Cabinet painting starts at $2,500 for smaller kitchens, and generally lands at a small fraction of replacement — you’re paying for labor and coatings rather than new cabinetry, new countertops and installation. What takes a job above the starting figure is mostly door and drawer count, then how much preparation the existing finish needs. Full detail on what cabinet painting costs in Milwaukee, or get a fixed price from the free walkthrough.

Yes — dark timber to a light painted finish is one of the most common requests, and it transforms a room more than almost anything else. It takes an extra coat or two of primer to block the old tone from bleeding through, which we factor into the estimate.

Not from anything we control. Chipping is usually a bonding failure, and bonding failures come from painting over grease or skipping the degloss, which is exactly why our process spends so long on degreasing and sanding before anything is sprayed. The one cause that isn’t about preparation is everyday hand oils: almost nobody closes a cabinet by the handle, so the oils off your skin build up in the spot you push and work into the finish over the years. Wiping the doors with a mild degreaser two or three times a year prevents it.

No. Refitting your existing handles is included; if you want new ones, this is the ideal moment. If new handles have a different hole spacing we can fill and re-drill, which is far easier while the fronts are off and being finished anyway.

The inside faces of the doors are finished as standard. Finishing the full interior of the boxes is available and is priced separately, since it roughly doubles the surface area involved.

A standard bedroom with walls, ceiling and trim is usually a day to a day and a half depending on how much repair work the walls need. Whole-house repaints in an empty property move considerably faster per room than occupied ones.

No. We move it to the center of the room and wrap it as part of the job. If you’d rather empty the room yourself, that speeds things up and we’ll price accordingly.

We’ll happily talk through sheen, undertone and how a color will behave in a north-facing Milwaukee room in February, which is a different question from how it looks on a chip in a showroom. We recommend sampling on the actual wall before committing.

Modern low-VOC interior paints are the default for occupied homes and are a long way from what people remember. If anyone in the house is particularly sensitive, tell us at the walkthrough and we’ll specify accordingly.

Sometimes, but it’s usually the wrong call. Painting over paper seals the seams and any lifting edges permanently in place, and if the paper later releases it takes the paint with it. We’ll look at what you have and give you a straight answer.

Late spring through early autumn, when temperatures stay reliably within the coating manufacturer’s range overnight as well as during the day. The overnight low matters as much as the daytime high, which is why late-season work needs careful scheduling.

On properly prepared timber with quality coatings, many years — but the honest answer is that it depends heavily on sun exposure and how much bare wood we started with. A south and west-facing elevation will always weather faster than a north one. We’d rather set a realistic expectation than quote a headline number.

We wash appropriately for the substrate. High-pressure washing can drive water behind siding and damage older timber, so the pressure is matched to the material rather than turned up for speed.

We tell you immediately, show you, and give you the options. Small areas of soft timber can often be repaired as part of the job. Structural rot needs a carpenter, and we’d rather hand that over than paint over it.

Decks and fences are their own conversation because horizontal surfaces underfoot wear completely differently from vertical siding. Ask us at the walkthrough and we’ll tell you what will actually last.

Usually yes. Orange peel, knockdown and skip trowel are all matchable with the right technique. Heavy or unusual hand-applied textures are harder, and on some ceilings re-texturing the full surface gives a better result than an invisible-patch attempt. We’ll show you a test sample before committing either way.

Sanding compound produces very fine dust that travels. We seal the work area, cover floors and furnishings, and clean up thoroughly. It’s a real consideration, and part of why we plan the containment before starting rather than during.

Almost always ongoing movement rather than a bad repair. Seasonal humidity swings, foundation settlement and truss uplift all move the structure. The fix depends on the cause — sometimes a flexible detail, sometimes proper taping of a joint that was never taped correctly. Diagnosing it’s the first thing we do.

Yes, once the leak itself is fixed — we aren’t roofers or plumbers. Water-damaged board is removed rather than dried and painted, because the paper facing loses integrity and the stain will bleed through otherwise.

No. A single doorknob hole is a legitimate call-out, and it’s often the thing that has been quietly annoying somebody for years.

Yes, and it’s one of the more transformative things you can do to an older home. It’s also labor-intensive, so we’ll give you a realistic picture of the hours before you commit. Testing a small area first tells us what species is under there and what condition it’s in.

Yes. Tables, dressers, chairs and built-in components are all normal work for us. Loose furniture is the one thing that can go either way — we can finish it at your house in the portable booth, or take it back to the Glendale shop if that suits the piece and the timescale better. Anything fitted, like kitchen doors, stays at your house either way. We’ll agree which at the walkthrough.

We can get close, and often very close, by preparing samples against the existing woodwork. A perfect match to timber that has aged and ambered for decades is genuinely difficult to promise, and we’d rather show you a sample against the original than make a claim.

Very, once fully cured, and considerably more so than a wiped-on oil for surfaces that get handled. Handrails, mantels and tabletops all benefit from a sprayed build. The trade-off is cure time before heavy use.

No — stain does the opposite. It soaks into repairs and filler differently from the surrounding timber, so damage tends to become more visible rather than less. If a piece has significant damage, a solid painted finish is usually the better outcome and we’ll say so.

Usually within a couple of days. The shop is on Good Hope Road, so a Glendale walkthrough costs us ten minutes rather than half a morning — it is the one area where short-notice visits are genuinely easy to fit in.

No. We set up a portable spray booth at your place, so the doors and drawer fronts come off, get sprayed flat in clean air and go back on without ever leaving the property. Reckon on about a week of open shelving, and your central air needs to be off while we are spraying.

Roughly May to October. Exterior coatings need the surface temperature to stay inside the manufacturer’s range overnight as well as during the day, and Wisconsin shoulder seasons drop below that faster than the forecast suggests. We keep exteriors in that window and use the winter for interiors, cabinets and door work.

Plaster, yes. Most of the Bay’s pre-war houses are lath and plaster, which cracks and keys away from the lath in a completely different pattern from drywall. Repairing it means re-establishing a key and building up in coats, not taping a joint — filling a plaster crack with drywall compound is why so many of them come back.

If the timber underneath is worth seeing, we will usually tell you to strip it back. Painting over original oak or fir is quick and very close to permanent: getting to bare wood afterwards costs several times what refinishing it would have. If a previous owner already painted it, that calculation changes, and we will say so.

Yes, and most jobs here are done that way. Sanding original trim makes fine dust, so we seal the room and extract at the source rather than relying on a dust sheet across the doorway. Cabinet doors and removable trim come off and go into a portable spray booth we set up on site, which keeps the messiest part of the process contained rather than spread through the house.

Worth raising at the walkthrough. Shorewood lots are narrow and much of the village restricts overnight on-street parking, so we work out where the van and the ladders go before the first morning rather than discovering it at seven. Usually a driveway or a short daytime stretch of street is all we need.

We start at eight, and we keep the genuinely noisy work — sanding, compressors — to the middle of the day rather than first thing. On a block where the houses sit eight feet apart, that is the difference between a job nobody minds and one everybody remembers.

Regularly. Shorewood has a lot of owner-occupied duplexes, and the two units rarely need the same work at the same time. We can quote and schedule a unit at a time, including fitting the work into a changeover window if the timing is tight.

Often, yes. If the existing clear coat has worn thin but not failed — no black staining, no lifting at the edges — it can be scuffed and re-coated, which is a fraction of the work of a full strip. If moisture has already got underneath and darkened the timber, re-coating seals the problem in, and we will tell you that at the walkthrough rather than afterwards.

Usually a light and airflow problem that the paint gets blamed for. Wooded lots keep whole elevations damp well into the morning, and a film that never dries out fully will grow mildew whatever it cost. We wash, treat and specify a finish with a mildewcide package for those elevations — but we will also point out where cutting planting back does more than any coating can.

That is most of what we do here. Matching means matching sheen and undertone, not just color, and it is the sheen that gives a repair away. We spray sample panels and check them in the actual room before committing, because a match that looks right under shop lights rarely survives north light through a wall of glass.

Usually, yes — and on a Bayside kitchen the sums are often lopsided. Cabinetry from that period tends to be solid timber on a sound carcass, and the large lots here mean long cabinet runs, so replacement quotes climb fast. If the boxes are square, the doors are not delaminating and the layout still works, painting them changes everything you look at for a fraction of the cost. We will tell you at the walkthrough if the boxes are not worth it.

Sooner than the tin suggests, on the exposed elevations only. Wind off the lake carries moisture and grit, and the east and north faces take it constantly while a sheltered elevation on the same house can look fine for twice as long. We would rather quote the exposed sides on a shorter cycle than repaint the whole house on the slowest one.

Yes. Near the water we weight the specification towards flexibility and moisture tolerance rather than the hardest possible film. A coating that stays slightly elastic survives freeze-thaw far better than a brittle one that looks superb for two seasons and then cracks at every joint. The caulking matters as much as the paint does.

Earlier in the season than most people expect. Surface temperatures this close to the lake lag the air temperature by a good margin in spring and fall away faster in autumn, so the usable window is genuinely narrower here than five miles inland. Booking in winter for early summer is not over-planning.

Longer than the painting alone would suggest, because the masking is the job. On a house with extensive millwork, preparation and protection can account for more than half the total hours — which is also why the result looks different from a brush-and-roller repaint.

Yes, with the room sealed and extracted properly. On a large trim package, spraying is what keeps the finish identical from the first door to the last, and at that scale the masking is worth doing once and doing properly. Doors and anything else removable come off and go into the portable booth, which stays on site for the duration.

Usually the sensible way to do it. Most jobs of this size get split so the house stays livable — kitchen and main rooms in one phase, bedrooms and secondary spaces in another. The estimate is itemized by phase, so you can also stop after the first one if you want to.

No. The estimate is for the work; the drive is our problem, not a line on your invoice. What the distance does change is scheduling — we block Tosa jobs into consecutive days rather than dropping in for odd hours, which is better for the finish as well as for the diary.

Frequently, and Tosa is full of it. Layered paint on old fir usually comes back if the profiles are still sharp under the buildup. What kills it is a previous owner having sanded the detail flat. We can strip a small test section at the walkthrough so you can see what is actually under there before you decide.

Yes, and it is worth doing rather than skimming the whole ceiling flat. Matching an original texture is mostly a matter of reading which tool made it and how wet the material was at the time. We work the match up on a board first — a patch that is right in pattern but wrong in depth is more obvious than no patch at all.

Yes, though we schedule it honestly. Milwaukee jobs get booked in consecutive blocks rather than scattered half-days, because crossing the city twice a day comes out of the work rather than out of the drive. If a particular date matters to you, say so at the walkthrough and we will tell you straight whether we can hold it.

Regularly — it is one of the more common jobs in the city. A rented unit usually has to be done inside a fixed changeover window, which makes it a scheduling question more than a painting one. Give us the dates at the walkthrough and the estimate gets built around them.

No, but it is worth mentioning when you call. Alley-only access changes where equipment sits and how far materials get carried, which affects the day rather than the price. A lot of the city’s older housing is built that way and we plan around it as a matter of course.

Usually, yes — fixed joinery is masked and finished in place, and only the removable parts go to the booth. Doors, drawer fronts and loose shelving spray far better flat, so those come off. Anything that was built into the room stays in it.

No. We do not put signage on lawns, and vehicles and equipment can be kept to the drive or the service side of the house. Say so at the walkthrough and it gets planned in rather than negotiated on the day.

It depends far more on the millwork than the square footage. Painted walls move quickly; stripping and refinishing original trim does not, and a house with a lot of it can run several weeks. The estimate breaks those apart so you can see which portion is driving the calendar and decide what to do in this phase.

Take the doors off and look at the boxes. If the carcasses are solid, square and dry, refinishing costs a fraction of replacement and keeps a layout that already works. If the boxes are water-damaged at the sink run or the frames have moved, we will tell you that refinishing is putting a good finish on a bad problem.

Sprayed, they look considerably better than they do brushed — the flat faces are exactly the surface that shows brush marks worst. What spraying cannot do is make a hollow-core door feel solid. If you want the weight, that is a replacement, and then it is worth spraying the new ones before they go on the hinges.

Almost always because the texture was matched by eye rather than by sample, or the patch was flat-finished and then textured over without feathering the compound far enough out. Matching old texture is most of the work and the reason a repair either disappears or announces itself.

Usually a good deal of it. Turned posts, brackets and rail detail are exactly where paint builds up thickest, and taking that back is slow hand work rather than anything a machine does. We will tell you at the walkthrough how much profile is recoverable and how much has genuinely been lost.

Roughly May to October. Exterior coatings need the surface temperature to stay inside the manufacturer’s range overnight as well as during the day, and Wisconsin shoulder seasons drop below that faster than the forecast suggests. We keep exteriors in that window and use the winter for interiors, cabinets and doors.

Mostly on the drive, and we keep the footprint small deliberately. Where there is genuinely no room, spray work moves to a booth pitched inside the house instead. It is worth raising when you call so the plan accounts for it.

We are happy to. Period frame houses usually want a body, trim, sash and accent working together rather than one colour doing everything, and we will put a scheme in front of you at the walkthrough. If your house sits in a district with its own guidance, bring it — it is easier to design to than to correct afterwards.

It depends on what is under the paint and how much profile is left. Where there is good hardwood beneath and the detail is still crisp, stripping and refinishing gives you something you cannot buy. Where the timber is softwood that was always painted, taking it back to sound material and repainting properly is the honest answer. We will tell you which you have.

Earlier than most people expect. The Wisconsin exterior season runs roughly May to October, Cedarburg is at the far end of our travel, and we block those jobs together — so the good weeks fill well in advance. A winter walkthrough for summer work is not too early.

Yes, but it is the grain filling that gets you there, not the paint. Open-grain red oak has to be filled and sanded flat before any colour goes on, or the texture reads through every coat. We will show you the difference at the walkthrough and price both, because plenty of people decide the grain is fine once they see what removing it costs.

Usually because the original coating was a builder-grade flat applied thin over new drywall, which is the cheapest way to make a house look finished on handover day. It marks and it will not wash. A repaint in a proper washable finish behaves completely differently, and on an occupied family house it is worth the step up.

Sometimes, but often the honest answer is that there is very little to paint — vinyl and aluminium are not repaint candidates in the way clapboard is. Where there is painted wood, usually trim, soffits, a front door or a pergola, we are glad to. We will tell you if the job is smaller than you thought.

No, and anyone promising one is selling you something. A door in direct sun and weather off the lake is the hardest-working painted surface on the house. What is achievable is a finish that ages slowly and predictably, and a realistic idea of when it will want attention. We would rather tell you that up front than have you discover it.

Less well than a painted one, generally. Clear finishes have no pigment to block ultraviolet light, so on a sun-exposed elevation they fail earlier and they fail by degrading the wood surface underneath rather than just the film. A stained door on a sheltered elevation is a different and much better proposition.

Not necessarily, and we will say so. If the sheltered elevations are genuinely sound there is a real case for doing the exposed face now and the rest on its own cycle. The trade-off is that a newly finished face beside three older ones can show a colour difference, and we will be straight with you about how visible that is likely to be.

Reckon on about a week of open shelving for a typical refinish, longer on a very large kitchen or where grain filling is involved. The doors and drawer fronts come off and go into a booth set up at the house, the boxes are finished in place, and your central air needs to be off while we are spraying. We will give you the day-by-day at the estimate so you can plan around it.

Usually, though it is layered work rather than one pass — new timber takes stain differently from timber that has aged, so matching means building the colour up rather than finding one that happens to be right. We would rather show you a sample on offcuts of your actual trim than promise a match from a fan deck.

More often here than most places, because the cost of doing a large kitchen twice is what you are really insuring against. On a busy family kitchen with a hard-used island we will usually recommend it. On a formal kitchen that mostly gets looked at, we will tell you to put the money elsewhere.

It can be painted, and on most mid-century trim packages that is the sensible answer — deglossed, primed with a bonding primer that will hold on an old varnish, then sprayed. Stripping only earns its cost where there is hardwood underneath worth showing. We will look at what you actually have before recommending either.

It is usually biological growth rather than paint failure, and it comes off with proper washing. What matters is that it is a symptom — it tells you that wall stays damp, which is worth knowing before you specify a repaint. Painting over it without addressing the wash is how it comes back within a season.

Single rooms are fine. Elm Grove is at the far end of our range so we do try to group work into consecutive days, but a well-defined single room is straightforward to fit into a block. It is worth asking rather than assuming the answer is no.

Nearly always the prep. Painting is a fairly standard number of hours per square foot; scraping, feathering, priming and caulking are not, and that is where estimates diverge. Ask each quote to break out preparation separately — the comparison usually becomes obvious once you can see it.

Inside, quite possibly — original builder finishes are typically applied thin and are not washable, so they mark and stay marked. Outside, often not much, because there may be very little painted surface. We are happy to tell you the job is smaller than you expected.

Usually yes, and at this distance it is the sensible way to do it. Cabinet work needs the booth up for about a week, and running the interior painting alongside it makes far better use of the days than two separate trips. We will sequence it so you are not without the kitchen and the living space at the same time.

Usually not, and the reason is specification rather than age. Builder-grade flat coatings are chosen to cover new drywall cheaply, not to be washed, so on an occupied family house they mark early and stay marked. A repaint in a proper washable finish is a genuine change in how the house behaves, not just a change of colour.

It changes how long a colour will look the way you chose it. Deep saturated shades hold less well under constant ultraviolet, and on an open site every elevation gets more of it. That is not a reason to avoid a colour you want — it is a reason to know what the south face will look like in a few years, and we will tell you honestly.

Germantown is close to the edge of our normal range, and we would rather say that plainly than overpromise. It works well when the job is worth consecutive days — a full interior, a kitchen, an exterior. A single small repair this far out is harder to schedule, and we will tell you if we are not the right call.