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Doors & Windows Where the Details Live
Doors and windows are the parts of your exterior people see from five feet away, not fifty. We treat them like furniture: hardware off, surfaces leveled, bonding primer on the slick spots, and finish coats that flow out smooth. Free color consultation with every project.
Fine-finish painting for the surfaces you see up close.
A front door repaint is the highest-leverage two hours of painting on a house — and window trim is what makes an exterior look maintained instead of merely painted. These are also the hardest-working finishes you own: doors get grabbed, slammed, and weather-stripped shut against their own paint, while window sashes and sills catch every drop of water that runs down the glass. Painting them is equal parts color decision and wear engineering.
Michigan doubles the degree of difficulty. Steel doors rust at dings and bottom edges where winter salt splash lands; wood doors and sashes swell in humid Augusts and shrink in dry Januarys, cracking brittle finishes at the panel lines; fiberglass fades in the sun. The finishes that survive here are flexible, properly bonded to slick factory coatings, and applied with the patience to let each coat level and cure.
Why Doors and Windows Are Detail Work
Factory-slick surfaces
Fiberglass doors and factory-coated steel are engineered to shed — including paint. Without a bonding primer, a beautiful new color starts chipping around the handle within the year.
Rust at the edges
Steel doors rust where the skin is broken: dings, hinge mortises, and the bottom edge that catches salt spray. Painting over active rust just wraps it; it has to be treated and primed to stop.
Seasonal movement
Wood doors and sashes move with humidity all year. Finishes have to flex at panel lines and joints, and doors painted too thick can literally stick shut against their weatherstripping.
Zero tolerance for sloppy lines
On a wall, a wavering line vanishes at distance. On a front door, glass lite, or sash, every edge is inspected from arm's length — which is why hardware comes off and masking is done properly, not around things.
Pro tip from our crews
Pick your door color with the storm door open AND closed — glass and screen change the perceived shade more than most homeowners expect. (Our free color consultation covers exactly this.)
How We Do It Right
- 1Hardware off, not taped overHandles, knockers, kick plates, and weatherstripping come off or get fully protected before prep starts. Paint ridges around taped hardware are the signature of a rushed job, and they're where the finish starts failing first.
- 2Degrease and de-glossDoors carry more skin oil and grime than any other exterior surface, and factory finishes are glossy by design. We clean thoroughly, then scuff-sand so the primer bonds to the surface instead of sliding on it.
- 3Repair and rust treatmentDents and dings get filled and sanded flush; rust on steel gets cut back and the bare metal primed before it can spread under the new finish. On wood windows, soft sills and brickmould go to our carpenters — painting over rot is not a repair.
- 4Bonding primerSlick fiberglass, factory-coated steel, and any previously troubled surface gets Stix Bonding Primer — the difference between a finish that survives ten thousand grabs of the handle and one that doesn't. Bare wood repairs are primed with Fresh Start.
- 5Finish coats with open timeWe use coatings with enough working time to level out glass-smooth — Aura for statement doors, Regal Select for sashes, frames, and brickmould. Two coats, applied so brush and roller texture flows out rather than drying into the film.
- 6Cure careA door that feels dry isn't cured. We time the work and leave the door ajar as long as conditions allow, so fresh paint doesn't bond to the weatherstripping — the classic cause of a sticking door and a torn finish.
What We Put On It
Every product below links to its full page — real technical specs from the manufacturer, not marketing copy.
Aura© ExteriorRich, deep color and a hard-wearing film — exactly what a statement front door needs.Specs & details →Regal Select© EXTPremium all-rounder for window sashes, brickmould, and door frames.Specs & details →Stix© Bonding PrimerGrips slick fiberglass and factory-finished steel so the color coat stays put around handles and kick zones.Specs & details →
What Drives the Cost
Number of openings
The job scales with count more than size — each door and window carries its own masking, prep, and detail time. Whole-house window packages are more efficient per opening than one-offs.
Divided lites and detail
True divided-light windows and doors with multiple glass panels multiply the edge work. Every muntin is four more paint lines.
Surface condition
A sound factory finish preps fast. Rust remediation, dent filling, or a previous DIY coat that has to be sanded out adds real hours before color goes on.
Color and finish choice
Deep statement-door colors call for premium product and careful coating; a dramatic light-over-dark or dark-over-light change may take an additional coat to cover cleanly.
The Cost & Color Gallery is the fastest way to steal a great front door color — browse real Metro Detroit doors and window packages we've painted, with project costs.
Browse Real Projects & CostsFrequent Questions
Straight answers about doors & windows from the crews who do the work.
Answer
Yes, with the right approach per window type. Vinyl windows take a vinyl-safe formula with some color limitations; wood and aluminum-clad windows paint readily. Casements are the easiest case, while double-hung windows can pick up minor scratches over time where the sashes slide against each other — we'll tell you what to expect for yours at the estimate.
Yes, with the right approach per window type. Vinyl windows take a vinyl-safe formula with some color limitations; wood and aluminum-clad windows paint readily. Casements are the easiest case, while double-hung windows can pick up minor scratches over time where the sashes slide against each other — we'll tell you what to expect for yours at the estimate.
Answer
Plan on the door being open or lightly used for the working day — the coatings we use dry to the touch quickly, but the door should stay cracked until the finish has set enough not to stick to the weatherstripping. We schedule door work for weather that lets it cure properly and walk you through the first days of care.
Plan on the door being open or lightly used for the working day — the coatings we use dry to the touch quickly, but the door should stay cracked until the finish has set enough not to stick to the weatherstripping. We schedule door work for weather that lets it cure properly and walk you through the first days of care.
Answer
Don't pick it from a fan deck in the kitchen. Door color interacts with your siding, brick, roof, and even the storm door — glass and screen shift the perceived shade more than most people expect. Every project includes a free color consultation with Lori, our Certified Color Consultant, and the front door is one of her favorite problems to solve.
Don't pick it from a fan deck in the kitchen. Door color interacts with your siding, brick, roof, and even the storm door — glass and screen shift the perceived shade more than most people expect. Every project includes a free color consultation with Lori, our Certified Color Consultant, and the front door is one of her favorite problems to solve.
Answer
Because fiberglass and factory finishes are too slick for ordinary paint to grip — the coating sits on the surface until a fingernail, key, or dog finds an edge. The fix is proper de-glossing plus a urethane-acrylic bonding primer before color. Prepped that way, the finish holds through years of daily use.
Because fiberglass and factory finishes are too slick for ordinary paint to grip — the coating sits on the surface until a fingernail, key, or dog finds an edge. The fix is proper de-glossing plus a urethane-acrylic bonding primer before color. Prepped that way, the finish holds through years of daily use.
Answer
A door is the most tempting DIY on the house and one of the most commonly botched: visible brush marks, paint-stuck weatherstripping, and chipping around the handle are the usual results. If you do it yourself, the prep and cure discipline matter more than the paint. If you'd rather it come out looking factory-finished, that's exactly the kind of detail work our crews do daily.
A door is the most tempting DIY on the house and one of the most commonly botched: visible brush marks, paint-stuck weatherstripping, and chipping around the handle are the usual results. If you do it yourself, the prep and cure discipline matter more than the paint. If you'd rather it come out looking factory-finished, that's exactly the kind of detail work our crews do daily.
Ready for a Straight Answer on Your Doors & Windows?
Free estimate, written surface-by-surface plan, and a free color consultation with every project — no pressure, ever.