660 reviews
Garage Doors The Biggest Thing You See
On most Metro Detroit homes, the garage door is the single largest surface facing the street — and usually the most faded. We refinish steel and wood doors with coatings built for metal that moves, so the biggest thing on your facade stops dragging it down.
Refinish the largest, most visible surface on your facade.
Stand at the curb and be honest about what you see first: on a front-facing attached garage, it's the door. Builders know this, which is why they put decent doors on new houses — and why a chalked, faded, dinged garage door undoes the effect of fresh siding paint like nothing else. Refinishing it is one of the highest-visibility moves on an exterior, and one of the most commonly skipped.
It's also a genuinely hard surface. A Michigan garage door takes direct sun most of the day, catches road-salt spray all winter at its bottom panels, and flexes along every horizontal seam dozens of times a day as it rolls up and down. Rigid or heavily built-up paint films crack right along those hinge lines. The doors that stay looking finished get thin, flexible, metal-specific coatings over honest rust prep — which is exactly how we do them.
What a Garage Door Goes Through
Full-day sun exposure
Most garage doors face the street with no shade, so the factory finish chalks and fades faster than the rest of the house. Dark doors show it worst.
Salt at the bottom panels
Winter road spray and snowmelt concentrate at the lowest panels and edges, where steel rusts first. That rust has to be cut back and primed, not painted over.
Seams that never stop moving
Every open-close cycle flexes the hinge lines between panels. Thick or brittle coatings crack along those seams within seasons — the finish has to be thin, even, and made for metal movement.
Grease and grime
Door edges, handles, and hardware zones carry oils that quietly wreck adhesion. Degreasing is a non-negotiable first step that most quick repaints skip — and it shows within a year.
Pro tip from our crews
Paint the garage door the same color as the siding (not the trim) if you want the house to look bigger — matching the trim frames the door and makes it the focal point instead.
How We Do It Right
- 1Degrease and washWe start by cutting the oils at edges, handles, and hardware zones, then wash off chalking and road film. Skipping the degrease is the most common reason garage-door paint fails around the touch points first.
- 2Rust prepRust at panel edges and hardware points gets cut back to sound metal and any bare steel primed with Ultra Spec Acrylic Metal Primer. Corrosion sealed under a fresh coat doesn't stop — it spreads under the film until the finish bubbles.
- 3Scuff-sand the factory coatThe original baked-on finish is smooth and hard; we scuff it so the new enamel keys in mechanically. On a surface that flexes daily, adhesion has to be earned, not assumed.
- 4Mask and immobilizeWeatherstripping, tracks, windows, and hardware get masked, and the opener is disconnected so the door can be finished panel by panel in position — no half-cured paint grinding through rollers and hinges.
- 5Direct-to-metal finish coatsSteel doors get Ultra Spec DTM Acrylic — an enamel with rust resistance built into the finish itself — applied in thin, even coats that flex with the seams instead of cracking along them. Wood doors matching trim elsewhere on the house get Regal Select.
- 6Cure before cyclingThe door stays down and disconnected until the finish has set enough to survive operation. Rolling a freshly coated door through its tracks is how new paint gets scarred on day one; we build the cure window into the schedule.
What We Put On It
Every product below links to its full page — real technical specs from the manufacturer, not marketing copy.
Ultra Spec© DTM AcrylicDirect-to-metal enamel with rust resistance built in — made for exactly this surface.Specs & details →Ultra Spec© Acrylic Metal PrimerRust-inhibitive base for any spot worn through the factory coat.Specs & details →Regal Select© EXTWhen the garage door color-matches wood trim elsewhere on the house.Specs & details →
What Drives the Cost
Door count and size
A single-car door, a wide double, and a three-car bank are different amounts of surface, masking, and panel detail. Multi-door homes get efficiency from doing them together.
Rust and damage
A door with clean panels preps quickly; one with corrosion at the bottom edge needs cutting back, priming, and sometimes a conversation about how much life the door has left.
Color change
Refreshing the same tone covers easily. Going dramatically darker or lighter can take an additional coat, and dark colors on full-sun doors deserve the more fade-resistant product tier.
Part of a larger project
A garage door refinished during a full exterior repaint costs less than a standalone visit — prep, masking, and equipment are already on site, and the color gets coordinated with the whole scheme.
See how much a garage door changes a facade — browse before-and-afters with real project costs in our Cost & Color Gallery.
Browse Real Projects & CostsFrequent Questions
Straight answers about garage doors from the crews who do the work.
Answer
Plan on leaving it down and disconnected until the finish has set — typically the rest of the working day, weather depending. The coatings we use dry to the touch fast, but cycling a door through its tracks and seals too early is the easiest way to damage a brand-new finish. We'll give you a specific window for your door and conditions.
Plan on leaving it down and disconnected until the finish has set — typically the rest of the working day, weather depending. The coatings we use dry to the touch fast, but cycling a door through its tracks and seals too early is the easiest way to damage a brand-new finish. We'll give you a specific window for your door and conditions.
Answer
Not if the system is right. Cracking at hinge lines comes from thick or brittle coatings on a surface that flexes constantly. We use a direct-to-metal acrylic enamel made for exterior metal that moves, applied in thin coats — the film bends with the seam instead of breaking over it.
Not if the system is right. Cracking at hinge lines comes from thick or brittle coatings on a surface that flexes constantly. We use a direct-to-metal acrylic enamel made for exterior metal that moves, applied in thin coats — the film bends with the seam instead of breaking over it.
Answer
It depends on what you want the eye to do: matching the siding lets the door recede and makes the house read larger, while matching the trim frames the door and makes it a feature. There's no wrong answer, but there is a right one for your house — and the free color consultation with Lori that comes with every project settles it with samples on your actual door.
It depends on what you want the eye to do: matching the siding lets the door recede and makes the house read larger, while matching the trim frames the door and makes it a feature. There's no wrong answer, but there is a right one for your house — and the free color consultation with Lori that comes with every project settles it with samples on your actual door.
Answer
It's more approachable than a whole house, but the failure points are specific: skipped degreasing, rust painted over instead of treated, coats applied too heavy, and doors operated before the finish sets. If you take it on, spend your effort on prep and restraint. If you'd rather it come out looking like a new door, that's a routine day's work for our crews.
It's more approachable than a whole house, but the failure points are specific: skipped degreasing, rust painted over instead of treated, coats applied too heavy, and doors operated before the finish sets. If you take it on, spend your effort on prep and restraint. If you'd rather it come out looking like a new door, that's a routine day's work for our crews.
Answer
With honest rust prep and a metal-specific enamel, a refinished door stays looking sharp for years even under full sun and salt exposure — the finish is engineered for exactly those conditions. Our workmanship carries a 2-year standard warranty, extendable to 4 years.
With honest rust prep and a metal-specific enamel, a refinished door stays looking sharp for years even under full sun and salt exposure — the finish is engineered for exactly those conditions. Our workmanship carries a 2-year standard warranty, extendable to 4 years.
Ready for a Straight Answer on Your Garage Doors?
Free estimate, written surface-by-surface plan, and a free color consultation with every project — no pressure, ever.