Front door stain
We stained this front door, which sits in a brick wall with two sidelights. A drop cloth went down on the step for the work. The door finished a honey brown.
Madeira, OH
Exterior Painting in Madeira
Wells Painting scrapes, sands, primes and paints house exteriors across Madeira, including large older homes with three-story dormers. The prep comes first, and on an older house it is most of the job. Peeling paint comes off, rotted boards get replaced and seams get caulked before any finish goes on. Every exterior house painting job carries a three-year warranty.
How long will an exterior paint job last?
How long a finish lasts comes down to the prep under it, and a front door gets handled more than any wall on the house. Our Madeira door job was a honey-brown stain on a door with two sidelights, set in brick.
Recent exterior painting jobs in Madeira
What your neighbors in Madeira say
“Denny did an excellent job repairing and restoring my soffits and decorative wood under front windows. He was very professional and prompt. He has done multiple projects on my street with all neighbors satisfied. Highly recommend.”
What are Madeira houses like?
Mostly 1950s. 1,068 of Madeira's 3,620 homes were built from 1950 to 1959, more than in any other decade, and the median home dates to 1960. The Madeira Historical Society puts the town at 3,500 people in 1950 and 6,500 in 1960, the years of the Bergen and Miami Hills subdivisions. 3,300 of those homes are single-family houses.
Older houses are mixed in. The Society counted 11 farmhouses still standing in 1988, and a Sears kit house went up on Maple Avenue in 1928.
Sources: US Census ACS 2024, Madeira Historical Society
Why does a stained front door fade before the rest of the house?
Sun. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory says ultraviolet light goes straight through a clear finish and breaks down the wood under it, which is why varnish cracks and peels on a sunny door. A semitransparent stain holds up much better, because its pigment cuts that damage. A smooth, milled door still gets less than half the life from stain that rough wood gets.
Which way the door faces matters too. The south side of a house needs restaining more often than the north, so a door facing south or west is due sooner than one under a deep porch.
Sources: USDA Forest Products Laboratory
What fails first on a 1950s house?
The joints and the trim. Finish lets go first at end grain, where boards butt together and at board ends, because that wood soaks up water much faster than the face. The National Park Service adds that caulk wears out before the surface it seals.
That is the kind of work in Lisa P.'s Madeira review: she had us repair and restore her soffits and the decorative wood under her front windows, and she says we've done multiple projects on her street. Before any paint goes on, we replace rotted wood, recaulk the seams and prime bare wood.
Sources: USDA Forest Products Laboratory, National Park Service, Google review
Do you come out to Madeira for estimates?
Yes. Madeira is 20.5 miles and 41 minutes from our base in New Richmond, and it shares the 45243 ZIP with Indian Hill. The estimate is free, and you get one price for the whole job.
Sources: Road distance from New Richmond, US Census
How we run an exterior painting job, start to finish: Exterior painting