Interior Painting
Walls, ceilings, trim, and doors, painted by the same crew that showed up to measure.
See detailsMadison & Dane County
Front Door & Entry Refinishing
The one surface every visitor stands two feet from and stares at while they wait.
What a front door refinish costs in Madison is set by how far the old finish has failed, not by the size of the door: a finish that can be scuffed and recoated is a fraction of the work of one that has to come off to bare wood, and sidelights and divided lights multiply the cut-in time. We quote it after looking at the door, and the estimate is free. Olmos Painting takes entry doors off the hinges and sprays them flat wherever the weather and the household allow, finishes all six edges, and owner Oswaldo Olmos has stained or painted thousands of doors over 26 years.
- Timeline
- A painted entry door is a single day. A stripped and stained entry door is two to four days, most of which is cure time between coats rather than crew time. A whole-house interior door package runs two to four days.
- Wisconsin timing
- Exterior door work needs a dry stretch above 50°F, which in Dane County means roughly April through October. Doors brought into a controlled space can be refinished year-round, and January through March is the easiest time to get one on the calendar.
A front door is about eighteen square feet. It is also the only part of your house that a guest stands two feet away from, in good light, with nothing else to do but look at it. Every other surface on the property gets viewed from a car or across a room. The door gets inspected. That is why it is the surface where the gap between a competent painter and a genuinely good one is visible from the sidewalk, and it is why we treat it as its own job rather than a line on the exterior estimate.
The honest version of this work usually starts with a decision most bidders skip: recoat or strip. A door whose finish has gone chalky and grey on the south or west face cannot be saved with another coat over the top — the failure is underneath, and anything you put on it fails with it in eighteen months. We will tell you which one your door is, and if a scuff-and-recoat is genuinely enough, we will quote the cheaper job.
Where the household and the weather allow, the door comes off the hinges and gets finished flat on horses. Flat is how you get a surface with no sags and no brush telegraphing, and it is the only way to properly finish the top edge and the bottom edge — the two edges that let moisture into a door and the two that almost nobody coats. We hang a temporary door or work the job in a single day so you are never left with a plywood panel overnight.
The same crew handles the things standing next to the door, because they are what frames it: sidelights and transoms, the jamb and brickmould, the storm door, the iron handrail on the stoop that has been bleeding rust into your concrete for three years, and the garage service door nobody has touched since the house was built. Doing them together is cheaper than doing them separately and it is the difference between a new door and a new entrance.
Scope
Every kind of doors & entries work we take on.
Stained & Clear-Finished Entry Doors
Stripped to sound wood, sealed, stained to the tone you picked in your own daylight, and built up in a UV-stable exterior clear. This is the woah-factor job, and the one we take the most care with.
Painted Entry Doors
Steel, fiberglass, or wood, de-glossed and bonded properly so a deep color stays put. Jamb and both faces included, hardware off and back on.
Sidelights, Transoms & Full Entry Systems
The glass surrounds are where cut-in skill actually shows. Divided lights get cut by hand — no razor blade cleanup afterward, because the line was right the first time.
Interior & Feature Doors
Six-panel doors sprayed off the hinges to a hard enamel, barn doors and feature doors stained, casing brushed to match. Priced per door so a whole-house package is a number you can read.
Exterior Handrails & Iron
Wire-wheeled to bright metal, rust spot-treated, direct-to-metal primer, two finish coats. Treating the base where it meets the concrete is the step that stops it coming back.
Garage & Service Doors
Overhead door faces, service doors, and jambs. Small scope, big curb-appeal return, and usually done in the same visit as the front entry.
How we work
Step by step, no surprises.
You will know what is happening in your house on every one of these days before the first one starts.
- 01
Look at the door together, in its own light
We come at an hour when the sun is actually on it. Half of this job is deciding whether the finish can be recoated or has to come off, and that is not a decision you can make from a photo.
- 02
Written price, both options where they exist
If a scuff-and-recoat will genuinely hold, you get that price too. You should be choosing between two honest numbers, not between us and a cheaper bid that skipped the question.
- 03
Off the hinges, onto the horses
Hardware removed, bagged, and labeled. The door goes flat so nothing sags and every edge is reachable. A temporary door or a same-day turnaround keeps the house closed up.
- 04
Strip, sand, and seal
Back to sound wood where the old system has failed, feathered where it has not, then a sealer coat that stops the stain from blotching on soft grain. This step is the whole job.
- 05
Stain or color, then build the finish
Stain wiped and toned to the sample you approved, then coats built with a sand between each one. Exterior doors get a UV package sized to which direction they face.
- 06
Rehang, adjust, and look at it together
Door rehung, hardware back on, latch and weatherstrip checked so it closes the way it did before. Then we stand on the sidewalk with you, because that is where it gets judged.
Our work
More doors & entries photosDoors & Entries projects.
How much does it cost to refinish a front door in Madison?
We quote entry doors in person, because the spread on this work is enormous and it is almost entirely about one thing: whether the old finish can be sanded and recoated or has to be stripped back to bare wood. That is the first thing we look at, along with sidelights and divided lights, which are where the cut-in hours go. The estimate is free and it comes to you in writing.
Can my front door be recoated, or does it have to be stripped?
If the finish is dull but intact and the wood underneath has no grey in it, a scuff and recoat will hold. If the surface is chalky, flaking, or has gone silver-grey anywhere — usually low on the south or west face first — anything applied over it fails with it, typically inside two years. We tell you which one you have before you commit, and we will quote the cheaper job when it is the right one.
Do you take the door off the hinges?
Wherever the household and the weather allow, yes. Finishing a door flat is the only way to get a surface with no sags and no brush marks, and it is the only practical way to coat the top and bottom edges, which are the two that let moisture into a door and the two most contractors never touch. We hang a temporary door or turn the work in a single day so your house is never open overnight.
How long does a refinished exterior door last?
On a north- or east-facing door under a covered porch, a properly built exterior clear system holds five to eight years before it wants a maintenance coat. On an unshaded south or west door in Wisconsin, expect two to four. Direct sun is what kills a clear finish, not weather, and a door with no overhead protection is on a shorter clock no matter who finishes it.
Can you match the stain to my trim or my new floors?
Yes. We make sample boards in the same species as your door and let you look at them against the trim in your own daylight, at the hour you actually walk through that door. Stain reads completely differently under a showroom light than it does on a Madison afternoon in November.
Do you paint the iron handrail and the storm door too?
Yes, and they are usually worth doing in the same visit. The handrail comes back to bright metal with a wire wheel, rust gets spot-treated, then direct-to-metal primer and two finish coats, including the base where it meets the concrete. A new front door next to a rusting rail does not read as finished.