This week, as paint restoration specialists from the Chicago area, we undertook work on a historical, 1858, Greek Revival and Federalist brick house built for Gustavus Palmer, a successful farmer and early settler in McHenry county. The house sits on its original corner lot in Crystal Lake, Illinois and still looks quite impressive. In 1985, the house was added to the National Register of Historical Places and the Park District is now responsible for the preservation of this special piece of McHenry county history.

Paint Failure on Colonel Palmer House – 1

Because of its design, the house has no gutters. The water drains over the large crown and dental moldings, and causes the paint to fail in a major way, thereby compromising the integrity of the original wood components of the building. As shown in the first picture, on the West side of the house, once the scraping process started, one hundred fifty five years of paint came off a twenty foot section of the crown. To preserve the wood, we used a product designed to restore wooden boats. The product is a Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (CPES) known as “ The Rot Doctor ”. It seals the wood fibers and creates an ideal surface for paint to adhere to.

Paint Failure on Colonel Palmer House – 2

As shown in the second picture, the problem was more severe on the East side of the house. The water had rusted through the original nails holding the dentals to the base molding. The base molding had warped and pulled away from the upper crown. In addition to the CPES product, we used epoxy to fill the gaps and cracks in the wood. As a final step before caulking and painting, we applied a coat of high-built adhesive primer to all the trim elements of the building, including the window casings, which were original to the house. The crown moldings and window casings were seemingly made of old-growth wood, which survived in these hash conditions, without rotting for over one hundred fifty years. This wood is still hard as stone today! Wood like this deserves every bit of care we can muster to help preserve it for another century or more.

As you can also see in the second picture, since our painting and decorating company is EPA Lead-Safe Certified, the paint scraping process was done in compliance with EPA regulations. It involved setting up containment for the paint debris, sealing the windows, wearing protective garments, respirators etc., all this in 90 degree heat this week!

As a pioneer and early settler’s house, the Colonel Palmer house is quite remarkable by its size, style and quality of materials used in its construction. This was no shack on the prairie! It is well worth preserving for the generations to come.

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As a painting and decorating contractor, we specialize in the historical restoration of the paint finishes of vintage buildings in the Chicago area. Many of the buildings we work on have not been designated as “historical landmarks” structures per se. However, their owners treat them as such. They view the preservation and beautification of their houses and buildings as part of their custodial responsibility. They are committed to do the right thing for their “piece of history”.

Building owners like these value the expertise and knowledge of professionals who can assist them in preserving their old houses. They would prefer to hold off for a while, rather than doing the wrong thing. Sometime, they are concerned about developing a more accurate and flattering color scheme and finishes. They are always concerned about preserving the original materials or authentically reproducing them when they cannot be saved. Longevity of the work performed is also very important to them. The trust they build in their service providers is critical.

Glessner House Christmas Fireplace Lighting Ceremony

One such owner has been our client for twelve years. Over twenty five years ago, they purchased an 1864 Victorian house in Chicago (survivor from the Great Chicago Fire) and completely renovated and restored it to its original splendor (and beyond). For this client, we have been their trusted custodians for the interior and exterior paint finishes, and wallcoverings. We just completed paint restoration to the elaborate mural in the powder room next to the kitchen. There were many nicks and an unsightly crack in a very visible spot on the mural. Now restored, the mural should be good for another twenty five years!

And then, there are those Chicago area buildings that are so extraordinary, they have been declared National Landmarks and turned into house museums or preserved for posterity in some other way. Such a building is the Glessner House on South Prairie in Chicago. When you have such stature, a building gets to have its own parties and commemorations. My wife and I attended such an event in early December. It commemorated the 125th anniversary of the first lighting of the house’s main fireplace. The evening was followed by dinner and a presentation by the house’s Curator on the life of Frances Glessner.

To us, working on such vintage buildings and historical homes is most satisfying and a true privilege. We look forward to working with clients who are such a friend to their “Old House”.

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In the Fall of 2011, our painting and decorating company was chosen to execute a historical paint restoration project on the metal façade of this 1889 building, in the busy Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. We knew from the outset that was a very project. However, we had no idea it would earn our company three top painting awards.

Chicago Historical Paint Restoration Project

The project involved a complete reinvention of a historical color palette for the building, which the ten owners had to approve. The execution of the work presented major challenges. They included meeting several layers of regulatory requirements, from City of Chicago ordinances, to OSHA and RRP rules, since the building was situated next to the sidewalk, power lines and required the use of five layers of scaffolding and a boom. The work involved the removal of a majority of the old coatings from the metal surfaces, the reproduction of many missing metal decorative ornaments and custom wood moldings. Having completed that work, we then primed the surfaces and painted them using a six-color historical palette. Painting the detailed metal elements of the two large bay windows was a little bit like painting by numbers. To ensure color placement accuracy, we had to number the color breaks from top to bottom.

The most prestigious award was the Grand Prize of the TOP JOB Awards from the American Painting Contractor magazine. We also won the Commercial Exterior Restoration Award in the competition organized by the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America (PDCA). We also most recently won the Grand Prize of “Chicago’s Finest Painted Ladies and her Court” competition, which the Chicago Paint and Coatings Association has organized for the twenty-sixth year.

As specialist in historical paint restoration, our biggest reward is to know that our clients were delighted with the result and that their building is now an inspiration to other owners in the area for restoring the original beauty of their own buildings.

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