Cary, Illinois · McHenry County
Trusted House & Commercial Painters in Cary, IL
Free written estimate · no pressure
Free estimate
Itemized, in writing
Two coats
Brand & line named
Clean every day
Floors & furniture covered
2-yr warranty
In writing
About Our Cary, IL Painting Services
Meet Your Local Painting Company
Cary is hilly and wooded, and that's what makes painting here different. The trees that shade these lots keep the siding damp, grow mildew on the north walls and hold snow on the roof long after the street is dry. We paint interiors and exteriors, refinish cabinets, fix drywall and take on commercial work in the 60013 ZIP, plus Fox River Grove and Trout Valley next door. We're run from Huntley, with our office in Crystal Lake, which puts Cary a short drive away.
Level Best is owned and run locally. The owner prices your job, our crews do the work, and he walks it with you at the end. Your estimate is free and written, and it lists the prep, the paint line and the coats so you can compare it fairly against anyone else's. Call or send the form and we call back within 24 hours.
The housing here covers a wide range. Bright Oaks is a townhouse community from the mid-1970s. Fox Trails is single-family homes from the 1990s. Cambria went up in the early 2000s with both houses and townhomes, and Foxford Hills was built around its golf course. Along the river, Trout Valley has larger homes with cedar siding and long runs of trim. The older houses sit near downtown and the Metra station.
Serving all of Cary (60013) in McHenry County, plus Fox River Grove, Trout Valley.
Interior House Painters of Cary, IL
The interior job that changes a 1990s Fox Trails house the most is painting the honey-oak trim, doors and railings white and moving the walls off beige. The trim is where the time goes. It gets degreased, scuff-sanded and primed with a bonding primer, then two coats of an enamel that levels out smooth. Where old wallpaper comes down, we skim the wall before paint so the seams don't show through.
In the townhomes at Bright Oaks and Cambria, the rooms are smaller and you share walls, so the work is about being neat and keeping to the schedule. In the bigger Foxford Hills and Trout Valley homes, it's tall great rooms and long stair runs. Either way the walls get patched and caulked, primed where needed and given two coats, and the house gets cleaned up every evening.
Exterior House Painters of Cary, IL
Under Cary's trees the prep starts with water, not paint. We wash the siding and treat the mildew first, then let it dry fully before anything else happens. New paint over live mildew fails fast. On the shaded walls we use a mildew-resistant coating. It won't change your lot, but it keeps the siding cleaner a lot longer than plain paint does.
Cedar takes its own care. Bare and weathered cedar bleeds tannins, brownish stains that come right through a light color. So bare boards get a stain-blocking primer, failed finish gets sanded back to a sound edge, and every joint winter opened gets recaulked before two coats of acrylic. On the brick-front two-stories in Foxford Hills and Cambria, the job is usually the trim, shutters, doors and garage door.
We paint exteriors May through early October. Wooded lots need a dry stretch for the wash to dry out, so we watch the dew point as closely as the rain and build slack into the schedule. That often means starting later on damp mornings. The calendar fills by March, so a Cary exterior should be booked over the winter.
Cabinet Painters in Cary, IL
Cary has two generations of kitchens. The oak in the older homes and the maple or cherry in the 2000s builds in Foxford Hills and Cambria both take a sprayed cabinet enamel well, and maple comes out nearly grain-free. We degrease, sand, prime with a bonding primer and spray, with the doors off and the boxes finished in place. It's three to five days for most kitchens, and we do most of them November through April.
Drywall Repair in Cary, IL
Shaded rooflines hold snow longer, and ice dams follow. The drywall call Cary sends us most is a ceiling stain along an outside wall after a March thaw. Once the roof is fixed and the ceiling is dry, we seal the stain, replace the board if it's soft, match the texture and paint the ceiling so it's even. We won't close up a wet ceiling.
We also re-tape the settling cracks over doors and windows, fill the anchor holes that build up over the years, and skim-coat dated textured walls back to smooth. Skim work takes more than one visit, because each coat has to dry before the next one goes on. Every repair finishes with primer and paint blended to a natural break, so you don't see a patch.
Fox River Grove and Trout Valley are the same trip for us, so if you're just across the line, the same process and the same written price apply. A few phone photos are often enough to price a small repair without a visit.
Cary, IL Commercial Painters
We paint for Cary businesses too, from the storefronts near the downtown Metra station to offices and shops along Northwest Highway, plus clubhouses and common areas for townhome associations. A commercial job starts with a site walk and a written proposal. We work around your hours and leave the space clean at the end of each day.
For a business on a wooded lot, the exterior gets the same wash, mildew treatment and drying time as a house does. We put that in the proposal so you can see why the schedule leaves room for dry weather, and we plan the work around the days and hours you're open.
What Sets Us Apart?
- 1
Free Estimate
We come out, look at the job with you, and you get a written, itemized price. No pressure.
- 2
Color Selection & Schedule
Pick your colors. We can help if you want it. Then we set a start date and tell you who's coming.
- 3
Prep, Paint & Clean-Up
Our crew covers your floors, furniture and landscaping, does the prep right, puts on two coats, and cleans up every day.
- 4
Final Walk-Through
We walk the job with you before we call it done. If something isn't right, we fix it.
What You Get With Level Best in Cary
- Free written, itemized estimate
- Paint brand and line named on the estimate
- Two coats
- Floors, furniture and landscaping covered
- Clean up every day
- Final walk-through with you
- Locally owned, not a franchise
- 2-year workmanship warranty in writing
Painting in Cary: Common Questions
The shaded side of my house keeps growing green mildew. Can paint fix that?
Paint alone can't, but the right steps keep it in check. We wash and treat the mildew first, because paint over live mildew fails fast. Then we use a mildew-resistant coating on the shaded walls. Your trees stay, but the siding stays cleaner for a lot longer.
Do you work in Trout Valley?
Yes. The larger cedar-sided homes there take a lot of prep, cleaning and priming weathered wood and keeping lines straight over long runs of trim. We plan that into the estimate so the schedule is honest from the start.
We're in a townhome association. Can you paint just our unit?
Inside, yes, any time. Outside, it depends on your association's rules, since many of them handle exteriors as a group or limit colors. Check with your board first. If they approve it, we'll match the approved color and give you the product details in writing.
Can you skim-coat our dated textured walls smooth?
Yes. Skim-coating rough or dated texture back to smooth is careful work done in thin coats, and each coat has to dry before the next one goes on, so it's at least two visits. It finishes with primer and paint, so the walls come out looking new, not just flatter.
How much does it cost to paint a house in Cary?
The siding and the prep matter more than the square footage. A cedar home with mildew on the north wall and split caulk at every joint needs days of washing, priming and caulking before color. A Foxford Hills two-story that only needs trim, shutters and doors is much smaller. Trim length, colors and paint line move it from there, and you get it all itemized in writing.
How long will a Cary exterior take, and what if it rains?
Plan on about a week of working days for a full repaint on a wooded lot. The wash needs a day to dry before we sand and prime, then a few days of prep and a few of paint. A trim and door refresh is shorter. We paint between roughly 50 and 85 degrees with humidity under 70 percent, so under the trees we start later on damp mornings and stop when dew sets in. Rain pauses the job, and we'll tell you which days move.
My house was built before 1978. Does that change anything?
Yes, and it should. Federal EPA rules (the Renovation, Repair and Painting rule) require lead-safe work practices whenever more than a small area of pre-1978 paint is disturbed. That covers most of the homes near downtown Cary. At the estimate we'll tell you plainly which parts of your project fall under those rules and how we'll handle them. No painter should be scraping old paint without that conversation, so ask anyone you get a bid from the same question.
Proudly Serving McHenry, Kane, Lake & Northwest Cook Counties
Run from Huntley, with our office in Crystal Lake. Pick your town to see what we do there.