Trim, Door & Millwork Painting
Baseboard, casing, crown, doors and built-in millwork brought to a levelled finish, sprayed or hand-brushed, your call.
- Free walkthrough
- Fixed written quote
- 1,000+ homes painted
Trim is where a paint job is judged. Walls are seen at a distance; baseboards and door casings are seen from two feet away while you are taking your shoes off. Every brush mark, every sag, every place where the caulk line wanders is visible at that range.
Included
- Test for an oil-based existing finish before anything is applied
- De-glossing of all previously coated trim, mechanically or chemically
- Bonding primer over any oil-based or high-sheen existing finish
- Filling of nail holes, splits and open mitres, then sanding flush
- Re-caulking of the trim-to-wall joint in a colour-matched flexible caulk
Not included
- Replacement of rotted or damaged trim stock, quoted separately as carpentry
- Stripping of heavily built-up paint layers on heritage millwork, which is priced by the hour
- Staining or clear-finishing natural wood, which is a different scope
How we deliver it
- 01
Identify the existing finish
A denatured alcohol swab tells us in seconds whether we are on oil or acrylic. Getting this wrong is the single most common cause of trim peeling within the year.
- 02
De-gloss
Sanding or a liquid de-glosser across every previously coated surface. New paint has to have something to key into, a glossy surface gives it nothing.
- 03
Fill and sand
Nail holes, splits and open mitres filled and sanded flush. Trim damage is small and close-range, so it has to actually disappear rather than merely be covered.
- 04
Caulk the wall joint
A flexible, paintable caulk in the trim-to-wall joint. This single line is what makes trim look installed rather than stuck on.
Specification
- Substrates
- MDF, pine, poplar, oak trim, hollow-core and solid doors
- Adhesion test
- Denatured alcohol swab to identify oil vs acrylic
- Prep
- De-gloss, fill, sand, caulk trim-to-wall joint
- Primer
- Bonding primer over oil, bare wood or drastic colour change
- Finish
- 2 coats waterborne alkyd, satin or semi-gloss
- Application
- Sprayed or hand-brushed, both priced
- Recoat window
- 6–16 hours depending on product and humidity
Questions
Full FAQHow do I know if my trim is oil-based?
Rub an inconspicuous spot with a cotton pad and a little denatured alcohol or methyl hydrate. If paint transfers onto the pad, it is latex or acrylic. If nothing comes off, it is oil-based alkyd. This matters enormously: waterborne paint applied directly over cured oil will not form a bond, and it will strip off in sheets the first time a vacuum cleaner hits the baseboard. Any painter who does not check this on a pre-2005 home is guessing.
Should trim be sprayed or brushed?
Sprayed gives you a dead-flat film with zero brush texture, the right look for a modern home and for anything with flat-panel doors. Hand-brushed leaves a slight, traditional texture that suits a Victorian or Edwardian home and avoids the significant masking cost that spraying inside a finished room requires. Neither is objectively better. We quote both so the choice is aesthetic rather than budgetary.
Why does my white trim look yellow?
Because it is oil-based. Alkyd resins amber over time, and the effect is dramatically worse in rooms that get little natural light, the inside of a closet will yellow far faster than a sunlit hallway. Modern waterborne alkyds give you the same hardness and flow-out without the yellowing, which is why we specify them on essentially all trim work now.
What sheen should trim be?
Satin or semi-gloss. The contrast against eggshell or matte walls is what makes trim read as a deliberate architectural element rather than a strip of wood. Semi-gloss is more washable and more forgiving on high-traffic baseboards; satin is more contemporary and hides imperfections in older, less-than-perfect millwork.
- Interior paintingWhole-home and room-by-room interior repaints, quoted from a written finish specification rather than a verbal ballpark.→
- Cabinet refinishingCabinet doors sprayed in a controlled environment and boxes finished on site, a factory-grade finish at a fraction of replacement cost.→
- Drywall & plasterCracks, holes, water damage and the seasonal settlement cracking that older Toronto homes produce every winter.→
Get a fixed quote for trim & doors.
Free walkthrough, a fixed written quote, and no obligation to go ahead.
- 1,000+ homes painted
- Free walkthroughs
- Fixed written quotes
- Serving Toronto and the GTA