Fillmore is our home base

What we paint in and around Fillmore

Fillmore is a small village surrounded by open farm ground, and a lot of what needs coating here is made of steel. Trucks, heavy equipment, storage tanks and storage containers spend long stretches outdoors. Steel beams hold up machine sheds and shop buildings. Most of it left the factory with a coating on it, and the weather wears that coating down over time. Once the coating goes, rust starts, and rust does not stop on its own.

Houses are part of the work too. Like most small Illinois villages, Fillmore has plenty of older homes with wood siding and trim. Those need fresh paint on a regular cycle. We paint exteriors and interiors, and we paint cabinets. On an older house we power wash first, then check the siding and trim for loose paint. New paint only holds as well as the layer under it, so anything flaking comes off before a brush or sprayer touches the wall.

Because our shop is in Fillmore, a job in the village is about as close to home as work gets for us. That makes it easy to come out and look at a rusted truck or tank before we price it. The amount of rust and old coating decides how much blasting a job needs, and that is hard to judge over the phone. Seeing it first means the price you get matches the steel you actually have.

• Blast rust and old paint down to bare steel
• Paint trucks and heavy equipment in our shop
• Coat and line storage tanks
• Power wash and paint house exteriors
• Coat concrete shop floors

Fillmore weather is hard on steel

Central Illinois gets hot, humid summers and cold winters, and steel left outside takes all of it. Metal grows a little in the heat and shrinks in the cold, over and over, and that movement opens tiny cracks in old paint. Water finds those cracks. In winter it freezes and pushes the coating up further, and in summer the damp air keeps the steel wet long after a storm.

Trucks have it worse. Salt from winter roads sticks to the frame and the underside, and it keeps eating at the metal long after the snow melts. Fertilizer is hard on farm equipment in the same way, because it clings to steel and pulls moisture out of the air. Once rust gets a start at a chip or a scratch, it creeps sideways under the paint around it. By the time you see bubbles on the surface, the damage underneath is wider than it looks.

That is why we sandblast before we paint. Blasting strips off the rust and old coating and leaves the steel clean and a little rough, which gives new paint something to grip. Paint sprayed over rust is only stuck to the rust. It can look good for a while, but it lifts off in flakes as the rust under it keeps growing. When a job calls for cleaning instead of blasting, we use water jetting or a power wash.

We paint in the shop or on site

Our paint shop is temperature controlled, and that is the main reason to bring a piece to us instead of painting it where it sits. Most industrial coatings need the steel and the air to stay in a certain range while they cure. In a cold barn in January, a coating can stay soft for days. On a muggy July afternoon, moisture can get trapped under it. Inside the shop, we set the conditions to fit the coating.

Some things cannot come to us. A storage tank or a long run of pipe gets done where it stands, which is why our Google listing shows onsite service. In the field we do the same prep we do in the shop, blasting or water jetting before any coating goes on. For tank coatings and linings we can use plural component spray equipment. It mixes the coating right at the gun, so fast curing products go on in thick, even coats.

Some jobs come with a paint spec and paperwork to match. The spec lists the coating and the checks required at each step. Robb Spear hired us for one of those, a large piece of equipment with a complex paint and documentation process. His Google review says: "Very high quality work, very professional, on time and clear communication." If your Fillmore job comes with a spec sheet, include it when you reach out. We will price the job to match it.

Getting a price in Fillmore

Call us at (217) 538-2025 Monday through Friday during business hours, or send us the details through the form on this page. Tell us what needs coating and where it is, and add photos if you have them. The estimate is free and written, so you can see what the price covers before you agree to anything. Our shop is in Fillmore, so if we need to see the job in person, it is a short drive.