A commuter station is a building people use with their heads down. They walk the same platform twice a day, past the same posts and the same fascia board, and they would struggle to tell you what color it is. Until the morning it is being painted, and they stop, and look up, and realise the place they have been standing in for years is actually handsome.
The Job
The Golf Metra station is a small, gabled depot with a deep roof overhang, exposed rafter tails, a row of wood columns along the platform and a brick chimney. All of the painted wood needed a full repaint: fascia, soffits, rafter tails, columns, siding, doors and window trim. The platform could not close and the timetable did not change, so the work was planned around the trains.
What Made It Different
- The platform is the workspace. Ladders went up on the platform side between trains and came down for every arrival. Nothing was left where a passenger could brush against it, and the yellow safety line stayed clear at all times.
- Overhangs and rafter tails. A depot roof like this one has dozens of exposed rafter ends, each with six faces to prep and paint. It is slow, careful brush work, and it is where the weather gets in first if it is skipped.
- Columns take the hands. Platform columns are leaned on, kicked and bumped by luggage every day. They were sanded to a sound surface and finished with a hard, scrubbable coating rather than a soft trim paint.
- Two sides, two schedules. The street side was painted during the quiet midday hours; the platform side was worked around the rush periods so the morning and evening crowds never met a ladder.
How It Ran
Wash and scrape first, then prime every bare spot on the fascia and rafter tails, then caulk the joints where water had been getting behind the trim. Finish coats went on roofline down: fascia and soffits, then siding and trim, then the columns and doors last so they were not touched while anything above them was still being worked. The crew kept one eye on the clock and one on the signal.
Stations, Shelters and Village Buildings
Depots, warming shelters, park buildings and village halls share the same problems: deep overhangs, lots of trim, heavy public use and a building that cannot close. We have painted the North Glenview station and other Metra stations on the same terms, and we do this kind of work for park districts, schools and villages across the North Shore and the Northwest suburbs. Golf sits between Glenview and Morton Grove; see our Glenview painters page for the neighborhood.
Talk to Pete About a Public or Commercial Project
Call (847) 564-4880 or request a site visit online. Pete walks every job himself and gives you a written scope, a firm quote, and a schedule the timetable can live with.