Brick building near Aurora, IL with one wall limewashed white beside bare red brick

Storefronts, offices and older brick buildings

Aurora Limewash: Commercial Limewash in Aurora

A lighter, softer brick facade for a building that wants to look cared for, not repainted.

Aurora and ten towns within 20 miles
Written price before work starts
Licensed, insured local contractors
Historic district rules covered

Aurora Limewash arranges limewash for commercial brick buildings in Aurora and the Fox Valley through local painting and masonry contractors. Older downtown buildings, restaurants, offices and retail blocks use limewash for the same reason homeowners do: it changes the look of the brick without sealing it in paint.

A commercial limewash runs $4 to $8 a square foot and can be refreshed in sections; paint the facade instead and the strip that eventually follows on brick costs $1.50 to $9.50 a square foot across a far bigger wall.

$4 to $8 a square foot of facade

Commercial facades are priced per square foot like houses, starting from the $4 to $8 a Chicago-suburb limewash applicator publishes, then adjusted for height, scaffold or lift access, sidewalk protection and working hours. Multi-storey facades on a busy street cost more per foot than a single-storey block with parking around it.

Get a price: (630) 528-2808

Signs a commercial facade suits limewash

The brick is bare, with sound joints, but its colour reads tired or dated
Mismatched patches from old signs or openings show on the wall
Painted sections are peeling and the owner wants to stop repainting
The building sits among brick neighbours and needs to stand out quietly

Downtown districts and approvals

Several Fox Valley downtowns are historic districts. Plainfield's Downtown Historic District covers 65 properties along Lockport Street, and Batavia now requires a certificate for painting previously unpainted exterior materials in its district. Aurora's National Register districts include Stolp Island and Aurora Broadway, and in the city's four local districts masonry work needs a certificate. A facade change starts with the city, not the colour chart.

Working on a public street

Limewash is caustic while wet, with a pH of 13 on the maker's safety data. On a storefront that means protecting the sidewalk, glazing, signage and anything people walk past, and planning work around opening hours and the weather window from mid-May to early October.

Not sure what your brick will take? Describe the house, the brick and the look you want, and get a straight answer on coats, prep and a typical price.

Call (630) 528-2808

Old signs, ghost lettering and patches

Commercial brick often carries the marks of earlier tenants: bolt holes, patched openings, and sometimes painted lettering from decades ago. Limewash can soften patches. Whether old painted signs are kept, covered or removed is a design decision, and in a historic district it can be a review question too.

Maintenance by section

A limewashed facade weathers gradually and can be recoated wall by wall, so a building owner can refresh the street face without scaffolding the whole building. The touch-up and recoat page covers how that works.

Preparing a commercial wall

Commercial brick has usually seen more than a house: old sign brackets, sealants around storefronts, graffiti removal, and decades of grime from traffic. Each of those can block limewash, so a commercial facade gets the same splash test as a house, only in more places. Areas that were sealed or painted are stripped or treated as a separate finish before the wash goes on.

Questions people ask

How much does commercial limewash cost?

Starting from about $4 to $8 a square foot of facade, adjusted for height, access and street protection.

What are the signs a commercial facade should be limewashed rather than painted?

Bare brick with sound joints, a tired colour, patched areas to soften, or peeling paint you want to stop repeating.

Do downtown buildings need approval to limewash?

Often. Several Fox Valley downtowns are historic districts where coating unpainted masonry is reviewed first.

Can limewash be done while a business stays open?

Usually, with the sidewalk and glazing protected and work scheduled around opening hours and weather.

How long does commercial limewash last?

It weathers gradually. A national cost guide puts limewash reapplication at every 5 to 7 years for full coverage, and facades can be recoated a wall at a time.

Often done together

Exterior brick limewash

A breathable lime finish over the whole brick exterior, from a faint wash to near-solid white.
Brick paint removal

Limewash cannot bond to paint, so on painted brick the job starts here.
Limewash touch-up

The advantage of limewash: when it wears, you add to it rather than strip it.

Talk it through before anyone opens a bucket

Say what the brick is, whether it has ever been painted or sealed, and how much of it shows from the street. You will hear what the job usually involves, what it tends to cost, and whether your town needs a sign-off first.