The shore
is hard on
houses.

Nothing. We are paid by the contractor who sponsors this site, never by homeowners. No fee, no membership, and no obligation to hire whoever we introduce you to.

No. We are a referral service. We take down what needs doing and where on the island it is, pass it to a contractor who works that stretch, and step out of the way. Any agreement you reach is between you and that contractor.

Before a contractor receives anything from us we confirm their New Jersey Home Improvement Contractor registration is active on the Division of Consumer Affairs public register, and we record the date we checked. We do not check insurance, so ask any contractor for a current certificate before work starts — it is a fair question and a real one to ask before anybody puts a ladder against your house. We do not inspect work or guarantee outcomes.

One. Your request goes to a single crew that covers your town and does that kind of work, so you are not fielding four calls about the same deck. If that crew cannot take it, tell us and we will pass it on.

It depends which side of the causeway you are on, and the answer is genuinely different. On the island, salt carries in on the wind and settles as a film that draws moisture back out of the air — which is why glass goes hazy again days after it was cleaned — while the sheltered, shaded sides of a house grow algae far faster than anything inland. On the mainland there is almost no salt, and the load is organic instead: tree canopy holding damp against north walls, leaf and needle litter packing gutters, tannin staining below the joints, and iron from irrigation wells. Different problems, different treatments, and a single hard wash rarely fixes any of them.

For flat concrete, usually. For siding, roofs, cedar and painted wood, generally not. High pressure forces water behind siding and up under shingle courses, strips granules off asphalt shingle — the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association advises against it and most shingle warranties exclude it — and raises the grain on cedar. The method that suits almost everything on a house is a soft wash: low pressure and a cleaning solution doing the work. It is worth asking a contractor which one they intend to use before they start.

Yes, and a large share of the island is exactly that. The form has a place to say you are not at the property and to give a property manager, a caretaker or a neighbour to coordinate with, plus the changeover day if it is a weekly rental so the work does not land on a Saturday.

Late April into May and mid-September into October. Both sit either side of the season, both give a crew room to work, and anything involving stain or sealer needs the dry stretch and the temperatures the shoulder months actually provide. On the island, mid-summer is the hardest time to get to a house at all and the hardest to schedule around a Saturday changeover. On the mainland the constraint is different: the visits that matter are after the spring pollen and after the autumn leaf drop.

Exterior cleaning and restoration: house and roof soft washing, cedar shake washing and sealing, deck stripping and re-staining, paver cleaning and sealing, concrete and pool decks, dock and bulkhead washing, windows and screens, gutters, outdoor showers and fences, and seasonal open-up and close-down packages. Long Beach Island, plus Manahawkin, Beach Haven West, West Creek and Barnegat on the mainland. We stay inside what one crew can carry, so whoever we connect you with can actually do the job rather than sub half of it out.