Cedar shake washing, brightening and sealing in Loveladies

What usually prompts the call

• Green growth in the shadow line under each course on the bay-facing wall
• Shakes that have gone black or blotchy rather than the even silver you were expecting
• A finish applied a few seasons ago that is now flaking and holding dirt

Why this comes up in Loveladies

Here is what makes Loveladies particular: lots here are deep and many of them are genuinely wooded, with pine, cedar and bayberry between the houses. That shade is the difference: it holds moisture against the siding long after the rest of the island has dried, and it drops organic debris into gutters and onto decks year round.

The most architecturally distinctive stock on the island: large contemporary houses, many of them from the rebuilding that followed the 1962 storm, clad in cedar shake or vertical cedar board with very large areas of glass and multi-level decking.

Practicalities in Loveladies

The largest lots on the island, with room to work — but the houses sit well back, decks wrap several elevations, and the bay side of a bayfront lot is often only reachable through the property.

Any permit for this runs through Long Beach Township. State registration has to be current before one is issued.

The usual approach

Cedar is the island's signature and it is also the least forgiving material out here. The wash has to be gentle enough not to raise the grain and thorough enough to take out the growth living inside it, usually followed by a brightener that resets the colour after cleaning. Whether it then gets sealed is a real decision, not a default: a bare shake wall silvers evenly and asks nothing of you, and a sealed one looks better for three to five years and then has to be done again. A crew that will not talk you through both is selling you the second one.