Cedar shake washing, brightening and sealing in North Beach

How this shows up

• A finish applied a few seasons ago that is now flaking and holding dirt
• One elevation weathered years ahead of the other three
• Green growth in the shadow line under each course on the bay-facing wall

Why this comes up in North Beach

The island is thin here and most lots front either the ocean or the bay directly, so exposure is unusually direct in both directions. There is little in front of an oceanfront house to break the spray, and little behind a bayfront one to break the damp.

North Beach is a quiet, very narrow section of Long Beach Township between Loveladies and Harvey Cedars, with almost no commercial frontage, and that shapes what turns up on these walls.

What access looks like here

Few side streets and long driveways off the Boulevard. Staging is generally straightforward, but the working faces of these houses are the water elevations, which are the hardest to reach on any of them.

Coating work needs a permit through Long Beach Township, and no municipality in New Jersey will issue one to an unregistered contractor.

What the work involves

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.