House and roof washing

Salt film and rust stain removal

Iron staining from irrigation wells and the chloride film off the ocean. Different problems, different treatments, neither one fixed by washing harder.

It turns up from Barnegat Light to Holgate, for slightly different reasons at each end.

The signs that bring this up

Orange or rust-coloured staining on siding, concrete or fence in the arc of a sprinkler head
A chalky white bloom on the ocean-facing wall after a hard blow
Streaking below railings, light fixtures or fastener heads that has kept coming back
Staining that a general wash lifted slightly and left behind

What the work involves

These are two different problems that often arrive on the same wall. Salt is a chloride film and it comes off with a proper flood rinse. Rust is iron out of irrigation water — concentrations as low as 0.3 parts per million will stain — and it needs an acid treatment, usually oxalic, that dissolves the iron without bleaching the surface underneath. A wash will not shift it. Anyone who tells you it will is going to wash the house twice and charge you for it.

$325 – $1,200

typical range, not a quote for Long Beach Island and the mainland.

Not a quote, and not a judgement about your property. What a job actually costs comes down to height, access, what the surface is made of and how far it has been left — which is why it takes someone standing in front of it.

Rather have it quoted properly?

Let us know what you are looking at. We will match it and leave the decision entirely to you.

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Coverage

The stretches this covers

Listed by area, because exposure changes noticeably across it.

North end

Large contemporary houses on deep lots, most of them clad in cedar and most of them with water at one end.

Central island

The narrow middle, where ocean and bay are close enough that one house routinely needs two different treatments.

South end

Older cottages and Victorians alongside a marina district, ending at the most exposed address on the island.

Mainland

The easiest ground we cover to work, and the heaviest for organics and irrigation staining.

Cedar, decks and docks

Dock, bulkhead and boat-lift washing

Growth off the decking, the bulkhead cap and the lift frame, worked to the tide and to what is acceptable to put in the bay.

$400 – $1,600 typical range, not a quote

Windows and gutters

Gutter clearing, flushing and whitening

Clearing the run, flushing every downspout, and — separately — taking the black tiger-striping off the outside face.

$175 – $500 typical range, not a quote