Jersey City is the second-largest city in New Jersey, with about 292,000 residents at the 2020 census on just under fifteen square miles of land between the Hudson River and the Hackensack. Its housing changes block by block. Downtown, Van Vorst Park and Hamilton Park are square parks laid out in the mid-1800s and lined with nineteenth-century brownstone rowhouses, and Paulus Hook and Harsimus Cove are nearby. Those four neighborhoods are local, state and national historic districts. Up the hill, the Heights sits on top of the Palisades, with Victorian and Edwardian houses on its older streets. Along the waterfront, high-rise condominium and rental towers have gone up since the 2000s, and Journal Square, Bergen-Lafayette, Greenville and the West Side each have their own mix of older homes and apartment buildings.
In a brownstone or an older rowhouse, most of the painting is indoors and most of the time goes into preparation. Plaster walls and ceilings crack as buildings settle, so we cut out and fill cracks, skim damaged areas and spot-prime the repairs so they do not show through the finish. Original casings, doors, stair rails and mantels usually carry many coats of old oil paint. Almost all of it predates 1978, so we work lead-safe as standard: containment, wet scraping instead of dry sanding, HEPA cleanup and a clean site every day. Bonding primer goes on before any waterborne topcoat. Outside, the work is typically wood windows, doors, cornices and iron railings rather than the stone itself, and in the downtown historic districts exterior changes can need review by the city's Historic Preservation Commission, so it is worth checking before you settle on colors.
Condo and apartment buildings set their own rules. Many require a certificate of insurance before a contractor can start, limit work to set hours, and need elevators booked and hallways protected. We handle that paperwork with the building management, protect floors and furniture, and keep the unit usable while we work room by room. The usual jobs are repainting over builder-flat walls in a scrubbable finish, crisp lines where walls meet tall ceilings and window systems, and kitchen cabinets refinished with a sprayed enamel instead of being torn out.
Parking and staging take planning in the city too, so we sort out where the van and materials go before the first morning. We also refinish hardwood floors, paint storefronts, offices and building common areas outside business hours, and coat garage and basement floors in epoxy. NJ Painting Co. is a family-owned company based in Morganville in Monmouth County, and we travel to Jersey City for jobs. We are licensed and fully insured, every estimate is free, written and includes a color consultation, and the work carries a two-year workmanship warranty.
