A bay house in Brick, Toms River, Bayville, Ocean Gate, Waretown or Stafford deals with salt, humidity and wind across open water for most of the year. Salt left on the siding will lift a new coat of paint, so the first step on any waterside exterior is a proper wash and a dry day before anyone picks up a scraper. The elevations facing the bay are scoped as their own job because they weather much faster than the sheltered sides, and trim on those faces usually gets a tougher finish than the body of the house.
Many lagoon and bayfront houses in the county were raised or rebuilt after Superstorm Sandy. A cottage that used to be painted from a stepladder now sits a full story higher on pilings, with tall fiber-cement or vinyl walls and new trim that still needs its cut ends primed. That changes the staging, the schedule and the price, and we plan for it during the estimate rather than discovering it on the first morning.
Away from the water, the issue is shade and damp instead of salt. Houses on wooded lots in Jackson, Manchester, Berkeley and the western edge of the county sit near the Pine Barrens, where pine shade keeps north walls wet and mildew comes back quickly on paint applied over a dirty surface. We wash and treat the mildew, let the wall dry, and use mildew-resistant finishes on those faces.
