Woodwork Finishing in Longport, NJ

Exterior wood and interior millwork finished for a full-exposure location.

Exposed wood in Longport gets sun, salt and constant wind, which is a punishing combination for any clear or semi-transparent finish. We're candid about that up front: a natural mahogany rail or deck at the point is an annual or biannual maintenance item, not a five-year one. If you want the look, we'll build it properly and set a maintenance schedule; if you'd rather not maintain it, we'll recommend a pigmented system that lasts considerably longer.

Where wood is painted, the work is about edges and end grain. Rail caps, post tops, threshold ends, shutter bottoms and cut ends of trim are where water enters, so those are sealed before assembly wherever we can handle the piece, and given extra film build where we can't. Doors and shutters are taken off, finished on all faces and rehung with hardware cleaned or replaced.

Interior millwork in these houses is often extensive — paneled walls, coffered ceilings, built-in cabinetry and wide trim packages. That work is finished like cabinetry: filled, sanded, dusted, bonded with primer and topcoated in thin waterborne enamel coats with full cure time between, so it stays hard and clean-looking through a busy summer.