Handyman services in Brick, NJ

What kind of homes are in Brick?

90.9% of Brick's housing was built before 2000 and 34.7% predates 1970 — the most uniformly ageing stock of Ocean County's two large townships (ACS 2024 5-year, table B25034).

Brick is two markets inside one township. A large share of its housing sits on bulkheaded man-made lagoons off Barnegat Bay and the Metedeconk River, where salt air, moisture and exterior hardware drive the work — and where waterfront jobs need NJDEP clearance before the Township will issue a permit. Inland, Herbertsville and Laurelton are ordinary ageing suburb.

Does Brick flood?

Camp Osborn, a cluster of decades-old oceanfront bungalows on Route 35, lost more than 70 homes to natural-gas-fuelled fires as Sandy's surge came ashore in 2012. Its 78 displaced property owners spent more than seven years in permitting and litigation before a 67-residence rebuild was approved in 2020.

Neighborhoods and areas we cover in Brick: Camp Osborn, Normandy Beach, Herbertsville, Laurelton, Cherry Quay, Baywood, and the rest of 08723.

What does salt air and storm exposure do to a home in Brick?

Brick is two repair markets inside one township, and the boundary between them is water. A large share of its housing sits on bulkheaded man-made lagoons cut off Barnegat Bay and the Metedeconk River, plus a barrier-island strip along Route 35. Those homes take constant salt air and lagoon-side moisture, and the work that comes out of them is relentlessly exterior — deck and dock boards, railings and gates, corroded hardware, exterior outlets and light fittings, and the trim and siding on the water side of the house that always fails first. Inland, in Herbertsville and Laurelton, none of that applies and the job list is ordinary ageing-suburb repair.

And it is genuinely ageing. 90.9% of Brick's housing was built before 2000, and 34.7% predates 1970 — the most uniformly old stock of Ocean County's two big townships, since Toms River absorbed far more new construction. 21.4% of Brick residents are 65 or over, against 17.2% across New Jersey. Long-owned homes with original windows, doors, bathrooms and decks, owned by people who have been in them a long time: that combination is most of what we get called for here.

If your job touches the water, the paperwork runs in a specific order and it is worth knowing before you start. Brick requires an NJDEP permit for a waterfront improvement before the Township will issue its own engineering permit, and two copies of plans go to the Township Engineer for any bulkhead, dock, pier or boat lift in a lagoon or basin. NJDEP routes it by situation — General Permit 6 for a new bulkhead on a substantially developed man-made lagoon, General Permit 10 to reconstruct a legally existing functioning one, and a Waterfront Development Individual Permit for tidal work that fits neither. Where there is a question about what type of bulkhead belongs in a given spot, the Township decides through its Engineering Inspector. To be clear about our own scope: we do not build bulkheads, which is marine contracting. We do the dock boards, railings, gates, lighting and outlets around them.

Camp Osborn is the part of Brick's history that still shapes expectations here. The cluster of decades-old oceanfront bungalows south of the Ocean Club on Route 35 did not flood away in 2012 — more than 70 homes burned, in natural-gas-fuelled fires that started as the surge came ashore, and 78 property owners lost everything. They then spent more than seven years in permitting, regulation and litigation before a 67-residence rebuild was finally approved in 2020. Anyone who lived through that has a realistic view of how long shore work takes and how much of it is paperwork. We quote in writing before starting, we tell you which parts of a job need a specialist contractor rather than us, and we would rather say a job is not ours than find out halfway through.