Exterior Cleaning in Mountain Lakes, NJ

Mountain Lakes is unlike anywhere else in Morris County. Developer Herbert Hapgood built roughly 600 stucco Craftsman homes here between 1911 and 1923, and more than 450 still stand, making this one of the largest concentrations of Arts and Crafts architecture in the United States. The borough has been on both the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places since 2005. The signature Hapgood look, stucco exteriors over wire lath, boulderstone foundations, fieldstone chimneys, and exposed chestnut and oak inside, is exactly what gives these homes their character and exactly what makes cleaning them a specialist’s job.

Stucco and stone are unforgiving of high pressure. Blast a Hapgood facade with a pressure wand and you risk cracking the stucco, pitting the stone, and driving moisture into walls that were never built dry. We soft wash these exteriors at low, controlled pressure with solutions that lift the algae, mildew, and decades of film without harming the original material. Roofs get an algae-killing soft wash, and we finish with windows, gutters, and walkway and paver cleaning so the whole home looks the way Hapgood intended.

The lakes, woods, and rolling terrain that make Mountain Lakes beautiful also keep roofs and walls shaded and damp, so growth comes back seasonally. Most owners of these historic homes move to a recurring schedule to keep the stucco and stone looking their best year-round.