Arlington Two Families, Inside and Out

East Arlington is block after block of two families built between roughly 1900 and 1930, and most have since been split into condominiums or are lived in upstairs and rented downstairs. That changes who we are talking to. A whole house repaint on one of these needs two owners to agree on a color and a date, and the trustees usually want the exterior, the common stairwell and the porches priced together. Those porches are the weak point. Stacked front and back, exposed on three sides, and the decking holds standing snow all winter, so the paint surrenders on the treads first. Inside, the units are plaster over lath with wide casings, tall baseboards and picture rail, all of it brush work. Up in the Heights and around Jason Heights the houses get larger and older, with more original detail and steeper approaches to the front door. Everywhere in town the driveways are one car wide and often shared, so where the van sits and where the ladders go gets settled during the walkthrough instead of on the first morning.

Almost all of Arlington's commercial work sits on Massachusetts Avenue, a long string of storefronts running from the Cambridge line up to the Heights. Those buildings are old, narrow and mixed use, with apartments over the shop, one entry and no service alley behind. Parking is metered or permit restricted, so an evening job here starts with a plan for where the truck legally sits for four hours, and that goes into the scope rather than becoming somebody's problem at eight at night. Kitchens along the avenue and around the center get worked after close. Retail gets glass, entries and floors before the morning. Small professional offices and studios go after six. Schools, churches and function halls take the vacation weeks. The apartment buildings and multi unit properties here run turnovers on lease dates, mostly clustered at the end of August, and those dates hold whether or not the last tenant left the place decent. We scope them in the spring so the crews are already booked when the keys change.

What we take on in Arlington

• House cleaning, deep cleans and recurring visits
• Move in and move out cleaning for owners and landlords
• Post construction and renovation handover cleaning
• Pre sale cleaning before the photos and the first showing
• Interior and exterior painting, and cabinet refinishing
• Repointing, chimneys, steps, walkways and patios
• Pressure washing for siding, driveways, decks and storefronts
• Offices, retail, practices and restaurants around your hours
• Common areas and unit turnovers for property managers

Getting a price

Every quote for Arlington starts with somebody standing in the actual place. Square footage over the phone is a guess, and on a wall it is worse than a guess, because the failure depth only shows when you put a hand on the joint. You get the scope written out area by area and one number for the job, usually the same business day.