In Ayer, the Building Sets the Schedule
We work the Main Street blocks between Pleasant Street and Columbia Street, the houses off Park Street, Faulkner Street and Winthrop Avenue, the neighborhoods near Sandy Pond, and the flex and industrial buildings out toward Devens on Barnum Road.
Ayer built its center out of brick and stone, and masonry like that never stops asking for something. Water gets into a joint, freezes, expands, and the mortar gives up a quarter inch at a time until the face of the brick starts shedding in thin flakes above it. Cutting those joints back to sound material and repacking them is simplest in the warm months, and in winter it gets done under a heated enclosure with a low temperature mix so a green joint never takes a hard freeze. The houses near the tracks sit on the same kind of foundation with wood above it: two families and modest single family stock on tight lots, plaster over lath, painted sash, back stairs and porches facing the weather with nothing in front of them. Those porches lose their film on the treads first, since snow sits there all winter and the wood underneath never dries out. Across the rest of town the stock turns to capes, ranches and later colonials, where the paint is trim and doors, the floors are strip oak going dull in the traffic lane, and road salt from November onward is what is grinding them down.
Two very different kinds of building carry the commercial work here. Downtown is narrow storefronts with apartments over them and one entry serving both, nowhere behind the building to stage from, and a sidewalk that fills up whenever a train lets out, so materials go in through the front on an agreed hour and the staging comes down the same night. Shops get their glass and entry floors ahead of opening, the kitchens hand over once the last table clears, and the offices and practices upstairs go after six or on a Saturday. Out toward Devens the buildings are the opposite: wide floor plates, painted block, sealed concrete, dock doors and an office bolted to the front of a warehouse. That work gets scheduled against production instead of against business hours, which usually means a shutdown weekend, a second shift window or a holiday. Racking has to be cleared before anybody can reach a wall, so the scope opens by saying who moves it. Contractors running a fit out want the post construction work held in order, heavy debris cleared while trim and touch up are still moving, and the fine work saved for a floor their people have already walked off. We are licensed and insured, and the certificate goes over with the proposal.
What we take on in Ayer
- 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 Ayer 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.
Work in Ayer, quoted in writing.
Half an hour, no charge, and nobody pitches you anything. We look, you tell us what has been going wrong, and the number follows in writing.