Somerville Jobs Planned Around the Parking

Nothing in Somerville has room around it. A three decker here stands ten or twelve feet off the next one, the side yard is a walkway, and the front yard is a strip of grass and a set of stairs. That geometry decides how an exterior repaint gets done long before the color does. Ladders will not stand where you would like them to, so a full exterior usually means staging, and staging on a street this tight means a parking hold arranged with the city and the neighbors told ahead of time. The buildings themselves are wood frame from roughly 1890 to 1930: three floors, three porches stacked on the back, plaster inside, wide casings, and paint layers going back further than anybody's records. We ask about lead before a sander comes out. The porches fail first, because treads and rail caps hold water and snow all winter and never fully dry out. Inside, plaster cracks along the same lines every year and gets bridged rather than simply filled before a wall is painted.

The squares carry the commercial work. Davis, Union, Ball, Magoun and Teele hold restaurants, bars, cafes, barbershops, studios and small offices packed into old buildings with apartments above them. There is no loading dock behind any of it. Everything comes through the front, across a public sidewalk, on a street where parking is permit restricted and sometimes a single travel lane wide, so an evening job needs the space reserved and the permit pulled before the truck leaves the yard. That is not a detail we bury in the price. Kitchens get degreased after last call, with the hood, the fryer wall and the floor grout done and dry before the morning delivery. Retail gets glass and floors before opening. Offices and studios go after six. The renovated industrial buildings near Assembly and along Somerville Avenue behave more like conventional commercial property, with management, a freight door and set service hours. Condominium trustees book the stairwell painting, the entry masonry and the hallway cleaning together, since getting one crew onto the street is hard enough.

What we take on in Somerville

• 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 Somerville 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.