Jersey City and the surrounding Hudson County area
Musty smell, a stain, or a basement that took water? Send us the street and you will hear which of Jersey City's three water problems you have, and whether you need a contractor at all.
The ground falls from about 157 feet at Pershing Field in the Heights to about 6 feet at Exchange Place, two and a half miles away. Water arriving sideways through an old foundation is a different job, at a different cost, from water pushed up a floor drain out of a combined sewer.
Working out which one you have is most of the value, so the company that writes the finding is never the company that sells you the removal. Pick the zone that sounds like your street, or send the address and we will place it for you.
The Heights, Western Slope, Riverview, Central Avenue, Palisade Avenue
Up on the ridge it usually arrives sideways through an old foundation wall, which is a drainage problem and costs a fraction of the other.
Journal Square, Bergen Hill, West Side, Marion, Greenville
The West Side and Greenville send their water the other way. It is low ground draining toward the Hackensack rather than the Hudson.
Paulus Hook, Exchange Place, Newport, Grove Street, Van Vorst
Down at the waterfront the water usually comes up through a drain out of a combined sewer, which is treated as contaminated, so soaked material is taken out rather than dried.
Tell us the street and what you can see or smell, and say whether the water came up through the floor or in through a wall.
Usually not. New Jersey's health department says that where a visual inspection reveals mold, additional testing is not necessary, and the money is better spent fixing the moisture and cleaning up. The EPA adds that no federal limits exist for mold or spores, so a sample result has nothing to be checked against.
If you can see it and see where the water gets in, a test is money spent on the wrong half of the job.
The state health department's booklet puts areas under about 10 square feet within reach of a homeowner or building maintenance staff. Between about 10 and 100 square feet it suggests a professional opinion. Above about 100 square feet it says to hire a contractor experienced in mold cleanup.
A patch behind a bathroom door is the first category, and you do not need us for it.
Often nothing is leaking. In a Jersey City summer the outside air is warm and humid, and it leaves water on any surface colder than it. Below grade, that is most of the wall. That is a dehumidifier and airflow problem, with no leak behind it.
The way to tell is whether the wall is wet where it is coldest or wet where water gets in, and a walkthrough settles that in an hour.
Yes, and it changes the whole job. Jersey City runs on a combined sewer, one line carrying stormwater and sanitary waste together, and the city's utility says that line sometimes overflows in heavy rain. Water that comes up a floor drain has been in that line. The state says water containing sewage needs extra steps to assess, clean and decontaminate.
Porous material such as carpet and ceiling tile often has to be thrown out rather than dried.
Send your landlord a dated written note about the water, and keep a copy. The state health department says renters often have trouble getting mold corrected, and that government offices have little authority over mold itself. It points renters to the local building code office, which can act on an unrepaired leak or on plumbing.
That is why a written finding naming the leak matters more to a tenant than a removal.
Because the state's own health department asks twice that it not be done that way. The header of its remediation firms list recommends that the company assessing your home not be the company removing the mold, and its resident booklet says the same.
In Jersey City that matters more than average, because the cause could be a hillside drainage fault or a contaminated sewer backup. Those are jobs of very different size, and you do not want the diagnosis coming from whoever is paid for the bigger one.
The finding is written by a company with no bid on the removal, and a second company prices the work against it. The state health department recommends exactly that in two of its documents. No state rule arranges it, so it happens on purpose or it does not happen.
Downtown ZIP 07302 has filed over a thousand flood insurance claims since 1978, and the Heights ZIP 07307 has filed almost none. A scope written for one address is the wrong scope at the other, and the price follows the scope.(FEMA)
The rooms affected, the moisture readings, the route the water is taking and what has to change to stop it, in a document you can hand to a management company, an association, an adjuster or the city. For most readers here that document is the useful part, because most readers here do not own the wall.
The state health department puts anything under about 10 square feet within reach of a resident or a building's own maintenance staff. When that is what you have, we will say so, and that is the end of it.
No state mold license exists, so no company you call can show you one. Ask two things instead: who writes the finding, and who sells the removal. We keep those two apart and put the findings in writing before any removal is quoted.
The state health department recommends the same split for homeowners.(NJ Dept. of Health)
Three steps. The first one is a conversation, not a visit, and it often ends the matter.
Send the form with the property address and its ZIP code, or call and describe it out loud. Before anyone comes out we work out which part of the city you are in and whether you are describing a drying job, a removal job, or a dehumidifier.
A room by room walkthrough, moisture readings, and the finding written down: the areas inspected, the cause of the growth, how to take care of it and any sampling results. That is the shape the state health department says a report should take.
A separate licensed and insured contractor quotes the scope the report describes, so the party naming the work is not the party who decided how much of it there is. You are under no obligation to accept the quote, and you keep the report either way.
| Town | Where the water usually comes from | Jobs we arrange |
|---|---|---|
| Jersey City | Waterfront water usually comes up a drain from the combined sewer, so soaked material goes; on the Heights it seeps through old walls.The Heights, Downtown, Paulus Hook, Exchange Place | Mold InspectionMold RemovalWater Damage Drying |
| Bayonne | Water usually comes up through floor drains from the combined sewer, so soaked material is removed rather than dried.Bergen Point, Uptown Bayonne, Midtown Bayonne, Avenue A | Mold InspectionMold RemovalWater Damage Drying |
| Kearny | Most Kearny water is rain and runoff, not the river, so the flood map says little and the job starts with finding the route.Uptown Kearny, Kearny Avenue, Schuyler Avenue, The Dukes Street area | Mold InspectionMold RemovalWater Damage Drying |
| Harrison | Harrison's river side is low and its combined sewers back up in heavy rain, so the first question is usually whose wall is wet.The waterfront redevelopment area, The Harrison PATH district, The older north side, The Bergen Street drainage area | Mold InspectionMold RemovalWater Damage Drying |
| Union City | Union City sits high and has no flood record, so water usually comes from inside the building: plumbing, roofs, old basement walls or condensation.Bergenline Avenue, Summit Avenue, New York Avenue, Palisade Avenue | Mold InspectionMold RemovalWater Damage Drying |
| Weehawken | Low ground in the Shades has the flood history; up the hill water usually arrives through walls, roofs and plumbing, so the scope differs.The Shades, Boulevard East, Park Avenue, The Weehawken waterfront | Mold InspectionMold RemovalWater Damage Drying |
| Secaucus | Water here arrives from the side over flat ground and soaks the whole floor, so height on the wall decides dry or strip out.Harmon Cove, Paterson Plank Road, Secaucus Junction, The Meadowlands side | Mold InspectionMold RemovalWater Damage Drying |
| Hoboken | Most Hoboken water reaches a shared basement or wall, so the first job is finding the route and who owns that wall.Uptown Hoboken, Downtown Hoboken, The Southwest, The Hoboken waterfront | Mold InspectionMold RemovalWater Damage Drying |
Why is my Jersey City basement wet when nobody two neighborhoods over has ever had a drop?
Because Jersey City is three water problems wearing one name, and which one you have is decided by where your address sits on the hill.
Does anyone check a mold company in New Jersey before it works in my home?
If you have a musty smell or a damp wall and are about to hire someone, know this first: nobody in New Jersey holds a state credential to inspect or remove household mold.
My Jersey City apartment has mold and my landlord will not act. What can I actually do?
Put the water source in writing to your landlord, keep proof that you sent it, and complain about the leak rather than about the mold, because the leak is the part a New Jersey code officer has authority over.
What should a mold report contain, and is there such a thing as a clearance certificate?
If a mold company offers you a clearance certificate after cleaning a damp, musty room, know that New Jersey issues none, because there is no state mold program and no federal limit to pass or fail against.
What does mold removal cost, and what actually decides the number?
If you were handed a mold quote, or are about to ask for one, this page gives no price, because we do not price the work and no honest number can come from a photograph.
Every guide is sourced and says plainly when you do not need a contractor.
This promise covers how we handle your request and introduction. The contractor's work falls under your contract with them. Terms.
Mold Removal Jersey City - (315) 640-3590
Phones are answered 24/7. Asking creates no obligation, and nothing is booked until you decide.
