NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
Storm damage in Medford doesn’t always look like what you’d expect. Sometimes it’s a tree through the roof. Sometimes it’s a slow leak behind the wall that you don’t find until the drywall is already soft and the mold has started. Either way, the longer it sits, the more it costs and the harder it gets to deal with your insurance company without documentation to back you up.
Medford’s location at the edge of the Long Island Central Pine Barrens means wind events here are different from what homeowners in coastal towns deal with. You’re not fighting storm surge you’re fighting mature pitch pines and oaks coming down on roofs, fences, and outbuildings during nor’easters and summer storms. That’s a specific kind of damage that needs a crew who handles tree removal and structural repair together, not separately.
The other reality is the housing stock. A significant portion of Medford’s homes were built between 1940 and 1980. When storm damage opens up a wall or disturbs insulation in a house that age, what’s behind it matters. Asbestos pipe wrap, lead paint, deteriorated flashing these aren’t rare finds in this area. You need a contractor who’s licensed to handle what they find, not one who stops work and tells you to call someone else.
Green Island Group has been operating out of Bohemia for over 12 years, which puts us a few minutes from Medford’s Eagle Estates neighborhood, Horseblock Road, and everything in between. We’ve completed more than 5,000 projects across Suffolk County, Nassau County, and New York City and we hold every license required to handle storm damage from first response through full restoration without handing you off to a subcontractor.
That includes our Suffolk County General Contractor license, NYS DOL Mold and Asbestos licenses, USEPA Lead and RRP certifications, and IICRC-certified technicians for water damage and drying. When a storm opens up a 1970s home in Medford’s Pines subdivision and reveals something unexpected behind the wall, we don’t stop the job. We’re already licensed to handle it.
CEO Jessica Dussan and VP Leo Torres run this company personally. Customers name them in reviews. That’s not a coincidence it’s how we’ve built the business.
When you call after a storm, the first thing that happens is a fast response. We operate 24/7, and being based in Bohemia means we’re not routing your call through a national dispatch center and hoping someone’s available in Suffolk County. We arrive, assess the damage, and start mitigation immediately tarping, board-up, water extraction, whatever the situation requires to stop the damage from spreading.
From there, we do a full inspection that goes beyond what’s visible. We use thermal imaging to find moisture that’s already migrated into wall cavities, under flooring, and into insulation the kind of hidden damage that looks fine on the surface but creates a mold problem within 48 hours. In Medford’s older homes, this step isn’t optional. It’s where the real scope of the damage gets defined.
Once we know what we’re dealing with, we document everything for your insurance claim and work directly with your adjuster. Most storm damage in Medford is covered but the documentation has to be done right. We handle that process, including direct billing to your insurance company in most cases, so you’re not stuck in the middle of a claims process while your home is waiting on repairs. After the insurance side is settled, we complete the full structural and cosmetic restoration and make sure the work passes Town of Brookhaven permit requirements before we close out the job.
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Storm damage restoration in Medford isn’t a single service it’s a sequence of work that has to be done in the right order by people who are licensed to do each part of it. We cover the full scope: emergency tree and debris removal, roof tarping and board-up, structural assessment, water extraction and industrial drying, mold remediation, asbestos and lead abatement when required in older homes, full structural repair, and final restoration to pre-storm condition.
What makes this relevant specifically for Medford is the combination of factors at play here. You’ve got Pine Barrens tree canopy creating elevated wind-damage risk, a housing stock that’s largely 30 to 60 years old with the environmental hazards that come with it, and a Town of Brookhaven permitting process that structural repair work has to comply with. Most restoration companies handle one or two of those pieces. We handle all of them under one license set, which means no gaps in accountability and no waiting for a specialty subcontractor to become available after a major storm event.
We also install impact-resistant shingles, hurricane straps, and reinforced siding as part of the restoration when it makes sense so the house isn’t just back to where it was before the storm, it’s better positioned for the next one. Given that Suffolk County has been hit with two federally declared storm disasters in the last 13 months, that’s not a hypothetical consideration for Medford homeowners.
In most cases, yes standard homeowner’s insurance policies cover sudden and accidental storm damage, including wind damage, fallen trees, and water intrusion from a damaged roof or broken windows. What they typically don’t cover is damage from flooding that enters through the ground, which requires a separate flood insurance policy. Since Medford is an inland community and not in a high-risk flood zone, most storm damage claims here fall under standard homeowner’s coverage rather than flood insurance.
The part that trips people up isn’t whether they’re covered it’s the documentation. Insurance adjusters are looking for specific evidence: photos taken immediately after the event, a written scope of damage, moisture readings, and in some cases a licensed contractor’s assessment. We help Medford homeowners put together that documentation from the start, which makes a real difference in how quickly claims get processed and how completely they get paid out. We also bill insurance directly in most cases, so you’re not fronting costs and waiting for reimbursement.
We’re headquartered in Bohemia, which sits directly adjacent to Medford separated by a short stretch along the Sunrise Highway corridor. Under normal conditions, that’s a very short drive. After a major storm event, road conditions on Route 112 and Horseblock Road can slow things down, but our crews are staged and ready to move as soon as it’s safe to do so.
The reason response time matters so much is that storm damage compounds quickly. Water that enters through a damaged roof or broken window begins migrating into wall cavities and insulation within hours. Mold can start developing within 24 to 48 hours of water intrusion in a home that’s already warm and humid which describes most Medford homes during summer storm season. Getting a crew on-site fast enough to tarp the roof, extract standing water, and start the drying process is the difference between a repair job and a full remediation project. We operate 24/7 specifically because storm damage doesn’t wait for business hours.
It does, and it’s worth understanding before any work starts. Homes built before 1980 in Medford and there are a significant number of them, particularly in subdivisions like Eagle Estates and along the older streets off Route 112 may contain asbestos insulation, asbestos floor or ceiling tiles, and lead paint on interior and exterior surfaces. These materials aren’t dangerous when they’re intact, but storm damage that cracks walls, disturbs insulation, or damages siding can expose them.
New York State requires separate licenses to legally perform mold remediation and asbestos abatement a general contractor license doesn’t cover this work. We hold both the NYS DOL Mold License and the NYS DOL Asbestos License, along with USEPA Lead and RRP certifications. That means if we open up a wall during storm damage repair and find something that needs to be handled carefully, we don’t stop the job and tell you to find a specialty firm. We’re already credentialed to handle it, which keeps the project moving and keeps your home safe throughout the process.
Cleanup is the immediate response removing debris, extracting water, tarping a damaged roof, boarding up broken windows. It stops the active damage and makes the property safe. Restoration is everything that comes after: repairing or replacing the roof, rebuilding damaged walls, treating and remediating any mold that developed, replacing flooring, and returning the home to its pre-storm condition or better. Both are necessary, and they have to happen in the right order.
The gap between cleanup and restoration is where a lot of homeowners get stuck. Some contractors handle the emergency response but aren’t set up for full structural repair. Others do restoration work but don’t have the environmental licenses to address what storm damage reveals in an older home. We handle both phases from start to finish which matters in Medford, where a single storm event can involve a fallen tree, a compromised roof, water in the walls, and a 1970s-era home with materials that require licensed handling. One company, one scope, one point of accountability throughout.
The first call is to your insurance company to report the claim and get a claim number. The second call is to a restoration contractor who can get on-site fast to assess the structural damage, tarp the opening, and prevent water from continuing to enter the home. Don’t wait on the insurance adjuster to come out before you take protective action most policies actually require you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, and delaying mitigation can complicate your claim.
In Medford, tree-on-roof damage is one of the more common storm damage scenarios we deal with, specifically because of the proximity to the Central Pine Barrens. Large pitch pines and mature oaks along the northern and eastern edges of the hamlet come down during nor’easters and strong summer thunderstorms. When that happens, you need a crew that handles both the tree removal and the roof repair not one that does the tree and tells you to find a roofer separately. We manage both as part of the same job, which means your roof gets closed up faster and the interior damage is limited.
More often than most homeowners expect, yes. Medford’s climate warm, humid summers with average annual precipitation around 47 inches creates conditions where mold can develop quickly after any water intrusion. When storm damage allows water into a wall cavity, under flooring, or into compressed insulation in an older home, that moisture can sit undetected for days or weeks before any visible sign appears. By the time you see discoloration on a wall or smell something off, the mold colony is already established.
The homes most at risk in Medford are the older ones properties built in the 1960s through 1980s where insulation has compressed over time, original window seals have deteriorated, and roofing systems may be on their second or third decade of service. These homes hold moisture differently than newer construction. We use thermal imaging cameras during every post-storm inspection to identify moisture pockets that aren’t visible on the surface, so mold remediation can be addressed as part of the restoration scope rather than discovered as a separate problem three months later. In New York State, mold remediation legally requires a NYS DOL Mold License and we hold it.
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