NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
The biggest risk after a storm in Selden isn’t what you can see it’s what’s already happening behind your walls. Water that gets into a 1960s ranch doesn’t just sit there. It moves through old insulation, soaks into subflooring, and creates the conditions mold needs within 24 to 48 hours. By the time a ceiling stain shows up, the problem is usually well ahead of it.
Selden’s housing stock makes this especially important. More than half the homes here were built between the 1940s and 1960s, and those older structures weren’t built with modern moisture barriers or tight building envelopes. When wind-driven rain or a hail impact opens up a roof and the July 2022 storm that dropped silver-dollar hail on Selden proved it can happen here water finds its way in faster than most homeowners expect.
What you get when this is handled correctly and quickly: moisture that’s located and eliminated before mold takes hold, structural damage that’s documented properly for your insurance claim, and a home that’s restored to where it was not patched and handed back. That difference is significant, both for the integrity of your home and for what your insurer will cover.
We’re based in Bohemia, right in Suffolk County not a national franchise routing calls through a regional office. Our CEO Jessica Dussan and VP Leo Torres have led this company for over 12 years, completing more than 5,000 restoration projects across Long Island, including throughout Selden and the surrounding communities. Customers call us out by name in reviews, which tells you something about how we run things.
What sets us apart in a community like Selden is the credential stack. Because the vast majority of homes here predate 1978, storm damage can disturb asbestos-containing materials or lead paint and most restoration companies aren’t licensed to handle that. We hold the NYS DOL Asbestos License, NYS DOL Mold License, USEPA Lead and RRP certifications, IICRC-certified technicians, and a Suffolk County General Contractor license that covers every repair we make in the Town of Brookhaven.
That’s not a checklist for show. In Selden’s older neighborhoods, it’s the difference between a company that can handle what we find and one that has to stop work and refer you elsewhere.
When you call us after a storm, our first priority is stopping the damage from growing. That means emergency tarping, board-up, and securing any open areas in your roof or structure fast. Water intrusion that goes unaddressed overnight in a Selden home, especially one with older insulation and limited vapor barriers, can compound quickly. The goal in those first hours is containment.
From there, we use professional extraction equipment and thermal imaging cameras to locate moisture you can’t see with the naked eye. This step matters more than most people realize. Thermal imaging finds water that has migrated into wall cavities, subfloors, and insulation the exact places where mold starts growing before any visible sign appears. Everything gets documented thoroughly, because that documentation is what supports your insurance claim.
Once the structure is dry and cleared, repair work begins. Because we hold a Suffolk County General Contractor license, we handle the full scope in-house structural repairs, permitting through the Town of Brookhaven, and full cosmetic restoration. If the damage uncovers anything requiring asbestos or lead assessment, we’re already licensed to address it without stopping the project. You get one crew, one point of contact, and a finished home not a relay race between contractors.
Ready to get started?
Storm damage restoration in Selden isn’t a single service it’s a sequence. What starts as a roof breach after a wind event or a hailstorm can become a water damage situation, then a mold risk, and in homes built before 1978, a potential hazmat concern. We’re equipped for the full chain: emergency securing, water extraction and structural drying, mold prevention and remediation, asbestos and lead assessment, structural repair, and complete cosmetic restoration.
For Selden homeowners specifically, the hazardous materials piece is worth understanding. Cement-asbestos shingles were common on the mid-century Cape Cods and ranches that line Selden’s residential streets. When storm damage cracks siding or disturbs roofing materials on these homes, the question of asbestos isn’t hypothetical it’s a real possibility that requires a licensed contractor to assess and address legally. The same applies to lead paint in walls that storm damage has cracked or opened. Most restoration companies will stop work when this comes up. We don’t have to.
Insurance navigation is also part of what we do. We document damage in the format insurers need, communicate directly with adjusters, and can bill your insurance company directly something our customers have specifically noted in reviews. If the August 2024 flooding event or a future storm makes you eligible for Town of Brookhaven storm damage grants, a licensed contractor’s documentation is required to access those funds. That’s covered too.
In most cases, yes but the details matter. Standard homeowner’s insurance policies in New York typically cover sudden and accidental storm damage, including wind, hail, and water intrusion from a storm event. What they don’t cover is damage that’s been building over time due to deferred maintenance, which is why the timing and documentation of your claim matters so much.
For Selden homeowners, this is especially relevant after events like the July 2022 hailstorm or the August 2024 flooding that prompted Governor Hochul’s disaster emergency declaration for Suffolk County. If your roof was compromised by hail and water got in, that’s a covered event but the insurer needs proper documentation of the damage sequence to process it correctly. We document everything in the format adjusters need, communicate directly with your insurance company, and can bill them directly in many cases. That removes a significant amount of stress from a process most homeowners have never navigated before.
Mold can begin growing within 24 to 48 hours on surfaces that are simply damp not soaked, not visibly wet, just damp. In Selden’s older homes, where insulation tends to be less dense and wall cavities less sealed than in newer construction, water from a storm event moves quickly into places you can’t see. By the time a stain appears on a ceiling or a wall feels soft, mold has usually already started.
This is why the speed of the initial response matters more than most people realize. Professional extraction and drying equipment not consumer-grade fans is what actually eliminates moisture from within wall assemblies and subfloors. Our technicians use thermal imaging to locate hidden moisture pockets in the structure before they become a mold problem, which is a step that most homeowners don’t know to ask about but that makes a significant difference in the outcome. The faster moisture is addressed in a 1950s or 1960s Selden home, the less likely you are to be dealing with a full remediation project weeks later.
It’s a legitimate concern, and most homeowners in Selden’s older neighborhoods don’t think to ask about it until a contractor brings it up mid-project. Asbestos was used widely in residential construction through the mid-1970s in insulation, floor tiles, ceiling tiles, joint compounds, and notably in the cement-asbestos shingles that were common on the Cape Cods and ranches built across central Suffolk County after World War II. If storm damage has cracked your siding, disturbed your roofing materials, or opened up wall cavities, there’s a real possibility that asbestos-containing materials are involved.
New York State requires a specific NYS DOL Asbestos License to legally assess and abate asbestos. Most storm damage contractors including franchise operators don’t hold this license, which means they either skip the assessment or have to stop work and refer you to a separate company. We hold the NYS DOL Asbestos License, along with USEPA Lead and RRP certifications for lead paint, which is also a factor in any pre-1978 home. If something is found during the restoration, the project doesn’t stop we’re already authorized to handle it.
For structural repairs roof replacements, wall repairs, anything that affects the building’s structural integrity yes, the Town of Brookhaven requires a building permit. This applies to Selden homeowners the same as anywhere else in the town’s jurisdiction. The permit process involves submitting documentation of the damage and the planned scope of repair, and the completed work needs to pass a Brookhaven inspection before it’s considered closed out.
This is one of the practical reasons why working with a licensed general contractor matters, not just a cleanup crew. We hold a Suffolk County General Contractor license, which means we can pull permits, execute work that meets current Brookhaven building codes, and get the job inspected and signed off. For older Selden homes, this sometimes means bringing a specific element of the structure up to current code as part of the repair scope something a fully licensed contractor can navigate, and something that can create complications if the work was done without the right credentials in the first place.
Cleanup is the front end of the process removing debris, extracting standing water, tarping and boarding up openings, and getting the property stabilized. It’s urgent and necessary, but it’s not the same as restoration. Restoration is everything that follows: drying the structure completely, identifying and eliminating hidden moisture, repairing structural damage, addressing any hazardous materials that were disturbed, and returning the home to its pre-storm condition cosmetically and structurally.
For Selden homeowners, the distinction matters because some companies specialize in one and not the other. If you hire a cleanup crew and then need to find a separate contractor for structural repairs and potentially a third for mold or asbestos if it comes up you’re coordinating a chain of vendors during an already stressful situation. We handle the full sequence in-house, from the first emergency call through the final walk-through. In a community where most homes are owner-occupied and most residents have never dealt with major storm damage before, having one accountable point of contact throughout the entire process is not a minor convenience.
After the August 2024 flooding event, the Town of Brookhaven established a storm damage grant program that made qualifying homeowners eligible for up to $50,000 for health and safety repairs not covered by insurance. That program was a direct response to the scale of damage across the town which includes Selden and it required professional documentation of the damage and licensed contractor execution of the repairs to access the funds. It’s worth checking with the Town of Brookhaven directly (their storm damage line is 631-451-8696) to understand what programs are currently available following any declared storm event.
Beyond grants, the insurance side of the equation is where most of the financial recovery happens for Selden homeowners. We have extensive experience working directly with insurance companies, which our customers have called out specifically in reviews. That experience translates to better-documented claims and more favorable coverage outcomes. A well-documented claim submitted with the right evidence and supported by a contractor who understands how adjusters evaluate damage tends to result in better coverage than one filed without that support.
Local Resources
Useful Links
