NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
St. James got a hard reminder in August 2024. The Blydenburgh Pond dam broke, the Nissequogue River overflowed, Route 25A shut down, and water rescues were happening at 1:30 in the morning. Homes that had never flooded before were flooded. Basements were gone by sunrise. And a lot of homeowners in St. James found out the hard way that being outside a FEMA flood zone doesn’t mean you’re covered or safe.
That’s the reality of living on Long Island’s North Shore. Nor’easters, tropical remnants, and inland flash flooding don’t follow the maps people assume protect them. When storm water gets into a home through the roof, the foundation, or a window you have roughly 24 to 48 hours before mold takes hold in the walls. After that, the restoration scope and the cost both grow significantly.
What changes when you call us is that the clock stops working against you. Emergency securing happens first tarping, board-up, whatever the structure needs to stop the bleeding. Then water extraction and drying with industrial equipment. Then a full thermal imaging scan to find moisture hiding inside walls and subfloors that you’d never see with your eyes. By the time your insurance adjuster shows up, your home is stabilized and the damage is fully documented. That’s not just restoration that’s protection of a $900,000 asset on a North Shore street that’s earned its value.
We’re headquartered in Bohemia Suffolk County, same as St. James. CEO Jessica Dussan and VP Leo Torres have been running this operation for over 12 years, completing more than 5,000 restoration projects across Nassau and Suffolk Counties. When customers in St. James and surrounding communities write reviews, they mention Jessica and Leo by name. That’s not something you get from a national franchise routing your call through a regional office.
The licensing stack matters here too, especially in a town like St. James where a significant portion of the housing stock predates 1978. We hold the Suffolk County General Contractor license, NYS DOL Mold License, NYS DOL Asbestos License, USEPA Lead License, and USEPA RRP certification meaning if storm damage opens up a wall in a 1960s Cape Cod off North Country Road and there’s asbestos or lead inside, the same crew that started the job can legally finish it. No stopping. No scrambling for a separate subcontractor. No delay while your home sits open.
We’re also certified by New York State and New York City as a Minority and Woman-Owned Business Enterprise a government-verified credential, not a self-declared one.
It starts with a phone call, any hour. Our emergency response is genuinely 24/7 not an answering service that schedules something for the next morning. Our crews have documented arrival times within an hour of a call. In a storm event like August 2024, where conditions in St. James escalated from heavy rain to active water rescues in a matter of hours, that response window is the difference between a manageable repair and a total loss.
Once on-site, the first priority is stopping further damage. That means emergency tarping on a compromised roof, board-up on breached windows or doors, and water extraction if flooding has already entered the structure. Thermal imaging cameras go through every affected room to locate moisture inside walls, under floors, and in ceiling cavities the kind of hidden saturation that causes mold weeks after the storm has passed and the surface looks dry.
From there, the process moves into full drying and remediation. Industrial air movers and dehumidifiers run until moisture readings hit safe levels. If mold is already present, licensed mold remediation follows. If the structure needs repair roof, siding, framing, windows that work is permitted through the Town of Smithtown Building Department, which we handle as part of the job. The final step is complete restoration: your home back to pre-storm condition, with documentation your insurance company can actually use.
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Storm damage restoration in St. James isn’t a single-service job. The North Shore’s weather patterns nor’easters, tropical remnants, the specific inland flooding risk tied to the Nissequogue River watershed mean that a single storm event can produce roof damage, water intrusion, structural compromise, and mold conditions simultaneously. Our service covers all of it: emergency board-up and tarping, debris and fallen tree removal, roof storm damage repair, wind damage repair with hurricane straps and impact-resistant shingles, water extraction and structural drying, mold remediation, and complete interior and exterior restoration.
For St. James homes built before 1978 and there are many, particularly along and near North Country Road storm damage can disturb asbestos-containing materials in insulation, floor tiles, or old siding, and expose lead paint in cracked walls or damaged trim. Most restoration contractors in Suffolk County are not licensed to handle this. We are, and that matters when a storm tears open a wall in a 60-year-old house and you’re not sure what’s inside it.
Insurance navigation is included, not optional. We document damage thoroughly for adjuster review, assist with claim filing, and bill insurance directly where applicable. For St. James homeowners who discovered after August 2024 that their standard homeowner’s policy covers wind-driven rain and structural storm damage even when flood insurance isn’t in place, that guidance can make a significant financial difference.
This is exactly the question a lot of St. James homeowners were asking after August 2024. The short answer is: it depends on how the water entered your home, and the distinction matters enormously for your claim. Standard homeowner’s insurance typically does not cover rising water from an external source that’s what flood insurance is for. But it generally does cover water damage caused by wind-driven rain, a storm-damaged roof that lets water in, or a window breached by storm debris. If the Nissequogue River overflowed and water came up through your yard and into your basement, that’s a flood claim. If a nor’easter blew off part of your roof and rain came through the opening, that’s likely a covered peril under your standard policy.
The problem is that most homeowners don’t know this distinction until they’re already in the middle of a claim. We walk through this with you before you file, help document the cause and path of water entry accurately, and bill your insurance directly where coverage applies. Getting this documentation right from the start is what determines whether your claim gets paid or denied.
Mold can begin developing within 24 to 48 hours of water intrusion under the right conditions and Long Island’s humid summers create exactly those conditions. What makes this especially relevant for St. James homes is that storm water rarely stays where you can see it. It travels through wall cavities, saturates insulation, and pools under subfloors in ways that look completely dry on the surface. A wall can feel dry to the touch while holding enough moisture inside to produce an active mold colony within two days.
This is why thermal imaging is part of every assessment we conduct, not an add-on. The cameras identify moisture pockets inside the structure that a visual inspection would miss entirely. If mold is already present even if you haven’t smelled it yet licensed mold remediation under the NYS DOL Mold License is required before restoration work can safely proceed. Skipping that step, or hiring a contractor who isn’t licensed for it, doesn’t make the mold go away. It just hides it until it becomes a much larger problem.
Yes, in most cases. Structural repairs following storm damage in St. James fall under the jurisdiction of the Town of Smithtown Building Department, and permits are required for work that affects the structure of your home roof replacement, wall repair, window replacement, foundation work, and similar repairs. This isn’t a technicality to work around. Unpermitted work in the Town of Smithtown can create real problems when you go to sell your home, and it can affect your insurance coverage if the work is later found to be non-compliant.
We handle the permit process as part of the restoration job. We know what the Town of Smithtown requires, what needs to be filed before work begins, and what documentation the inspectors will ask for. For a homeowner who’s already managing an insurance claim, displaced family members, and a damaged house, not having to learn the Smithtown permitting process under pressure is a meaningful part of what a full-service restoration contractor actually provides.
Yes, and it’s more common than most homeowners expect. A significant portion of St. James’s housing stock was built before 1978 the federal threshold for lead paint and many homes from the 1950s through the 1970s contain asbestos in insulation, floor tiles, pipe wrap, old siding, and roofing materials. When a storm cracks walls, damages attic insulation, or tears off old siding, it can disturb these materials and create a hazardous situation that has to be addressed before restoration work can continue.
Federal law requires USEPA Lead and RRP certification for renovation, repair, and painting work in pre-1978 homes. New York State requires a separate NYS DOL Asbestos License for any asbestos abatement. Most restoration contractors operating in Suffolk County are not licensed to handle this. We hold both, along with the USEPA Lead License and USEPA RRP certification. If storm damage opens up your home and reveals something unexpected inside the walls, the crew already on-site can handle it legally without stopping the job to find a separate abatement contractor while your home sits exposed.
The scope is the main difference. Water damage restoration typically addresses a single source a burst pipe, an appliance leak, a backed-up drain and the work is largely contained to drying, remediation, and repair of the affected area. Storm damage restoration starts with that same water damage work, but it also has to address what caused the water to enter in the first place: a compromised roof, damaged siding, broken windows, structural failure, or in a North Shore event like August 2024, a combination of all of the above at once.
Storm damage restoration also typically involves emergency securing of the structure before any drying or repair work begins. A roof that’s partially missing, a window that’s been blown in, or a wall that’s been structurally compromised has to be stabilized first otherwise the restoration work is happening inside a structure that’s still being damaged. Our process starts with emergency board-up and tarping specifically because of this sequencing. You can’t dry a home that’s still open to the weather.
The insurance piece is where a lot of St. James homeowners get stuck, especially after a major event when adjusters are stretched thin and response times slow down. Our approach is to take as much of that burden off you as possible. We document the damage thoroughly including thermal imaging results, moisture readings, photographs, and written scope in a format that insurance adjusters recognize and that supports accurate claim valuation. Where direct insurance billing is applicable, we handle it, which means you’re not fronting the cost and waiting for reimbursement.
What’s specific to St. James is the nuance around what’s covered and what isn’t. After August 2024, many homeowners in this area found themselves navigating the line between flood damage (typically not covered under standard homeowner’s policies) and storm damage from wind, rain, and structural breach (typically covered). Getting that documentation right from day one clearly establishing the cause and path of water entry is what makes the difference between a paid claim and a denied one. We’ve worked through this exact scenario with Long Island homeowners and know how to document it correctly.
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