Serving Nassau County

Roughly 88% of Nassau County housing was built before 1978. That is a striking figure even by Northeast standards, and it means the default assumption here has to be that lead paint is present somewhere until testing proves otherwise.

What makes Nassau distinctive is not just the age of the housing but its sameness. This is where mass-produced American suburbia started. Levittown was built between 1947 and 1951 as near-identical houses, and much of the county followed the same model: whole neighborhoods put up quickly, by the same crews, to the same plans, using whatever was standard at the time. Asbestos and lead paint were standard at the time.

That uniformity is genuinely useful to us. When we have abated a cape on one street, we have a very good idea of what is behind the walls of the identical cape three streets over. It shortens inspections and makes estimates more accurate. It also means these problems are rarely confined to one house, which is why a fair number of our Nassau calls come from someone whose neighbor just had work done.

The other Nassau pattern is renovation. Older homes here get updated constantly, and renovation is exactly how a dormant hazard becomes an active one. Asbestos floor tile sitting quietly under two later layers of flooring harms nobody. The same tile hit with a grinder on a Tuesday morning fills the house with fibers.