I met Peter and Julie a little over a year ago at a local fundraiser. Peter is one of the founders of Professional Restoration, a company that specializes in remediation, restoration, and reconstruction of homes or businesses that have suffered from various misfortunes like a fire, flood, natural disaster, etc.

I can’t even begin to imagine what a family must go through after experiencing such a loss, and I am sure the last thing they want to deal with is cleaning up and getting everything back to normal. In comes Professional Restoration.

What I love about Peter and the people of this company is the old school approach of customer service. When something bad happens, I am sure the last thing a family wants to do is talk to a machine. Their approach is very hands-on and they walk you through the whole process, even helping you deal with your insurance.

Now they don’t only help when you have a loss, but they also provide services that can help avoid disasters such as HVAC, duct cleaning, dryer vent cleaning and more.

What are your names?

Peter Shine – Managing Partner

Julie Nole – Director of Business Development

And what do you guys do?

Peter: I’m the owner of Professional Restoration, a restoration company for fire, water, and mold remediation. We come in if a pipe breaks in the unit or a fire happens, we clean it all up, we get everything ready for rebuild, and make it nice.

So you basically clean up big messes?

Peter: Exactly!

Julie: We’re the disaster professionals.

That’s awesome. How long have you been doing this?

Peter: I’ve personally been doing this for almost 8 years. I opened this company a little over three and a half years ago.

What made you open your own company?

Peter: Basically, me and my partner Robert Rodriguez decided it was time for us to go on our own and do what we love to do.

Why would people want to use your services, as opposed to cleaning up everything on their own?

Peter: A lot of people don’t want to jump into messes. We deal directly with your insurance company.

So you make it easy for people to get back to normal?

Peter: Yeah, we make it easier for people. We’re basically a family-owned business. We want to make sure that people know that we care about their personal posessions just as much as we would if it were our own.

Right. 

Julie: And it’s important for professionals to come in and do the proper restoration, making sure there aren’t further issues down the road. Having a professional come in, to make sure it’s dried out properly, cleaned up properly, that’s what our specialty is. Water loss is our main loss. We call it a “loss” when something happens.

Loretta Shine: When it happens, you’re just so devastated that you don’t want to handle it yourself. I had a loss. A pipe broke in the bathroom and it went downstairs, then it went into the basement. I was in awe and in a panic, almost like what you see on TV when a house collapses or a tornado. It’s like, you’re devastated.

Julie: I personally had a loss, also. Many years ago, I had a fire in my home and it displaced our family for six months. When you have young children, they lose all their books and you lose pictures, a lot of personal things you cannot replace. I think having that experience helps bring that to the table. In this industry, people become very numb to the damage. We never forget that these people just lost everything. They may be displaced, and the Red Cross will come in and help out. We try to work with those organizations, as well, to make sure the family is set up properly.

When a loss happens, do they call you right away?

Julie: Sometimes, they call their insurance companies and the insurance companies call us, or we get a call directly from the customer.  The people we’ve been doing business with know we’ll be there. We have a 24-hour emergency service.

Peter: We deal with a lot of property managers. When a loss happens, the insurance company calls us in, they introduce us to the property manager, and then we take it from there. We do networking and marketing to get our name out there. I want to become your friend. I want you to know who I am. I want you to trust me. You call me at 2AM and I pick up the phone.

You have, like, a relationship. 

Peter: Right, we build a relationship with our clients.

Loretta Shine: Just like any business. Just imagine living in an apartment or condo and you come home from work, and you’re flooded but you don’t see where the water is coming from in your house because it came from the floor above. You think, “What do I do now?”

Tell us a little bit more about your work in Jersey City specifically. 

Peter: Our work in Jersey City is mainly high rises. If a riser breaks and the 20th floor floods out, the property manager will call us up and we’ll come in. 90% of our work is high rises, which is usually residential to homeowners.

Are you trying to reach a more residential area in Jersey City?

Julie: We do residential homes and commercial. We do work with some small boutique management companies, but management companies and property owners are our main source of business. We do work with personal homes, so a lot of companies like State Farm, Liberty Mutual, or Nationwide might be residential homes, and we do work in those homes.

Peter: And not only for the water, fire, and mold. We also do dryer vents and trash chutes. The dryer vents we do in these high rises, it’s a basic fire prevention.

Julie: With trash chute cleaning, a lot of these high rises could be 30 stories high. A lot of grease fires happen in trash chutes. We come in and we’ll do trash chute cleanings and dryer vent cleanings. A lot of times, they can get a discount on their insurance policy because they’re maintaining those items, and that’s kind of a way for us to get our foot in the door. Disasters don’t happen every day. You could have a sprinkler or a pipe break, or a fire once in a lifetime. It’s kind of a way for us to get our foot in the door, build a relationship, and then when that emergency does happen, they know they can rely on us to be there.

So it’s also about prevention, too?

Julie: Absolutely.

Peter: We’ll come in and do an evaluation plan of the property, and we’ll put a book together for you. God forbid the property manager isn’t there and the electricity goes out, they can go in and say, “Okay, this is where the electric is, this is who we use.” If they have a fire, they know to go to Professional Restoration.

Julie: It’s an emergency plan, an emergency preparedness plan. We’ll come in and we’ll develop that. We’ll do a walkthrough with the Super and the property manager. Every city has different fire prevention and different codes. It’s a full service plan that makes it easier for everyone to act quickly and calmly when an emergency happens.

Awesome.

Peter: Another service we offer is what we call “crime scene cleanup.” It’s biohazard crime scene cleanup.

Your employees must have very strong stomachs! 

Peter: They do!

But bodies and stuff?

Peter: We don’t take the bodies, we just clean up after.

That’s too much. 

Julie: It happens!

A big four-letter word that scares a lot of people is “mold,” and we’re a licensed mold remediation company. If you suspect mold or think you may have it, we can come in and do a complimentary inspection. Anyone can call us, and if they mention “Chicpea,” we’ll offer a discount on a service.

Oh, cool! People would like that.

Julie: You had asked a really important question about what we brought to the table. Pete is an ex-NYPD officer, and I’m an ex-property manager and I managed a building in Jersey City on the river. I dealt with major disasters like Hurricane Sandy, fires, major sprinkler breaks. Because that was my background and a lot of our clients are property managers, I’ve been on the other side. I know what it was like to be a property manager and what it was like to deal with those disasters, keeping residents calm, dealing with insurance company, communicating to your board.  It’s really important, so we bring a lot to the table when you call our company.

Awesome. Do you guys live in Jersey City?

Peter: No, my mom lives in Bergenfield and I live in Rockland County, NY.

Julie: I live in Chatham, but I did live in Jersey City. We moved a couple of years ago up north. I have two young boys, and we were ready to transplant and move out. But we miss it horribly. We’re really passionate about opening a business in Jersey City. We felt there was a need here.  We love the Jersey City community and we try to get involved as much as possible through outreach etc.

Do you guys have a favorite Jersey City hangout spot?

Julie: There’s a lot of great spots in Jersey City. I mean, Jersey City’s exploded so much.

Peter: I like Iron Monkey.

Julie: The Iron Monkey’s fun, especially their rooftop in the summer. It’s great. I have a fond love for Sensory Kids. It’s not really a hangout spot, but still. And right there, you have Skinner’s Loft, which is great. The biergarten is fantastic. They have all these outdoor picnic benches and the kids can run around while the parents enjoy themselves!

Peter: On another note, one of the reasons why my mom has come to join us is because she’s worked her whole life. She would work and take care of us, she worked at a bank and ran a construction company for my father.

She’s awesome! 

Are you proud of your son for being a business owner?

Loretta Shine: Yes! I told him that just recently. He’s grown up to be a very good man. He has three beautiful sons and a beautiful wife.

I love it. Any last words?

Peter: Yes! I want to give a shout out to Robert Rodriguez, my partner who is a great family man – he lives in North Bergen and has four boys of his own!

Awesome.

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