Dry sand on the bluff top, wet ground toward Dillon's Creek Marina, and a borough tree ordinance over both — we set every post for the soil it actually lands in.
Sand does not hold a fence post the way clay does, and nearly every yard in Island Heights sits on it. On the high ground along Central Avenue the soil is well-drained coastal-plain sand, and a post set shallow or backfilled loose leans inside two seasons. Drop toward the water and it inverts: the low ground out by Dillon’s Creek Marina stays wet, and saturated soil lifts posts every freeze. Salt air off the bay and along the Island Heights Boardwalk finishes cheap hardware long before the wood gives out.
That is the ground here — a 0.61-square-mile borough on a bluff about 60 feet above the river, wrapped on its land side by Toms River Township, where our shop is.
The borough was laid out from an 1878 camp meeting, and the lots still show it: shallow setbacks, houses close to the street, walls sitting a few feet off a neighbor’s line. At that spacing a fence set a few inches wrong turns into a real dispute. We build from your survey, and say so up front if there isn’t one.
By most accounts about a third of the homes here sit inside the National Register historic district listed in 1982 — Queen Anne cottages in wood shingle, board-and-batten and clapboard. Cedar picket and board fence read right against that. Powder-coated aluminum gives a slim dark line that disappears against old trim and takes salt far better than raw steel. Vinyl and chain link earn their keep out of sight of the street, on a back yard or a commercial lot.
Trees set the rest of the plan. Borough Code Chapter 26 makes it unlawful to remove any tree here without a permit, and the borough may approve no more than two removals per lot in a calendar year. The same ordinance protects a radius of one foot per inch of trunk diameter, so a 20-inch trunk carries a 40-foot circle you should not trench through. We route the line around the canopy, hand-dig near roots, and step a run rather than take a tree down. Confirm what your job needs with Borough Hall at the Wanamaker Municipal Complex, (732) 270-6415 — rules and fees change.
Fall and winter storms off the bay drive most of our repair calls, and the low streets near the water flood often enough that a fence down there has to shed debris, not catch it. Late winter into early spring is the window: ground workable, footings below the frost line, pool barriers finished before the water goes in. Ask for a free estimate and we will walk the line with you.
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