Based in Montclair, working across NJ

A contractor for the whole property

Courtyard Home Improvements is based in Montclair, New Jersey, and works across the state. Paving and masonry are the biggest part of what we do. The same company handles the chimney, roof, gutter and foundation work that most properties need alongside them, which saves you managing three trades who each blame the other two.

Jerry is the name customers use in their reviews. The thing that goes wrong on this kind of work is almost always a decision made underground, which is why every job here is looked at in person before it is priced.

How we quote

Estimates are free and done in person. We do not price driveways or patios off a photograph, because the two things that set the price are the ground and the access, and neither shows up in a picture.

You get a written price. If a repair will do the job, we will tell you that rather than quoting a replacement. Recommending the smaller job is the cheapest advertising there is.

What we will not do

• Seal a driveway that needs structural repair first, and call it fixed
• Build a retaining wall without drainage behind it because it saves a day
• Lay a patio on one thick uncompacted lift because nobody will see it
• Quote a replacement when a repair is the honest answer

Why one contractor for several trades

Most exterior problems on a house are the same problem wearing different clothes, and that problem is water. A chimney that leaks, a gutter that overflows, a patio pitched back toward the foundation and a wet basement are frequently one story rather than four. Splitting them between four contractors means four people each looking at their own piece of it.

That is the practical argument for handling paving, masonry, chimney, roofing and foundation work under one roof. It is not about being a generalist. It is about the person on site being able to follow the water.

Repair before replacement

Across everything we do, the first question is whether the thing in front of us needs repairing or replacing. Those are very different numbers, and the answer is not always the bigger one.

Replacement is sometimes genuinely the right call, and when it is we will say so plainly. But quoting the big job by default is how this trade earned its reputation, and we would rather keep the customer than win the invoice.

Where we work

Essex County is home ground, so Montclair, Verona, Glen Ridge, Bloomfield, Nutley, Cedar Grove, West Orange and Clifton get the shortest drives and the fastest estimates. We take work across the rest of New Jersey too, and the specialty driveway surfaces in particular take us well beyond Essex County.