Local Builder Ramps Up Services In Superstorm Sandy's Aftermath

Local builder John A.Cafiero was pretty confident his Channels Point home could take whatever Superstorm Sandy might bring. The house was built to withstand hurricane force winds.

So Cafiero, his wife Debbie and five children decided to hunker down, even though Debbie was not thrilled with the idea.

"My wife was ready to hit me with a spaghetti pot," he said.

All seemed well in the early evening of Oct. 29, 2012. But between 10 p.m. and midnight, the water began to rise.

"First it came up over the bulkhead," Cafiero recalled. "Twenty minutes later, it was touching my house. I didn't sleep at all that night."

Fortunately, the water never came any farther. But Cafiero was troubled by the destruction he saw around Ocean County after Sandy's aftermath.

"My two sons and I took a tour around Forked River and saw all the devastation. My jaw was open."

Cafiero, the owner of Lacey-based Axis Builders, already offered a wide range of services. But after Sandy, he decided to add house raising to the mix. Axis is a fully-licensed home building and remodeling business.

He has a work crew of 14, three managers and an outside salesman. Debbie is the office manager and has an assistant. Cafiero also uses qualified
subcontractors to supplement his crew.

"We use quality subcontractors," he said. "My name is on every job. I want to make sure quality is on every job."

Axis was busy before Sandy. Now Cafiero's even busier. The company is backlogged with home repairs and remodeling jobs.

"The storm brought us a lot of work, but we were busy before the storm," he said. "We can really handle any situation."

Axis can also repair storm-related damage, including crawl space and mold remediation. And when it comes to mold, getting rid of it as quickly as possible is a priority, he said.

"Mold can grow when you have a water content of 15 percent or greater in wood," Cafiero said. "We don't start closing up until the content is 15 percent or less."

Cafiero chose the name "Axis" for his business because "it's the center of what everything rotates around."

And no job is too small.

"If there's a leaky faucet, we'll fix it," he quipped.

The business was born in 2005, a product of the remodeling work Cafiero has done much of his life.

He started out buying and fixing properties, then "flipping" them for a profit.

"The first house, I lived in," he said. "One time I bought three houses in one week. My first deal I borrowed money from my father."

Cafiero is also vice president of the Lacey Township Chamber of Commerce. Axis Builders is located at 136 South Main Street in Forked River. For more information, go to the company's main website at http://www.buildaxis.com/ or call 609-489-6305.

The main website also lists a number of specialized websites for each service the company offers.

Cafiero expects to be extremely busy for a long time, after Sandy.

"My guess is five to eight years to put things back to a new normal," he said.