PVC Trim & Window Capping | Dover Roofing, Toms River, NJ

Quick answer

Window capping wraps existing wood trim in aluminum coil bent on site to fit each opening, while PVC trim replaces wood boards outright with a material that can't rot. Around Toms River, we cap trim that's still solid and swap in PVC wherever we find soft wood. Either way, you stop painting window trim, and the details are built to shed water.

Capping, PVC boards or new wood: fitting the fix to the trim

Which route fits depends on the shape the wood is in and the look you want. Here's how we sort it out.

Option	Best for	What to know
Aluminum coil capping	Window and door casings, sills and garage jambs where the wood is still sound	Bent on site to the trim profile in a color that suits the siding; must never cover soft wood
Cellular PVC trim boards	Corner boards, frieze, rakes, water tables, skirt boards and rotted casings	Cuts like wood and won't rot or absorb water; joints need room for expansion
PVC wrapped in coil	Fascia and rake boards behind gutters and along roof edges	PVC base for strength, aluminum cover for a crisp edge that lines up with the drip edge
Primed wood, repainted	Historic homes where the look of real wood trim matters most	Lowest upfront cost, but back on the repaint schedule within a few years near the bay

Signs your trim is ready for capping or replacement

Walk around the house with a screwdriver and look for these. Each one tells us something about the wood underneath.

Paint peeling in the same spots every year

Repeat peeling on sills and lower casings means moisture is getting into the wood from behind or below. Paint won't stick to wood that stays damp, which is why the cycle never ends on those boards.

Soft spots under a probe

Press a screwdriver into sill corners, the bottoms of corner boards and where trim meets the roof. If it sinks in, the wood has rot that has to come out before anything gets covered.

Gaps where trim meets siding

Open joints between casings and siding, or cracked caulk lines, let wind-driven rain behind the siding. That water often shows up as a stain inside under the window or rot at the sill.

Old capping with dents and loose edges

Capping from decades ago was often thin and face-nailed. Once it pops loose, water slips behind it and can't escape. Peel back a corner and you'll often find dark, wet wood.

Swollen, split garage door jambs

Garage jambs take splashback from the driveway and constant bumps. Swollen, split wood at the bottom of the jambs is one of the most common spots where we swap in PVC.

How we cap a window so water can't hide behind the metal

Good capping looks simple, but the order of operations is what keeps the wood under it dry.

Probe and repair first
We test every sill, casing and brick mold. Rotted sections get cut out and replaced with PVC or treated wood, and failed caulk at the window frame gets cleaned out before any metal goes on.
First hour per side
Bend to the profile
Coil stock goes through a brake set up in your driveway, and each piece is bent to the exact shape of that opening's trim. Custom bends fit tighter than stock shapes and leave fewer seams.
On site, as we go
Sill first, then sides, then head
Pieces go on bottom to top so every upper piece laps over the one below, the same way shingles do. Water running down the window always ends up on the outside of the metal.
20 to 40 minutes per window
Fasten at the edges, loosely enough to move
We use colored trim nails placed where the metal can shift a little with temperature. Nailing too tight causes oil-canning, the wavy look capping gets when it bakes in afternoon sun.
Same step
Seal only where it belongs
We seal the joint between capping and the window frame and at vertical seams, but leave the bottom edge of each sill open to drain. Sealing everything traps water, which is exactly how bad capping rots good wood.
Last pass

Typical capping and PVC trim prices in Toms River

Trim work is priced per opening or per run, plus any repairs we find. These are 2026 planning ranges, not quotes.

Work	Typical range	What moves the number
Capping a standard window	$185 to $415 each	window size, mulled units, rot repair at the sill
Capping an entry door	$265 to $540	sidelights, transom, threshold and jamb condition
Capping a two-car garage door opening	$395 to $860	jamb rot, header width, PVC jamb replacement
PVC corner boards, installed	$310 to $720 per corner	wall height, staging, two-story corners
Whole-house trim package with a siding job	$3,860 to $11,450	window count, frieze and rake runs, amount of rotted wood

Totals swing with how many openings get capped and how much rot turns up once we start probing, which is why we look before we price.

PVC behaves differently than wood, so we install it differently

Cellular PVC boards, from makers like AZEK and Versatex, cut and rout like lumber but don't take on water, so they don't rot, cup or feed carpenter ants. The tradeoff is movement. A long PVC board grows and shrinks along its length with temperature far more than pine does, and a dark board on a south wall gets hot enough to move noticeably.

So we glue scarf joints with PVC cement instead of butting boards together, fasten closer than we would with wood using stainless or coated fasteners, and plan joints for the season we're working in. Fastener holes get plugs or PVC filler so they disappear. Aluminum coil, such as the trim coil Alside sells alongside its siding, covers what stays wood. If you want to paint PVC, a light color keeps heat down, and the board makers list the paints they approve.

We also tie trim into the roof edge. Fascia behind a gutter is where wood trim rots first, so when we replace it we'll look at the soffit and fascia along the whole run and whether the gutters are pitched right.

What to decide before we bend the first piece

These choices shape the materials we bring and how the finished trim looks against your siding.

Trim color: blend with the siding, contrast it, or stay classic white
Smooth or woodgrain texture for PVC boards
Flat capping, or a profile that echoes the old brick mold shape
Whether corner boards stay wood, get capped or become PVC
Whether garage jambs and door trim are part of the job
If new windows are coming, cap after they're in, not before
Whether you might want darker painted PVC trim someday

Why trim fails first on Jersey Shore houses

On most homes around Toms River, siding outlasts trim. Window sills sit flat enough to hold water, corner boards wick moisture up from mulch beds, and the fascia behind a gutter stays damp whenever a clog of pine needles backs it up. Add humid summers and salty air on the bay side, and painted pine and fir trim can start breaking down within a decade.

Capes and ranches from the 1950s through the 1980s often still have original wood brick mold under layers of paint, and some carry thin capping from an earlier siding job. Homes in bayfront sections like Shelter Cove and on the barrier island take the worst of the salt. There, stainless fasteners and PVC boards make the biggest difference, and we look hard at every sill facing the water. On newer colonials, the long frieze and rake runs high on the gables are usually the first boards we swap for PVC.

Where we do this work most

We work across all of Toms River (08753, 08755 and 08757) and these neighboring towns every week, along with the rest of Ocean County and southern Monmouth County.

Questions homeowners ask us

Will aluminum window capping trap moisture on my Toms River home?

It can if it's done badly, which is where capping got its reputation. We only cap sound wood, replace any rot with PVC first, and leave drainage paths open at the bottom of sills. Capping installed that way keeps rain off the wood instead of holding it there, and the trim underneath stays dry.

Can you cap windows without replacing the siding?

Yes. Window and door capping is a standalone job on many homes. We bend coil to fit the existing trim in a color that works with your current siding. If the siding is near the end of its life, it's worth doing both together, since trim details tie in more cleanly when the siding is open.

Does PVC trim need to be painted on a house near Barnegat Bay?

No. Cellular PVC comes solid white or in a few textures and colors, and it doesn't need paint to resist moisture. Some owners paint it to suit a siding color, which is fine with paints the board maker approves. Light colors are safer, because dark paint makes PVC absorb heat and move more along its length.

How long does window capping take on a typical Ocean County house?

A home with fifteen to twenty windows plus a couple of doors usually takes one to two days, depending on how much rotted wood we replace first. A larger house, or one with many mulled windows and bays, takes longer. The metal gets bent right in your driveway, so there's no waiting on parts.

Is it worth replacing rotted garage door jambs with PVC?

Usually, yes. Garage jambs sit in driveway splash and take hits from cars and bins, so wood there tends to rot from the bottom up. PVC jambs don't absorb water, and once they're capped or left white, they need very little attention. It's a small trim job that makes a visible difference from the street.

Often booked together