BROTHERS ON CALL

CARMINE GALASSO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER.

Jon (left) and Terry Wittmaack own a handyman company based in Ridgewood.

9 p.m. Sunday

DIY Network

While television producer Alan LaGarde was living temporarily in Ridgewood last year, he kept seeing bright blue trucks with the words “Man Around the House” all over town.

LaGarde checked out the company’s website and read up on its owners, brothers Jon and Terry Wittmaack.

“We said, ‘This could be our guys,’ ” says LaGarde, who had already discussed doing “some kind of handyman show” with DIY Network. “We saw that they have a great reputation … and they were brothers, and that was a cool component. And then when we met with them, they were real people.”

The Wittmaacks are the stars of “Brothers on Call,” which debuts with back-to-back episodes on Sunday.

Unlike certain other New Jersey-based shows, they say, this is a real reality series.

“Basically, the show is about two brothers, Terry and myself. We run a home-improvement company and [face] all of the challenges and difficulties that come along with that,” Jon says. “Each episode has a featured project that we do. There’s a planning phase with the customer; there’s the actual build; and then there’s the reveal at the end, when the customer comes in and says, ‘Oh my gosh, this is beautiful.’ “

On this day, not long after Hurricane Irene’s visit, the siblings are at a house in Ridgewood, overseeing the repair of a badly flood-damaged basement — while television cameras roll.

The Wittmaacks, both licensed contractors, respond to a series of questions from a producer. They explain that this basement had had a tile floor, which buckled when the water came in — from below and through the foundation. The family did not have a sump pump, because they’d never had a problem with water in the past.

“This was an unusual circumstance,” says Terry. “I think that unless they have that perfect storm again, they shouldn’t get water down here again.”

Company workmen, toiling as the brothers spoke, had pulled up the tile, cut out damaged Sheetrock, taken out wet insulation, re-insulated, replaced Sheetrock, spackled — and would soon be sanding, then painting the whole basement and redoing the floor — with porcelain tiles (much stronger than ceramic, the brothers say).

This repair job is just one type of project Man Around the House tackles.

“We’re a full-scale, full-service home-improvement company,” Jon says, noting that the company specializes in three areas: professional painting, full renovations and remodels, and the handyman service. “If, say, you want your roof repaired, we’re sending you a roofer. … If you need your bedroom painted, we’re not sending a handyman; we’re sending a professional painter.”

Man Around the House, which has 10 full-time employees, does about 90 percent of its business in Ridgewood, the brothers estimate.

The company was started by their father, John Wittmaack, who died in 2002. “He did this as a retirement business,” says Terry, 40, who had originally studied restaurant management. “He was helping elderly people change light bulbs when they couldn’t reach their highest [light fixtures].”

“It started that way, and then it kind of spiraled,” says Jon, 35, who’d previously worked in sales on the West Coast in the wine industry. “People started asking him to do odd jobs around the house and one thing led to another. He got busy and he asked us to come on board.”

In 2004, the brothers decided to transform the business into what it is now. Part of that transformation involved branding — hence those eye-catching blue trucks.

Jon and Terry, who also have an older brother and a younger sister, grew up in Pennsylvania, but in 1994 their family moved to Ridgewood, where Terry now lives.