Bed Stuy Reno'ers Bite the Bullet
Given our own experience with a collapsed sewer line (and flooded basement and cellar) last fall, our hearts went out to the Bed Stuy renovators when we read yesterday that they had been forced to start digging up the street to replace their own water main. As they point out, this ain’t a cheap procedure….
Given our own experience with a collapsed sewer line (and flooded basement and cellar) last fall, our hearts went out to the Bed Stuy renovators when we read yesterday that they had been forced to start digging up the street to replace their own water main. As they point out, this ain’t a cheap procedure. About $10,000, as we recall.
Lead Water Mains and You (And Us) [Bed Stuy Reno]
Anonymous at 9:26 AM: which company did you use? And were they any good?
Thanks for the info Anon. Can you purchase lead testing kits for your tap water easily or do you have to hire someone to do it?
Anon at 7:42–the big pipe running down the middle of the street is the main, is owned by the city and is not homeowner’s responsibility–but your access to it is. The city does close to zero maintenance, these things leak and break, and repairing what is commonly referred to as a water main is a $5,000 job (usually doable in one day). And yes, the biggest company (companies?) are criminals, mob-affiliated, with the convictions to prove it. But, with the city’s infrastructure crumbling of natural aging, you may not be lucky enough to book a smaller company and will have to rely on a shady company unless you can wait a week or more for water. Sewer problems are way messier and more costly.
To lp from yesterday: unless your line was replaced within the last two decades, it is lead and may or may not be leaching lead into your drinking water. All lines were built using lead pipes until very recently.
All from bitter, brutal experience.
i hope none of you replaced any kind of ‘main’… those are owned by the city.
Mr. B was talking about a sewer main, not a water main… big difference in price.
This exactly the problem with gentrifiyers. They brag about $500,000. gut reno jobs and bring in $10,000 water mains. As an investor in the bed stuy area for over a decade and having several of these installed, I can tell you a job like this should cost $3000 to maybe $5000 and should take no more than a day.
There are two mains, the water main and the sewer main; the latter is generally much more expensive.
We got a new water main for around $2,500 6 years ago…
how can you tell if your water main is lead. Isn’t it all underground, or is there a way to tell from where it enters your cellar? do you do a water test…?
It shouldn’t cost that much. There are outer Borough companies that do it cheaper. I’ve hired them myself.
$10,000 is robbery.