Cost to replace plumbing/electric in old brownstone?
We are considering buying a 3-family, 3-story (plus Eng. baseement brownstone that has not been updated since the 60s. How much should we estimate for the plumbing/electic upgrades? And how expensive is it to preserve tin ceilings/moldings, etc. when all the guts are getting upgraded? We’re also looking at another 4-story brownstone that is in…
We are considering buying a 3-family, 3-story (plus Eng. baseement brownstone that has not been updated since the 60s. How much should we estimate for the plumbing/electic upgrades? And how expensive is it to preserve tin ceilings/moldings, etc. when all the guts are getting upgraded? We’re also looking at another 4-story brownstone that is in even worse shape but are wondering if ironically, the crappier house would be cheaper to renovate since there’s almost nothing worth saving. Any advice or round numbers to offer? Obviously, we’d eventually bring in an engineer, contractor, etc. but right now we’re just trying to figure out how much to offer before we go to next step. Thanks!
Usually tin ceilings are not worth saving. You can buy brand new a tin ceiling probably in the same pattern that you had for a lot less than it will cost to try to ‘save’ the existing. Check out http://www.abbingdon.com/
I did the same job 3 floors .Plumbing and electrical through the entire house.Without the cost of fixtures (ie tubs,sinks etc)The plumbing was about $7500 and the electrical was about$15,000.There would be no way to update the electrical and keep the tin roof .It was a total mess.You could not even live in the house during the renovation.Budget between 25k-35k to be safe.
We were told to budget a minimum $100k per floor for a basic renovation, excluding kitchens and bathrooms, but including plumbing and electric. Our reno cost a little more than that for pretty basic stuff, but we had some unanticipated problems with the ceiling caving in and adding a little more built in cabinetry.
We are in the same boat and after doing extensive research on this website, the answers are all over the place. While I cannot comment on which project is better for you or the specifics on plumbing, I can tell you that Paul at WCK, who is highly recommended on this site by several posters, will charge you about $5k per floor for electrical and he works with someone who has experience patching brownstones with original crown molding for an additional $1500 per floor – so all in, $6500 per floor. Hope that helps.