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Handyman with a Ladder
The regular bouts of hurricane force winds have done a number on the aluminum siding on my house in Williamsburg. I need a handyman with a 40 foot ladder to deal with some pieces of siding that have come unstuck. It’s a simple, fast job. Any recommendations?
03/10/2011 10:03 AM
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Boiler Install
Howdy. Anybody interested in bidding on a job to install a boiler and heating system in our Williamsburg building? Please let me know. Thanks.
11/16/2010 12:31 PM
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Boiler Install
Howdy. Fixing up a Williamsburg property that never had a heating system! We’ve already selected our boiler/radiator system and have a deposit down.
Any recommendations for a crew that can install it? If you are a plumber that wants to bid on the install, let me know.
We’d prefer to install this with permits – any idea how long that takes the DoB to sign off on?
11/10/2010 1:45 PM
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Formalizing Old C of O
Hi there. We own a building, built in 1910, that does not have a C of O in the DOB records. We do have a paper C of O that came with the building when we bought it. I am wondering if there is a way to take this current document and get it in the DOB system, and have a more proper looking document associated with the building. Thanks.
11/03/2010 10:45 AM
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Guidelines On Permitting
My wife and I have a house in Williamsburg we’ve been struggling to renovate. We got approved for an Alt. 1 renovation but every bid we’ve gotten back from contractors has been way beyond our means to implement. All the contractors have made hugely expensive bids and haven’t shown much interest in working with us. So much for the recession.
As a result, we’re changing course. We are going to need to do electrical upgrades, plumbing upgrades, and install a boiler. We also need to do some shoring up of the structure, but that mostly involves putting some supports in the basement.
Our process of getting our DoB permit approval was a nightmare that took five months of hell. If we are contracting with individual contractors for the above mentioned items, independent of our original plan, is there any guide to how the permitting plans work? We see this house as a multi-year upgrade process, working room to room, as we are living in the house.
Most of the folks on our street seem to do their work behind closed doors, without permits, and get away with it. I’m not totally comfortable with that, but I do want to minimize the fuss and get working.
Any thoughts?
10/04/2010 1:57 PM
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Brooklyn Drywall Crew
Hey there. I’ve got a building that had some exploratory demo work done. We need to sheetrock the affected areas to deal with some bank financing voodoo. It’s a modest job and can be done quickly. Any recommendations for someone to do this? Thanks.
09/16/2010 10:29 AM
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Temporary Hot Water Supply
Hey all. We’re waiting out a DoB permits nightmare in a house that will ultimate get gut renovated. We do not have hot water right now and need it. Does anyone have any suggestion about low-cost temporary options that rely on electricity, and could be installed without hard wiring? Thanks.
09/07/2010 9:47 AM
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DoB Planner From Another Planet
Hello there. We’re doing an Alt Type 1 alteration on a Brooklyn building. We’re going from a building with no certificate of occupancy in the records (it’s been used as a three family/one commercial unit, always in the same family’s hands) to a two unit residential. We had initially wanted to keep a commercial space that had once been in the building but has long since gone out of use.
We are facing a plan examiner from hell. We have thus far had three visits with him following the initial plan disapproval. The examiner is completely erratic. One visit it may be make the bathroom bigger, the next, make it smaller. He wants a fire escape, he doesn’t want a fire escape. It goes on and on. Our architect has made every change the examiner has asked for, and then the examiner has literally asked for things to be changed back to what he initially objected to. He did not want us to have the commercial space, so we took it out of the plans, and in the latest meeting, he told our architect “what about the shop? You know you are allowed to have a shop.” Our architect is about to explode, and we are totally stuck in the meantime, unable to do anything. The examiner is a very old man. We have an expediter as well, and he says he’s seen nothing like this. How do we get around such an erratic person? What options are available to go around this examiner?
08/17/2010 3:45 PM
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Issues with Renovation Project
Hi there. We’re trying to do what is thus far an Alt Type 1 renovation projection in Williamsburg. We’re up against the pit of hell that is the Department of Buildings. Our major concern at this point is the plans done by our architect may never pass muster at the Department of Buildings. We may have to pursue a much scaled down project, simply because the DOB seems determined to reject everything. I am curious what options we may have if are architect has produced what are essentially useless plans. Also, if we need to start from scratch and simply fix up what is already there in the building, which would involve all new electrical and plumbing work, but no reconfiguration of walls, would we need an architect for that? Thanks for any thoughts on this.
07/23/2010 11:45 AM
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artistgarden
May 21, 2012 | 02:16 PM