Lead Abatement


I’m looking for recommendations for a competent and certified lead abatement specialist in Brooklyn. We have some issues to address in our brownstone that likely will involve some safe stripping and repainting of some areas, and dust cleanup in others. I searched the archives but didn’t find much. Thanks in advance.

Categories: Environmental
By z | 02/23/2011 3:21 PM | Comment

Selling Backyard to Neighbor


I’m looking for information on selling some or all of a rowhouse back yard to a neighbor (i.e., so the buying neighbor ends up with a double-width yard and a sort of L-shaped lot, while the selling neighbor ends up with a smaller yard or no yard at all). Are there any tricky legal issues? How did you deal with air rights/FAR? What is a fair price for half of a backyard? For all of a backyard? Assume that there is no landscaping to speak of and both yards are basically blank slates.

Categories: Garden
By z | 04/20/2009 12:16 PM | Comment

Baby Gates and Brownstone Stairs


I’m looking for a way to make a child safety gate work with a brownstone staircase. The gate would fit at the top of the stairs, where there is a large newel post. The issues are (i) i’d prefer not to drill into the newel post, for obvious reasons; (ii) i don’t want to use pressure-mounted gates, as those aren’t very safe for staircase use and they don’t really fit right anyway; (iii) the stair-friendly gates i’ve found so far don’t work with big newel posts (i.e. they come with clamps that can’t fit around anything wider than a skinny post); and (iv) our stairs are relatively narrow so some gates don’t fit at all.

i’d appreciate advice, experiences, etc. on dealing with this sort of situation. thanks in advance!

Categories: Stairs
By z | 02/23/2009 11:51 AM | Comment

Hartford loops, banging pipes, and leaky valves


we recently had our oil boiler serviced by our fuel-oil company. they left us a note saying that the “hartford loop” is too high, which apparently can result in radiator banging, boiler flooding, and water leaking from air valves. (this is our first winter in the house using this boiler.)

over the last few weeks, our pipes/radiators do indeed make banging sounds; there are frequent and very loud hisses from the valves; and one radiator sometimes leaks/sprays water from its valve.

i’d appreciate recommendations for a plumber who can do a full audit of our system and fix these issues relatively quickly. it should be someone who can deal with oil boilers (a couple of the mainstays on this site i called only service gas boilers). thanks in advance for any advice you can provide!

Categories: Heating
By z | 11/19/2008 11:21 AM | Comment

Source for Salvage/Remnant Countertop Material?


We’re doing a kitchen renovation and are wondering whether anyone has recommendations for a source for salvaged or remnant stone for our countertops. We are very much open to mix-and-matching different types of natural stone on the 3 different counter surfaces we will have.

Categories: Kitchen & Bath
By z | 10/26/2007 12:27 PM | Comment