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February 15, 2005
mechanical restoration
I am considering making an offer on a brownstone in Brooklyn but the building needs work on the electric, plumbing, and roof. I have had a difficult time finding any sort of range on the cost of these improvments. I understand that estimates are difficult due to the specifics of each situation, but any information would help me decide if this house is a realistic option. I'd rather have some ballpark figures before I make the offer and before I get someone out there to do an inspection. If anyone has some insight into this or any websites or other information that I should check out, I would really appreciate it.
Comments
We spent $17,000 for plumbing, $10,000 (so far) for electical, and $10,000 for gas. We haven't done the roof yet, but from what we have heard expect it to be about $5,000 (flat roof).
Posted by: Dennis Kelley at February 16, 2005 10:51 AM
In total, we spent around $450,000 for the complete retrofit of a 2fam 4-story brownstone in Park Slope. This included all new electric, complete replacement of all plumbing, 2 new kitchens (one of them fairly "high end"), 3 new baths (one of them marble), new fireplace/flue, rebuilt staircases, exterior waterproofing, new roof, etc. Just about everything a building that has been neglected for 50 years would need. This was a far cry from the $150k to $250K "back-of-the-envelope" estimates that most brokers, contractors and even other home-owners provided. Construction costs are not what they used to be.
Posted by: BigBubba at February 16, 2005 11:01 AM
Very often, where you are faced with a bad roof can mean a lot of water damage.This can turn out to be a whole lot of work particularly when you start to open up walls and find that plumbing pipes are corroded or that the electric lines are old and are falling apart.Beams can sometimes need replacing.I would think that $100k could probably get you started decently well and just hope that the building didn't sustain any serious water damage over the years.
Try to check for any signs of water leaking...water marks on the walls (look in the closets!) and on the floors near the walls..Also any signs of peeling plaster that may be damp
Hope this was helpfull
Posted by: ken reynolds at February 17, 2005 7:01 PM
I'm renovating right now. New plumbing for the whole 4 story townhouse is around $55,000. New electric is around $45,000. That's around $100K for those two systems.
Posted by: Bob at February 18, 2005 5:30 PM
It may be premature since you haven't made the offer yet, but I would recommend that you hire an engineer. My lawyer recommended Joe Pasaturo of AVT Enterprises (718) 921-0430 and he was well worth his fee (think about $350). He diagosed everything from top to bottom and gave me an estimate of what I might have to spend to correct everything. I'm almost finished my renovation and his quote was very accurate.
Posted by: Anonymous at February 28, 2005 4:35 PM
Im in the same boat with Bob and BigBubba. We budgeted abou $75k for plunbing/electric and the final tally was $100m+/-. There are many imponderables with a 150 yr old structure since all of the plumbing/electric was retrofitted after the building was built. In our case, they degraded the joists when they installed plumbing and gas lines. Also, during a 1950's reno, they did a dreadful job with new plumbing when they chopped up the structure to create 4 apts. Your in better shape if all of the kitchens and baths are in the same vertical location. Good luck.
Posted by: Anonymous at March 3, 2005 4:47 PM
Forget the 'engineer'! Find an architect who has worked on brownstone reno's. Negotiate a fee to have him/her visit the site and inspect the property with an eye toward major reno. They have seen it all before, and can identify all of the trouble spots....back wall, plumbing, joists, electric, landmarks, etc. I found that the engineer's analysis is more cosmetic than critical. If you need an engineer's report, see if the architect can have an affiliated engineer sign off on the report. BTW, I have no axe with an architect versus an engineer...I am dealing from experience.
Posted by: Anonymous at March 3, 2005 9:31 PM
We got a quote of $1600 for getting a new flat roof from Capitol Roofing Co. They did the roof across the street from us. We have yet to use them, so not sure how good they are - our roof is lower on the list of to-do's now.
Posted by: Dionne at March 4, 2005 3:21 PM
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