10thStreetReno's Profile
- Stu Kingham
- 2003
- 2007
- Brooklyn
- Park Slope
- House
- Financial
- Male
- 35
Author's Posts
July 1, 2008
Basement blues part 2
Following on from my original posting a couple of days ago...
http://www.brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2008/06/basement_blues.php
Sessa came out this afternoon. Punctual, polite, friendly and very professional. He did note that the rain was particularly heavy and that even people between 6th and 7th were having issues. (think he'd just come from someone else on 10th st).
At the front of our basement is a pit which has a cap on top of the main drain line. Basically the cap is a replacement and years old. The rubber is no longer sealing the cap and thus we have a problem. Also have an issue with a second pipe to the left of the pit. That one though is very minor compared to the cap.
Two choices of solutions
1) replace the cap and cement in the pit around it. @$500
2) Dig up the concrete floor between the pit and the second pipe and replace connecting pipe.
@$1500
We're going to go with option 1 as the basement is not finished and very unlikely ever will be.
Overall a very positive first impression. Cheaper call out fee than others we've used. The work is due to be done next week.
June 30, 2008
Basement blues...
So the heavy downpour on saturday caused a minor problem in the basement, a few gallons of water. Dadin't take long with the wet vac to pump it out. Yesterday afternoon I sat in the basement to watch where the water was coming from as another strom rollwed through. Seems that we have a back up from the water main. None of the neighbours have this issue.
Was going to call out one of the following companies and wanted to know if anyone had an opinion on either :
1) Sessa Plumbing
2) Python drain cleaning.
Also, if anyone has thoughts on how to curse water main backups I'd appreciate. I've seen mention of one way valves but not clear to me if they are the way to go or not.
Thanks.
June 15, 2008
Basement waterproofing
Heavy rain saw our worst ever basement flooding last night ! Hard to tell exactly where the water is coming from. Any recamendations for contractors / companies who waterproof basements ? Any advice/thoughts would be greatly appreciate.
April 7, 2008
Re-pointing & New Roof
Folks,
Any recommendations for contractors For:
a) repointing brickwork on facade of house
b) new roof.
If anyone has thoughts in pricing range I'd appreciate.
Thanks in advance.
April 3, 2008
Commercial real estate sales
Anyone know a good web site for recent commercial real easte sales in the city ? Thanks in advance
January 1, 2008
Asbestos removal
During the inspection pre-purchase the engineer noted we had a lot of asbestos on the piping in the basement. Not being up to speed on these things we did think about just leaving it there but some friends noted that we could easily get taken to the cleaners if a pipe burst with the asbestos on it. We also found out that it may be a problem on the ground floor renovation with the dob aproval if it was still there. So much like all the other items that have come up we called round a few folks and here's the results... Liam and co from Leinster contracting did a great job.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22366270@N04/2154687382/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22366270@N04/2153894381/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22366270@N04/2153894629/
As you see from the above photos the asbestos had cracked in quite a few places and we didn't realise but this was all over the floor. The guys spray washed the entire basement and now we have the official document noting the full asbestos abatement. Just in case someone else is thinking of doing this you need a licensed pro which you can check on the NOV.gov web site.
Cost was $2400 and we had aprox 125 feet of piping to take care of. It took one day and i'd definitely reccomend Liam and the guys at Leinster contracting. Good guys.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22366270@N04/2153895071/?rotated=1&cb=1199199657161
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22366270@N04/2154689070/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22366270@N04/2153895305/
Happy new year all.
December 17, 2007
Basement water leak question
Hi all,
seems that we have a small problem with the basement. The hatch at the back of the house leading to the cellar has started leaking. A wet vac cleaned up the 30 or so gallons of water but that's not solved the problem. We've sealed the hatch but seems like water is still coming in. I did think to brick this up and fill in the hole with rocks / cement as it's not like we use this in any way or ever will. (Really not sure what function this fills - if anyone has ideas i'd love to know). Any other ideas how to solve this issue I'd greatly appreciate as we're currently stumped on how to solve.
December 14, 2007
Dwelling insurance
Question for folks on Insurance. When running through the amount of Dwelling insurance coverage it seems that there are standard programs which produce an amount but it's largely based on Aq fottage.(give or take some features of the house) Do folks agree that if we were to rebuild then a good estimate would be $300-$350 per square foot ? Appreciate your thoughts.
December 13, 2007
PS39 / PS107
Does anyone have any thoughts on PS39 and PS107 in terms of the quality of the schools. I know that 321 gets all the good press but I'm told the other two are making strides. Appreciate anyone elses thoughts.
December 11, 2007
Bit of background....
Seems like forever since we bought the place back in August and naturally as soon as I get set up to post on the site work has had me here at all hours !
So just a bit of back ground......after several months of looking, losing out on other places, we eventually closed in August. Fortunately the seller moved the closing forward just in time to miss the major hike in jumbo loan moves over the summer. We used a combination of brokers and websites to play lenders off against each other to drive the fees and rates down. Next big challenge was to sell our condo. That was also in park slope in a relatively well established block so we sold it ourselves based on closing prices from a month earlier. It all went pretty well, which was great news as that saved us 4% commision which was the lowest a broker offered. Couple of open houses based on posts on NYTimes.com did the trick.
We had an engineers report done and to be honest I didn't think it was that great. Still - the engineer did point out a few things which we used to lower the price. Admittedly only 30 cents on the dollar but better money in our pocket than the seller and this did give us some peace of mind that the place wasn't going to fall apart the day we moved in.
Closing costs ! We had calculated these previously but it didn't make me feel any better when we had to pay them. We sold our apartment for @700k and bought the new house for @1.4m and the fees were approx 60k. Just the price of doing this type of business I guess.
I dont know how we didn't notice it at the walk through but the house was filthy when we moved in. The contract calls from broom clean but in no way was it. We also found out that we had no end of little house guests in the form of a mouse infestation and water bugs. Terminx guy came round and within a couple of weeks we had killed over 30 of the damn things. No sightings recently and the moniker of "mouse mansion" seems to be a thing of the past.
Author's Comments
Some good comments already. We just bought in August and had trouble finding anyone to provide coverage. In the end we had a choice of AIG / CHUBB and firemans fund. Ultimately we went with AIG as they had the same coverage for a cheaper price.
Its a good point in terms of having to cover the mortgage amount, alas that one cost us. Our house is @1.4m and full replacement costs runs a premium of 4k per year.
Check out Bollinger insurance. They provided quotes on AIG and Chubb.
Posted by: 10thStreetReno at November 29, 2007 7:07 PM in response to How much to pay for homeowner's insurance?
Check out Harbour fitness on 15th and 5th. Way better than NYSC on 9th and better value. Cant speak to trainers being allowed externally.
Posted by: 10thStreetReno at December 5, 2007 8:07 PM in response to Emigre
Give Liam a call at Leinster contracting. They specialise in asbestos removal / abatement so they should be able to assist or point you in the right direction. 917-681-8906. Great guys.
Posted by: 10thStreetReno at December 6, 2007 1:26 PM in response to Asbestos and Insulating Basement
Thanks folks I appreciate your comments. Seems like we are ball park correct. We changed insurers this week from AIG to Liberty mutual and the premiums went down from $4600 per year to $2026. Only difference was that the dweilling coverage had gone down from $1m to 825k.
Posted by: 10thStreetReno at December 14, 2007 5:04 PM in response to Dwelling insurance
One thing to consider would be that if there were ever any problems then the insurance would not cover you should this be above ground level. chances are slim given how great these grills are but something to consider when using an illegal grill. You can't have one that's above ground level. Most places turn a blind eye to it but as I say, this will not be the case should there be a problem.
Posted by: 10thStreetReno at December 20, 2007 12:40 PM in response to LP Gas Grill on a Balcony
3.35 - we dont have too much in the basement and so we didn't move stuff out of the basement. The guys who did the work moved everything there onto the basement steps while working so no big deal. Probably worth moving things out of there i'd say but i guess it depends upon how much asbestos there is to remove. I'm sure the contractor would advise you.
7.40 - we just went down to the local lowes to get some for the pipes. We didn't want to spend too much on this as the next phase of renovation is potentially going to change our heating system. Perhaps these words will come back to haunt us....
Master plummer - There is a main air vent, you just dont see it in these pics. You're totally right on the copper pipes though and yes we do have a leak ! We're hoping to get through to the spring when this will be addressed with the next phase of the reno although the cost of the new kitchen / walls coming down / new bathrooms may mean this is spring 2009 !
Thanks all.
Posted by: 10thStreetReno at January 2, 2008 9:18 PM in response to Asbestos removal
I dont believe this to be the case but here's a good link for closing costs..
http://www.corcoran.com/guides/index.aspx?page=ClosingCosts
Posted by: 10thStreetReno at January 2, 2008 9:23 PM in response to seller's attorney fees
Awesome work ! I totally agree on the clawfoot tub not being good for showers. We've got one that is just not worth the hassle. How long has is taken you to get to this stage ?
Posted by: 10thStreetReno at January 4, 2008 1:05 PM in response to Flush me down and warm me up: Guest Bathroom checkpoint
The plaster board is relatively new. less than 2 years. We didn't have it tested based on this but thanks for the heads up, not something I considered.
Air testing - no we didn't do that or at least not that I'm aware was done. Perhaps something we should do independently but to be honest we did this removal largely so we can proceed with the next stage of renovations. i.e. we required the document to say we were asbestos free which we now have.
Appreciate the comments everyone.
thanks
Posted by: 10thStreetReno at January 4, 2008 1:17 PM in response to Asbestos removal
Responses to Author's Forum Comments
For what its worth we recently closed on a multi-family for around $1.1M and had about $32,000 in closing costs (some of which were paid by the lender).
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 3:35 PM in response to Typical closing costs
For what its worth we recently closed on a multi-family for around $1.1M and had about $32,000 in closing costs (some of which were paid by the lender).
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 3:37 PM in response to Typical closing costs
my total settlement costs ended up being about 3% of sales price.
Posted by: Jimmy Legs at April 22, 2008 12:16 PM in response to Typical closing costs
Also from the FDNY site:
Do NOT use any flammable liquid to start an electric grill.
Teeheehee :)
Posted by: guest at April 26, 2008 12:28 PM in response to LP Gas Grill on a Balcony
Actually someone on another thread said Chubb would pay to recreate all the period details, even if it cost more than the stated am't. See here.
Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 12:41 AM in response to How much to pay for homeowner's insurance?
Oops, link didn't work:
http://www.brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2008/04/insurance_recs.php
Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 12:44 AM in response to How much to pay for homeowner's insurance?
Hey Steve,
If you dont mind me asking, how much did Sessa charge you for their work and what did they do ?
Thanks.
Posted by: 10thStreetReno at June 30, 2008 12:53 PM in response to Basement blues...
Hey Steve,
If you dont mind me asking, how much did Sessa charge you for their work and what did they do ?
Thanks.
Posted by: 10thStreetReno at June 30, 2008 12:53 PM in response to Basement blues...
Python is outstanding.
Very professional and good at what they do.
I use them all the time.
Me:
www.GatewayPlumbing.com
Posted by: Master Plvmber at June 30, 2008 1:07 PM in response to Basement blues...
IIRC, Sessa charged me around $180-something to clean all the drains (storm and sanitary) in both directions. But they also had to find that storm drain clean-out and dig it out so I don't know if that price is typical for a routine drain cleaning.
Otherwise, they used what any drain company would use: a power drain auger.
Posted by: Steve at June 30, 2008 1:19 PM in response to Basement blues...
this link should give you a solid estimate.
http://corcoran.com/guides/index.aspx?page=ClosingCosts#condo
Some of the fees are relevant only to condos but this should be straightforward. the big ones to watch out for are transfer tax, Mansion tax (if the property is over $1m, title insurance, mortgage recording tax.
I should add that if you are also using PMI due to a low downpayment then this is not covered in the above estimates.
We used this when we moved in august and it was a solid ball park. We were not subject to PMI costs.
Posted by: 10thStreetReno at November 16, 2007 11:03 PM in response to closing costs