denton's Profile
- denton
- 1980
- 2007
- Brooklyn
- Park Slope
- House
- Fluid Sealing, Fluid Transfer
- Male
- 54
- http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/
Author's Posts
May 14, 2008
Stair handrails
Greetings:
Currently rehabbing a SOuth Slope Brick home... My contractor is going to be installing new stairs but he wants me to supply the handrail. Seen a lot of photos of metal banisters with those stainless steel cables, and a wood rail. ANyone got similar things locally who could recommend a source?
April 27, 2008
Renovation blog-like post
We’ve finally got our plans and permits and are moving right along with our gut reno! And like most renovators, we plan to document the project the whole way.
This is a South Slope 2-family semi-detached brick house. It’s 16’ x 66’, so, about 1000 sft on each of the two floors. Plus there’s a tall dry basement. When the rest of the house is finished, we plan to turn most of the basement into a library, when our finances recover. Right now most of my books are in storage.
We’re planning to convert from a 2 family to a single family home. So the kitchen comes out of the second floor (although we’ll be leaving the plumbing for it behind the walls just in case). Also we’ll be opening up the staircases.
Currently it’s configured as two apartments, with the bath and kitchen in the middle of each, and 2 bedrooms on one side, and a LR/DR on the other. There’s a second exterior door that enters into the kitchen from the driveway. We’re going to seal that up and replace with a new door that opens up into the back yard.
On the ground floor, from front to back, we’re going to have a large L/R, then a small bath with shower, and a large kitchen with all the latest goodies like a 6 burner range and a wine cooler. After the kitchen comes a full dining room, and that will open up through the new door into the yard.
Upstairs there will be our master bedroom and a walk-in closet that will also open into the master bath, which will contain a bathtub. I’ll have a small office for myself, followed by a larger office/guest bedroom for my wife.
We had hoped to do radiant heat, but the cost got out of control, so we’ll be taking out the old steam boiler and non-functioning gas hot water heater, and installing a high-efficiency boiler, indirect water heater, and baseboard hydronic heating. We’re also going to be insulating the wall that is not attached, and making sure the attic is well insulated. And we’ll be putting in central air. Heating and A/C will be multi-zone.
We’re not going to get completely crazy with the electronics, but we do plan to make sure that every room has a network connection, a cable connection, and two phone jacks. We’re going to install in-wall speakers in the DR, and a small home theater set-up in the LR with all the speakers (except the sub-woofer) and wiring in-wall and in-ceiling.
My wife and I are fairly resilient people, so the plan is to live in the house while this happens. Most of our stuff is in the basement. We are living on the first floor with minimal stuff, and the second floor is vacant. The second floor is to be gutted and re-built first. When it’s done, we move upstairs, while the same thing happens downstairs. We realize that it won’t be perfect, but that’s the plan nevertheless.
The house leaked for years. At some point, some repairs were made; new windows, new roof, etc. But the damage was done. Many parts of the walls and floors have significant water damage. The baths and kitchens had dropped ceilings installed to hide the damage. We looked into saving some of the things like the floors, moldings, and so on, but in every case they were either of poor quality of not viable to save.
I know everyone complains that no one shares contractors or pricing. I will later in the process.
Here’s a photo of the second floor just after a closet was removed. The place looks much nicer than it really is.
http://www.pbase.com/image/96230631
The kitchen comes out. That aluminum foil on the ceiling was taped there to hold up the falling plaster under the dropped ceiling.
http://www.pbase.com/image/96230632
The debris builds up until the dumpster is ordered:
http://www.pbase.com/image/96230633
Getting down to nothing:
http://www.pbase.com/image/96230634
http://www.pbase.com/image/96230635
Zulu, the demo foreman, checks the work.
http://www.pbase.com/image/96230637
The bathroom:
http://www.pbase.com/image/96230638
I never thought the debris would fill this huge dumpster, but it did. Here it’s being picked up:
http://www.pbase.com/image/96230630
Demo complete, wall studs going up:
http://www.pbase.com/image/96230640
The many additions and changes to bath and kitchen through the years, not to mention the water leaks, had pretty much destroyed the floor, and even the joists had been cut through. And the whole area was very saggy, So here we have two new joists installed, and the neighboring joists being leveled to match.
http://www.pbase.com/image/96230642
And that’s it so far.
April 10, 2008
Help me ID these lamps
Hi all:
I'm about to start demo in this house and there are two interesting looking fixtures I'd like to save. Not because I find them attractive, in fact they are hideous, but they seem to be well made and expensive (when they were bought.)
The chandelier is at
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/95410454
and the bathroom fixture at
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/95410455
If anyone can ID a style, period, name, value, etc. I'd appreciate it. And if you've been looking for just this cuz it matches something, pls feel free to make an offer
denton at speakeasy dot net
April 8, 2008
Need source for new interior doors
Greetings all:
We're about to begin our reno and need to source out seven new interior doors. We have an Arts and Crafts/Mission sensibility and furniture, so we were thinking of oak with strong vertical lines.
Would prefer to deal local but not Lowes/HD, but not looking for really expensive custom work either. I seem to remember a large door place on 3rd ave that is gone, altho there's another around 12th and 3rd.
Any recommendations?
February 14, 2008
Anyone done radiant heat?
Hi all:
I'm going to be embarking on a gut rehab of a South Slope brick home, and was thinking of doing radiant heat, as the floor is in bad shape and has to be replaced anyway.
Anyone done similar? Happy with the results? How much per sft?
January 14, 2008
Asbestos pipe insulation removal
hey all:
I was under the impression that the owner of a single family home is allowed to remove a certain amount of asbestos pipe insulation, like 25'. I can't find anything at nyc.gov to confirm or deny. Anyone know about this or can provide a link?
Thanks,
Denton
Author's Comments
I second Thomas Kerrigan altho he is on PAS not 5th, here's the link to his firm.
http://www.fnklaw.com/partners.html
Also Wolff Halderstein on upper Madison
Denton
Posted by: denton at January 14, 2008 9:41 PM in response to condo lawyer for commercial dispute?
Hey all:
Here's the latest... I was able, after some time, to get a hold of an actual expert in the city's asbestos control office, direct number 718-595-3652. She advised a homeowner can remove up to 25' of the stuff.
And she also pointed me to the city's asbestos regs online. I guess they don't show up in google cuz it's a big pdf, and under the 'air and noise' section to boot. They're at
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/air_and_noise/asbestos.shtml
HOWEVER (and here 11:09, 11:57, and especially, 3:49 are correct), the waste has to be taken directly to a sold waste landfill. 3:49 took his to Fresh Kills but Fresh Kills is CLOSED. According to the expert, the nearest landfill would be somewhere in PA. That's a problem, obviously.
6:02, the danger from occasional asbestos exposure is somewhat over-rated IF YOU DO NOT SMOKE AND HAVE NEVER SMOKED. Asbestos is in the air you breathe every day, in very small amounts. It's a natural mined material that outcrops the earth in various locations, and also floats around from brake linings.
8:50, it's definitely deteriorated to the friable stage, which is why it has to go. 8:49 has the procedures pretty much down, along with a mop and wet cloths to constantly pick up whatever is left.
Denton
Posted by: denton at January 15, 2008 7:08 AM in response to Asbestos pipe insulation removal
Contractor is FOS. Mold is the New Asbestos, everyone's looking to make a killing.
It's a pretty simple subject, look around the net and you'll find a lot.
There are two steps needed in mold remediation, and the first and most important is to ELIMINATE THE SOURCE of the moisture. Mold spores are everywhere, they can lay dormant forever. THey come to life when there is a food source combined with a water source. So take the advice of others and get yourself a dehumidifier and some kinda vent system.
THEN go after the mold. A 20-25% dilute solution of bleach is preferred. All bleach is too strong and could hurt you.
If ya don't believe me, see
http://www.cdc.gov/mold/stachy.htm
Denton
Posted by: denton at January 16, 2008 3:43 PM in response to mold
You state
"You have a steam system if there is a tube of water connected to the side or front of the boiler. You may also notice that your radiators sometimes make a hissing noise."
Hey MasterPlvmber:
I like the understatement in your second sentence :-)
May be helpful if you refer to that tube as a 'glass tube containing water'. We won't confuse them by calling it a 'gauge glass', lol
Denton
Posted by: denton at January 21, 2008 5:38 PM in response to Reposting boiler and heating information
Are you sure you wanna go there at all? Some banks look at the percentage of owner-occupied apts when granting financing. If you have only 4 apts (for example) and one is a rental, you only have 75% owner-occupied. What happens when the second guy wants to rent? Then you are 50% owner-occupied. But you can't turn them down cuz you have to treat all shareholders alike. Especially where every apt is the super for a month, who is super when it's the renter's turn? Let investors buy condos, coops should be owner-occupied.
IMO you're better off in a small building with a no-renter policy.
To answer your question, many coops impose a up-front fee, like $250 or more, and some may charge a percentage of the rent, like 10%
Posted by: denton at January 23, 2008 5:57 PM in response to Small co-op, if we want to start charging people for renting their apartments
Yeah, the significant issues are that if you screw up the electric, plumbing, or other services you screw your neighbors as well. Don't even THINK about learning plumbing in an apt.!
9:08 has it right.
You can probably hang kitchen cabinets and cosmetic stuff but all this is not as easy as you think. Hire someone and offer to work with them if you want to learn.
Denton
Posted by: denton at January 24, 2008 7:52 AM in response to fixer-upper in co-op
They'll do a decent job but they have an interesting business model... they'll bring in different levels of labors for each step of the job. The first level won't speak English...
Posted by: denton at January 24, 2008 7:53 AM in response to Verrazano Flooring?
Never mind the details, they may have got all the copper pipe (aka plumbing), the wiring, and goodness knows what else. Bid accordingly if you can;t get in with an engineer...
Posted by: denton at January 24, 2008 5:32 PM in response to Am I being unduly paranoid?
Maple has to be the most boring of all the common hardwoods (no grain figure.) I don;t like maple at all, and I can definitely understand the desire to stain it. One problem to consider is that most likely the floor is already finished with some kind of sealer, stain, wax, or whatever. It will have to be removed first before staining else the stain won't penetrate.
I'd do a test on a small section. Minwax makes a bunch of penetrating stains, available in your local HW store.
Posted by: denton at January 24, 2008 5:47 PM in response to stain maple floor
Thanks all... I should have mentioned that I am very familiar with asbestos and appropriate removal procedures, so I don't feel I am taking a health risk. But I don't want to get in a situation where I have to retroactively get robbed by some certification procedure, a la the person who dug out their basement.
Posted by: denton at January 14, 2008 12:31 PM in response to Asbestos pipe insulation removal