jack123's Profile
- Jack123
- 2001
- 2008
- Brooklyn
- House
- Male
- http://jack123
Author's Posts
February 24, 2009
Atlantis Tree
Is there another name for what some people call the "Atlantis tree"? It's not a ginkgo but smells rather ripe in spring. Thanks.
February 17, 2009
Historical Restoration Specialis
Can anyone recommend someone knowledgeable about the interiors of mid 19th century Brooklyn townhouses who could help us plan a restoration project?
Restore or Replace?
The doors and moldings in our 1850s townhouse were painted very drab "historical" colors by the prior owners. We cant figure out what type of professional would be able to help us decide if they are actually so historical that they are worth the expense of stripping and staining or if we should just replace them. Is this a job for an architect? Interior designer? Specialty GC? Any help and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
September 11, 2008
A Tale of Two Chimney Assessments
We moved into our 19th century townhouse last spring and, not having had occasion to use our heating system yet, just had our National Grid yearly check-up done. A tremendous amount of sand-like corrosion had collected on the ground under the burner tubes and the coils inside the boiler were caked with the same corrosion. A referred cleaning company came and scrubbed down the coils and explained that it was likely caused by improper ventilation - if the exhaust and vapor is not being pulled up the flue, it would linger around the coils and be re-burned or carbonized. Made sense to me. Chimney Company 1 came and inspected the boiler flue and told me the cement holding the clay flue liner sections together had eroded and the gaps and spaces would cause a lack of convection. They quoted $100 a foot to fit a stainless steel liner inside the clay liner (which everyone agrees is wider than necessary for the boiler output). Chimney Company 2 came and said hogwash - there are certainly some cracks and small gaps in the liner seams, but nothing that's going to affect convection, certainly not given the diameter of the flue to the output of the boiler. If anything, there may have been some blockage at the bottom of the flue that the National Grid people would have removed (they didn't mention whether they did) but there were no obstructions anymore. Given that CC2 was passing up a $3k+ job I'm apt to trust him, but I don't want to risk re-carbonizing the boiler or worse, having exhaust back up into the basement or seeping through the clay flue liner seams if there is insufficient convection. Do I go for a third opinion? Any thoughts? Any idea what would cause that level of corrosion if the flue is okay and there wasn't an obstruction? Just normal wear? Many many thanks for any tips or referrals.
July 8, 2008
Recommended: Fernando Alberta Chica
Could not recommend more or praise higher the contractor Fernando Alberto Chica (646) 472-4842. He is clean, efficient, sticks to deadlines, keeps you apprised of progress, makes helpful suggestions and is quite simply a delightfully kind man (as are his two assistants). Cost was completely reasonable and he stuck to his estimate except when I first okayed a deviation (and was very happy that he suggested the deviation he did!). He totally renovated my basement (installed new ceramic floor tiling, removed and replaced almost all the drywall, installed new plumbing and laundry sink, leveled cement, installed new doors, painted all, etc.) in less than 8 working days (no work needed to be done on the weekends). Just a great experience and will be calling him for future projects, no question.
Author's Comments
eman1234 - Thanks so much, and the door in that picture is almost exactly like those in the house. Looking around your website I see you have it dated to the mid 18th century, but you also note that four panels doors are so ubiquitous that they are often hard to date. How were you able to pin down the date on that one? The color on that one is also really close to ours - is that how you found it? Do you know what kind of paint it is? Did you try to strip it? Many thanks for your help. (P.S. I see you are in Canada - do you have a NY presence?)
Posted by: jack123 at February 16, 2009 5:55 PM in response to Restore or Replace?
mopar - i'm not sure why you are assuming they are original - I'm looking for someone to help me decide exactly that. Are you looking in my windows!? ;-)
As to expense, stripping and refinishing the doors will be at least double the price of even solid mahogany new doors. I have had several quotes to strip and refinish the moldings at about five times the cost of removing and replacing them. I would love a referral if you have seen different.
I don't think there's any real argument that restoring is more expensive than replacing. My question is if it is worth it in this case - are these historical items worth the cost to preserve. I think everyone can agree it wouldn't be worth restoring a cheap 1950s reno. Any leads on someone who could help me figure that out would be appreciated.
Posted by: jack123 at February 16, 2009 5:30 PM in response to Restore or Replace?
Schultz - correct that we bought the house recently. As to educating ourselves, well that's what I'm trying to do! I'm hoping to find someone to help. The house is unique to the block (and neighborhood), apparently 40 or so years older than most, so neighbors won't be any help. The prior owners of 30 years didn't know much, either. We've dug through the history ourselves, tracing the owners back to the mid 1800s, but couldn't find the original architect.
Herkimermaid - obviously if they are in fact historical doors and moldings we will keep them, but since it would cost over 5 times the cost of replacing them to restore them, we want to make sure we know its worth it because they are in fact rare, historical pieces. If they are not, but are just in the style or whathaveyou, we would replace them with pieces also in that style. Thanks for the advice on trying out different samples on different floors. We have tried a patch upstairs and found a very light colored very soft wood but have not tried on the main floor.
It's just such a sin that anyone would paint wood to begin with. We would love to find someone that could come in, take a look and tell us when they date from and if they are worth the expense of stripping and replacing. A book on historical doors would also be great - they are very thin (1.5 inch thick) four panel doors with the cross panel at least 2/3 down (so the bottom panels are 1/3 the height of the top panels). I haven't been able to find anything like them in the reference works I have consulted so far.
Thanks again, everyone.
Posted by: jack123 at February 16, 2009 5:12 PM in response to Restore or Replace?
Just fyi, you are looking for "bullnose" tiles. It's hard to tell from the picture if they are "full bullnose" (turn 90 degrees) or "half bullnose" (turn 45 degrees).
And for the love of God, stay AWAY from Kaleidoscope Tile on W 15TH St.
Posted by: jack123 at December 8, 2008 3:14 PM in response to black border tile
I walked by and the studio looks great. The adult class schedule looks pretty extensive on the website: http://www.bendandbloom.com/schedule.html
Posted by: jack123 at September 12, 2008 4:27 PM in response to Slope Gets New Yoga Studio
Thanks to everyone for their thoughts! Very helpful. Rest assured, carbon monoxide detectors are installed throughout the house and the boiler itself has one ("spill switch") right under the vent on the underside of the 45 degree duct from the boiler to the chimney flue.
As several of you speculated correctly, the boiler room certainly does have a ventilation problem and this could well be the cause of the corrosion. In fact we just had the door and drywall that separates it from the rest of the basement redone to address moisture problems, effectively sealing it off from the rest of the house! There is, however a metal double-door ceiling hatch in the boiler room that opens to the front yard. Would it be possible to install a vent in or next to these doors that would allow some fresh oxygenated air in while keeping moisture out? Any further thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated again!
Posted by: jack123 at September 12, 2008 11:55 AM in response to A Tale of Two Chimney Assessments
Today is their first day open - until 8pm tonight and every week night, until 9pm on Friday and Saturday. First tasting is this Saturday from 2pm - 5pm.
Say hello to Melissa and Leigh when you stop in!
Posted by: jack123 at August 27, 2008 3:54 PM in response to Streetlevel: A New Wine Shop on 5th
Responses to Author's Forum Comments
mopar says: Replacing your moldings will be much more expensive than paying someone to strip them.
OP says: since it would cost over 5 times the cost of replacing them to restore them,..
Which is it?
further: It's just such a sin that anyone would paint wood to begin with.
Nah. I say paint them a nice bright color, there's nothing drabber than dark original moldings. You need all the light you can get in a brownstone.
Posted by: cmu at February 16, 2009 7:04 PM in response to Restore or Replace?
btw.. i have numerous doors in my house which match the description that you posted, some with mortised locks, some with surface mounted locks... stripping these doors is a job for someone other than a homeowner..the paint is old oil based lead loaded stuff and will make you brain damaged if you do it yourself..that is also the drawback about the moldings in your house.. one of my neighbors had everything stripped on the cheap, and when the wife got pregnant, had the house tested for lead..guess what ..it tested off the richter scale ...you have to decide what your options and aims are before you do anything..i would be glad to take a look for free, though as i said, this is not my field..errol832000@yahoo.com
Posted by: eman1234 at February 16, 2009 7:41 PM in response to Restore or Replace?
call this guy. small outift. the owner knows wood. I've seen old panels he's restored and moldings he's made to replace missing. reasonable. www.thetinkerswagon.com. 347-813-9635.
jason
Posted by: jasonstonestreet at February 16, 2009 9:54 PM in response to Restore or Replace?
call this guy. small outift. the owner knows wood. I've seen old panels he's restored and moldings he's made to replace missing. reasonable. www.thetinkerswagon.com. 347-813-9635.
jason
Posted by: jasonstonestreet at February 16, 2009 9:54 PM in response to Restore or Replace?
I'm surprised that you got a quote to strip that is 5x the cost of replacing. I just don't have that in the range of my experience. I would expect the opposite. I guess you are right, you need to talk to more people.
Also, what is the quality of the paint job? If it is a mess, then yes, you will want to strip it. But, if it is well painted and smooth, you don't have to go to the trouble of stripping, you can just paint over it.
Years ago, when we did our house, we sent doors and shutters out to be dip stripped and did all of the moldings ourselves with peel away. It is a paste that you put on the wood and take it off 24 hours later. It does not create dangerous lead dust and has no fumes. We had kids after that and there was no evidence of lead in our house. However, it was a big job, but in our opinion well worth it. What people value about an old home is the original detail. So, unless you are adamantly, aesthetically opposed to what you have, I would try to save it.
Also, in my opinion, there is no sin in painting soft pine. It was not meant to be stained or left "natural". Find paint colors that work for you.
Posted by: Schultz at February 16, 2009 10:13 PM in response to Restore or Replace?
stripping old painted moldings on location generally runs about $20-25 per linear ft. You can buy new moldings for alot less, even $5 per ft; although unusual profiles, bolection moldings, and compound moldings can cost much more. The real problem is trying to remove the old moldings without damaging the plaster walls. There is cost involved in carefully removing old moldings, and re-installing new molding. Also, new wood moldings are not like the old growth wood moldings you'd find in a 150 year old house. Changing them out should really be a last choice.
Posted by: ParkSlopePS at February 17, 2009 7:35 AM in response to Restore or Replace?
Schultz is right. If you want to know if these are original moldings take some photos and try here http://www.nylandmarks.org/. If they are original and mostly intact they are defiantly worth restoration.
Posted by: edifice rex at February 17, 2009 8:45 AM in response to Restore or Replace?
It seems worth it to me to factor in the expense (both to the OP and to the rest of the ecosystem) of throwing out the existing molding.
A whole brownstone's worth of molding could easily be a ton of garbage. Careful demo and a dumpster could cost many thousands of dollars (more if you live in a permity-type neighborhood), and for what?
A landfill is a little bit more full. Great.
Posted by: vanburenproud at February 17, 2009 9:31 AM in response to Restore or Replace?
OP, someone is taking you for a ride. This is like saying "I don't like the color my walls are painted -- should I repaint them or demolish the room and build another?"
I sincerely doubt even the cheapest, off-the-shelf pine molding at Home Depot plus the cost of installation could be less expensive than stripping your existing molding. Plus, needless to say, it will look wrong and cheap.
What's more, even if you went the Martha Stewart route and had the wood custom-milled to match the profile of your existing molding, you would have to paint it anyway, since the wood won't match your doors, won't be the kind of wood they used back then since it's no longer available, and won't be the quality you want.
It is a misconception that all old houses had unpainted, varnished wood. Some did, some didn't. Wood was often painted in the Colonial era and again in the 1910s. Varnished woodwork was popular from the 1870s through the 1890s. And one house could mix several different kinds of wood, some painted with fake wood grain, some varnished.
If your house has a mix of both, why not strip the wood in the parlor (where the best wood is likely to be) and paint it elsewhere? Off-white woodwork with colored or pastel walls is a popular look at the moment.
Joe Salem is frequently recommended on this forum. Maybe he'll give you a better quote. 718-755-6527.
Lastly, it's not just a question of the expense. If you have something original and it's in good condition, why would you want to replace it with something fake? It's tasteless.
Posted by: mopar at February 17, 2009 2:12 PM in response to Restore or Replace?
You're getting a lot of good advice here. We just spent about 80 hours to strip 70 linear feet of 100+ year old woodwork in on room, and then turned around and repainted it.
Why? Because the many layers of underlying paint, including cheap latex, would have been a bad base for new paint.
We used oil primer and a light-colored paint from Farrow and Ball for the woodwork and slightly darker paint for the walls and love the look. Very elegant.
Varnished wood is highly overrated, IMO, and replacing old molding with new stock close with to achieve a look similar to what you have will be dangerous to your walls and expensive.
If you have time on your hands, limited funds and be trusted to work with sharp profile scrapers and a tool like the the Silent Paint Remover (infrared), you can do this yourself. With any luck, you will find varnish as the first layer, and your paint, all 20 layers, will come off in one sheet.
Posted by: renomandru at February 17, 2009 2:54 PM in response to Restore or Replace?
No question - make a wine cellar: http://www.spiralcellars.com/us/description.htm
Posted by: jack123 at May 15, 2009 2:19 PM in response to Backyard Reno Unveils Old Well in Fort Greene