Robert Scarano would probably be able to help you; I hear he's got a lot of time on his hands
right now.

Posted by: johnife at June 28, 2009 6:21 PM in response to DOES A LOFT NEED A PERMIT ?

The super in a co-op building is working for and paid by the building. If he's performing work for you that goes beyond the co-op's obligations for repairs to any of the apartments, then he's obviously not available to do regular cleaning and maintenance work on the building common areas etc.

Cmu states "the board must be acquiescent, unlikely the super is going being their backs" but I would strenously disagree with that premise. When I became president of the co-op board where I used to live in Park Slope, lousy maintenance work record and performance of the full-time super was discovered to have been largely a result of his having done work (in one case actually off-site) for a prior board member without anyone else knowing. The new board instituted a series of controls that proscribed the super doing any work beyond his responsibilities for the building as a whole. If a shareholder wanted an exception to that rule so he/she could use the super for renovations or whatever, then, if the board approved it, the shareholder was obliged to reimbuse the co-op for the super's time, not pay the super.

The standard of cleanliness and maintenance in the building showed an immediate improvement. Additionally several jobs that contractors had previously been hired for now got done by the super, saving the co-op money.

I think it's inevitable that, in using the super on your renovation, you would be experiencing a benefit at the cost of other shareholders. It ain't what I'd call fair, quite apart from the other "who do you call" red flags raised in prior comments.

Posted by: johnife at June 25, 2009 12:09 PM in response to Hiring a Super for Renovation?

My recommendation would be to remove the affected area of plaster from the lath and re-do it with a cement scratch coat and a plaster finish coat. That's what I've done in rooms in my house that I've re-decorated myself and, despite my lack of experience, I've been pleased with the results. Much happier, in fact, than I am with the drywall door infill in an otherwise plaster wall that was done by someone I hired. There's just something a bit "off", in my mind at least, about the look and feel of drywall sections in otherwise plastered walls and ceilings.

Posted by: johnife at June 16, 2009 5:11 PM in response to Another plastering question

Where do they mention the maintenance in the listing other than to say it includes all utilities? I looked really carefully and either I'm going blind or they don't state the amount per month (which I guess is in and of itself an indication that it's high).

Posted by: johnife at June 16, 2009 1:23 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 70 Remsen Street, #3J

I'm surprised that no one's mentioned the fact that this house has a "twin" next door. check out the Google street view.

Posted by: johnife at June 3, 2009 2:07 PM in response to House of the Day: 240 Dean Street

I used to have some koi in my backyard pond but concluded that they're way too fussy about the water quality and the checking and conditioning the water all the time just got to be too much of a chore so, when they died I replaced them with regular goldfish that are really hardy, can tolerate water quality that's less than perfect, and that survived through 3 winters with no deaths. In fact, a couple of years ago they had a bunch of offspring. I gave some away at the time but still have more fish than I should have, so, if you're interested in taking some, email me at johnife AT panix DOT com. I'm located in Boerum Hill.

Posted by: johnife at May 21, 2009 1:38 PM in response to Where to buy fish for pond?

At $3.25/SF that's more than reasonable if it's a new slab with mesh reinforcement and not just a topping over an existing slab.

Posted by: johnife at April 27, 2009 1:22 PM in response to Cement Work

Do all the houses on Verandah Place have next to no back yard space?

Posted by: johnife at April 10, 2009 3:04 PM in response to Open House Picks

k72ndst,

Yeah, you're right, the stop was at 50th St.; it's Roseland that's at 52nd. It was not, however KGB; that is another bar also owned by Tracy on East 4th Street. Sloppy reporting by the blogger you cite.

Posted by: johnife at April 9, 2009 3:30 PM in response to Manhattans in Brooklyn

I used to hang out at the original Siberia in the 52nd Street subway stop, often before going to see shows at Roseland. It is with no small degree of pride that I can say that I actually once got thrown out of that ultimate dive bar. I hope his new place will be just as divey as the original but I don't see how it could be.

Posted by: johnife at April 9, 2009 11:27 AM in response to Manhattans in Brooklyn

Looks to me like the FAR on the site is 2.43 thus allowing (absent any other constraints such as rear yard or height requirements, a building of 4,860 SF. The asking price would thus be equivalent to around $88 per buildable square foot. Might be about the right mark (in this economic environment) in the fringes of Park Slope but I think it's definitely too much in Sunset Park right next to the BQE. I'd say $50 per buildable SF was more like it, or around $250k.

Posted by: johnife at March 26, 2009 10:08 AM in response to Ridiculous price for lot of land

Maly,

Yeah, you've got the idea. I would add, however, that my $75-$100/SF number is predicated on the location being in a good neighborhood (think Park Slope / Boerum Hill). If the house you're looking at is in Bushwick "your results may differ", as they say. Also, I second zinka's suggestion re a zoning expert.

Posted by: johnife at March 20, 2009 9:47 AM in response to How much is land worth?

I do not believe there is any such thing as a "pool or shed" zone. Go to the link below to find the zoning map for your particular location to see what the zoning actually is.
http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dcp/html/zone/zonedex.shtml

Posted by: johnife at March 19, 2009 12:47 PM in response to How much is land worth?

While it's not your intention to use the lot to facilitate adding square footing to your house because of the increased FAR, that is, inevitably, the basis of the land value. At the height of the boom developers were paying around $200 per buildable square foot for land. I have no hard numbers to back it up, but I suspect that in the current market the going rate is more like $75 - $100/SF. So, if you're in an R6B zone, which allows a FAR of 2, then I would guess the land in question is worth between $180k and $240k.

Posted by: johnife at March 19, 2009 11:09 AM in response to How much is land worth?

Area (assuming plan drawn in correct proportions, which a couple of cross-checks seem to suggest it is) is 1,318 SF (measured, not "probably comes in" or "can't be much more").

Posted by: johnife at March 16, 2009 1:27 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 315 Saint Johns Place

I seem to remember reading a thread either here or on Brooklynian that centered on the same situation on 7th Avenue in Park Slope. There was reference in that thread to certain anomalies in NYC tax laws that supposedly make leaving a storefront unoccupied a comparatively minor financial pain to a landlord, thus encouraging him to hold out for a long term lease at a higher rent than would currently appear viable for a retailer. Anyone know whether this is really the case and, if so, the details of this (what would amount to a) commercial landlord subsidy?

Posted by: johnife at March 10, 2009 9:37 AM in response to High Rents Killing Montague Street

Oh, this so so sad. Tragic, obviously, for his family but also a great loss for we regular readers of his blog who will miss his incisive analyses of the detrimental effects of the "Mutant Real Estate Bubble" and the rampant greed of developers on Brooklyn neighborhoods in general and, in particular, on Coney Island as a result of Joe Sitt's sleazy chicanery. I regarded gowanuslounge as the most honest and relevant of all the Brooklyn-oriented blogs.

Posted by: johnife at March 5, 2009 11:10 AM in response to Robert Guskind, Founder of Gowanus Lounge, Dies

I just read up on the artist owner, Hunt Slonem. Man, is he a character! His studio in New York has 89 rooms and there are 70 birds flying around there.

Posted by: johnife at February 20, 2009 11:27 AM in response to What $2.7 Million Gets You in Kingston

Holy crap! Just checked the pricing for the standards on the Atlas site. $582 for ONE 6' 0" high standard! That's a hell of a lot of money for a piece of steel with holes that are drilled and threaded in a machine shop environment! Looking at the set-up you have there I'm guessing that, with the shelves, it cost around $9,500 plus tax, just for the material. Sure looks good, but crazy expensive IMO.

Posted by: johnife at February 19, 2009 11:40 AM in response to Atlas East shelves and cabinets

I agree; searching the site is hell. I had chosen a sidewalk contractor 18 months ago by looking through all the forum archives that came up with a search for "sidewalk" and then, just recently, to retrieve the contractor's phone number, plugged in his name together with "sidewalk" and got zero results. So I had to go back to plowing through the archives.

Posted by: johnife at February 18, 2009 4:36 PM in response to Brownstoner Search..............

Have any of you square foot prognosticators taken the time to get out a scale and measure the drawing? I did. Assuming it's drawn to scale, and using the 11' 2" width of the bedroom as a basis for establishing what that scale is, the apartment measures 982 SF (measured to the outside face of exterior walls and center line of surrounding demising walls - as is the normal convention).

Posted by: johnife at February 17, 2009 2:34 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 125 Eastern Parkway, #6F

The recently completed Habitat For Humanity houses on Halsey were built with ICF.
http://www.habitatnyc.org/construction_current.html

Posted by: johnife at January 30, 2009 9:14 AM in response to ICF houses?

Link to LDC Arena article is wrong.

Posted by: johnife at January 27, 2009 9:07 AM in response to Tuesday Links

When I took out the mortgage on my house several years ago I got a 20 year mortgage and it was a requirement that it be paid bi-weekly (or twice a month, actually can't remember which). The effect was that the anticipated time before pay-off reduced from 20 years to 16 years or so. I refinanced with the same bank about 5 or 6 years ago when rates got lower without taking out any equity and now the payments are the usual once per month but I got a 10 year mortgage to maintain the pay-off date that had been established originally. I have no idea whether bi-weekly has a more beneficial effect than making an extra payment each year.

Posted by: johnife at January 21, 2009 10:53 AM in response to biweekly mortgage payment

TD,

In the UK decisions as to what can get built are made by the planning committee of the local council, not by a central government "czar". If one assumes that there's a democratic process at work in the selection of council members, it's a pretty "close to the community ethos" way of regulating the local built environment. I don't have the time to search the web for examples right now, but I've set eyes on plenty of examples there of bold but aesthetically pleasing structures that exist in harmony with their more traditional neighbors.

Posted by: johnife at January 16, 2009 2:24 PM in response to Horror Show Friday

"...you cannot feasibly propose that EVERY building be put through the same kind of process"

Why not? That's what they do in England and every time I go back there to visit my mother I'm struck firstly by the almost total lack of billboards lining the motorways (here such regulation would be regarded as a violation of free speech, I guess) and secondly by the absence of schlocky buildings. Sure there are some that ain't gonna appeal to all tastes, many that are just so-so, but there are very few that exhibit the total contempt for contextualism and basic aesthetics that the typical "horror show" house does.

Posted by: johnife at January 16, 2009 1:53 PM in response to Horror Show Friday

There are a whole bunch of people who would cheer if this business disappeared:

http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3661

Posted by: johnife at January 16, 2009 9:40 AM in response to Atlantic Avenue Shell Station: Re-Open or Re-Develop?

I guess it's churlish of me to say it, but I would venture that the most important aspect of an open versus a closed kitchen from a developer's point of view is that it obviates the NYC building code requirement for a ducted vent with a two hour rated partition around it provided the open kitchen is within a certain distance of an operable window.

Posted by: johnife at January 15, 2009 11:42 AM in response to Inside Third & Bond: Week 67

I would expect to pay a non-family-discount price of $1,700 - $2,000.

Posted by: johnife at January 13, 2009 3:16 PM in response to sheetrock estimate

Sorry, should have said "3 blocks further East". I'm compass-challenged.

Posted by: johnife at January 13, 2009 2:29 PM in response to House of the Day: 291 State Street

Actually it's the next block West (the cathedral block) that is always a contender for Greenest Block.

Nearly all the houses on this block are landmarked (except, of course, the 14 Townhouses) and many of them are 25 footers. Not sure whether this one is that wide though, might only be the ones on the South side of the street.

Of course it's Boerum Hill by virtually any definition of that made-up neighborhood name. I live three blocks further West and the convenience of having the Smith Street bar area, virtually every subway line, Atlantic Center and downtown shopping, and BAM essentially on your doorstep just can't be beat.

Posted by: johnife at January 13, 2009 2:25 PM in response to House of the Day: 291 State Street

DIBS,

I'm not cw, but the inflation link I used for my Hancock thread post was: http://www.measuringworth.com/ppowerus/?redirurl=calculators/ppowerus/

Posted by: johnife at January 9, 2009 10:47 AM in response to Goldman: NYC Prices Have a Ways to Go

Use the following unit rates (based on using licensed, insured contractors, not day laborers picked up off the street):

Excavation by hand & load into dumsters: $90/CY
Transport and dispose of excavated material: $35/CY
6" thick concrete slab on grade with mesh reinforcement and granular base: $12/SF
Concrete underpinning including reinforcement and formwork: $2,000/CY.

Applying these numbers to your particular basement size, here are your specific calcs based on an assumed 2' 0" excavation depth and 1' 0" party wall width:

Excavation & disposal: 35*19.5*2/27*($90+$35)=$6,319.
Slab on grade: 35*19.5*12=$8,190
Underpinning:(35*2+19*2)*(1*2)/27*$2000=$16,148
Total: $30,657

The above does not include any additional work that may be necessary such as setting existing doors to a lower elevation, relocating steam heating return pipes that may currently sit on the ground adjacent to the party wall, refinishing existing walls, new ceiling, any temporary overhead pipe relocation to accomplish ceiling work, etc. etc.

I currently have the same deal as I guess you do, unfinished space with dirt/boulder floor. Since I use it basically as storage/worshop space, I've never had an overwhelming desire to do anything to it, but, if I did I think I would sacrifice some floor space by keeping the excavation the same distance away from the perimeter walls as the excavation depth and creating a concrete "step" around the edges, thus obviating the need for the underpinning. It's all to do with not encroaching on the "line of influence" of the load transfer from the walls to the ground.

Posted by: johnife at January 8, 2009 3:12 PM in response to Estimates for Cellar Renovations

Housebywe,

I think you're misreading the listing. It says, "The posted price is that of a completed project, if you would like to alter the architectural drawings or purchase the building as is, we will negotiate that". I think the only way to interpret that is that if you pay the $990,000 the owner will turn over a building finished in accordance with the plans but if you don't want him to finish the work a lower price would be negotiated.

Posted by: johnife at January 8, 2009 9:44 AM in response to House of the Day: 404 Hancock Street

Not crass in any way. On the contrary, one of the best ways of finding an apartment and, quite possibly, a deal.

Posted by: johnife at January 7, 2009 2:56 PM in response to Cold calling building managers?

With reference to the Brooklyn Eagle article references above, mention is made of one of the Hancock houses selling for $33,000 in 1893. Using http://www.measuringworth.com/ppowerus/?redirurl=calculators/ppowerus/
to calculate have much that is in today's (actually 2007's) dollars you get $785,000. I find it interesting that the result definitely does not suggest that property is currently as overvalued in historical terms as many of the doomsayers on this blog suggest.

Posted by: johnife at January 7, 2009 2:51 PM in response to House of the Day: 404 Hancock Street

"reduced their taxable income so that tax returns give a false view of actual income"

"People on Brownstoner are never the most creative in their thinking"

Diddlin' the gummint and creative financing. Yeah! Keep American freedom alive! (irony intended).

Posted by: johnife at December 16, 2008 3:56 PM in response to No income check mortgage

I certainly hope not.

Posted by: johnife at December 16, 2008 9:04 AM in response to No income check mortgage

Bought one of your own cleaners, Samn, huh?

Posted by: johnife at December 11, 2008 9:29 AM in response to carpet cleaners

Assuming the central stairway is surrounded by walls that have a 2 hour fire rating, I believe that, for a building your size, it represents a safe and legal exit passage in case of fire for both the front and rear apartments. My suspicion is that the front fire escape was removed for aesthetic reasons and that the rear fire escape was left in place for cost reasons. When you were provided with the chain ladder, was it the building owner who provided it to you and, if so, did you have a conversation with him then about the legality of the fire exits. If, in providing the ladder to you, he acknowledged any inadequacy of the existing arrangements and thought that giving you the ladder was fullfilling his legal obligations then, yes, you do have cause to be worried.

Posted by: johnife at December 6, 2008 9:03 AM in response to fire escape question

Okay, I guess I'll be the curmudgeon here. This thread starts out with the phrase "totally polluting the forums" and then, in the absence of the immediate creation of an "off-topic" forum, proceeds to demonstrate, with zero constraint, how to do just that. There must be dozens, if not hundreds, of social networking forums where you all can engage in your banterings that don't relate to the main thrust of this site. Given that, I really don't see why Mr. B should provide you with a playroom on his site (with the associated additional monitoring etc. that it would entail) and I would regard such provision as being an unwarranted dilution of the overall site content. "Get a room" fer Christ's sake.

Finally, a genuine and uncurmudgeonly "Happy Thanksgiving" to one and all.

Posted by: johnife at November 26, 2008 12:30 PM in response to Mr. B... can we get an OT *off topic* forum here?

I think Mr. Joist at 2:13 may have hit the nail on the head. A little ACRIS and Google cocktail leads to a big Lehman Brothers headache.

Posted by: johnife at November 24, 2008 3:54 PM in response to House of the Day: 566 1st Street

Depends what you mean by "comes back with prices about 30% higher than estimate". If by this you mean that you ask him for an "instant" ballpark price, he gives you one with a "subject to conformation" caveat, then comes back a few days later with a number that's 30% higher then, other than repetition of this practice casting doubt on his estimating skills, I'm not sure that any harm is done. It's up to you to tell him whether to proceed with the work based on his new numbers. If, on the other hand, you mean that he gives you an estimate, you okay it and tell him to proceed, then on completion of the work he tells you it's gonna cost 30% more than he said, the only way that would be acceptable is if he discovered adverse hidden conditions during the course of executing the work. Of course, that's assuming that the "estimate" is really definable as a "bid"....and I can't conceive of giving someone the go-ahead to do the work without a clear understanding being in place that that's how I regard the price.

Posted by: johnife at November 17, 2008 1:24 PM in response to estimate drift (advice appreciated)

Screww the seating. Turn up the music and make 'em dance!

Posted by: johnife at November 15, 2008 5:05 PM in response to How many is too many at a party?

"near impossible to shut down" my ass. I guarantee you that if it was going on in Sutton Place or even the tonier blocks of Park Slope (i.e. rich-white-people neighborhoods) there'd be something done about it tout de suite. It's just another example of the cops' "couldn't give a damn" attitude as exemplified by the seemingly endless anecdotes from crime victims in minority neighborhoods being told by the police, "what do you expect, living around here?"

Posted by: johnife at November 15, 2008 5:02 PM in response to Notorious Crackhouse at 474 Greene Avenue Up In Flames

Just to be clear, Ethan, I'm not with Hudson Co.; merely someone who has, in a 40 year career as a construction estimator with some major contractors, consistently achieved an accuracy within 5% of ultimate bid numbers. And your background is?....aaah, diamonds. On that point, how is "I am from the business" relevant to your August 22nd post on the Novo thread?

I sure as hell can't tell a Mazarin cut from a Peruzzi cut diamond and wouldn't dream of pretending I could. Let's both just stick to what we know.

Posted by: johnife at November 14, 2008 9:55 AM in response to Inside Third & Bond: Week 62

Ethan, where do you get your prices from, 1983? Underpinning (with it's inherently piecemeal operation, alternate 4' 0"sections): try $1,500/CY. Excavation; yeah, you might be able to dig it out somewhere in your range but where are you gonna put the dirt? On the street? Add another $40/CY for trucking and dump fees. Again, with the foundations you seem to have forgotten the formwork ($15/SF)and rebar ($1.95/LB at about 75#/CY). All in all spread footings are gonna cost you $600 - $700/CY. And if you think your concrete rate is applicable to basement walls, you're totally out in left field. At the typical rate of $75/SF for a 14" thich wall, that's more like $1,800/CY! For sure, if you're actually in the construction business, I would absolutely love to see the work quality you're producing at your rates. We all need a good laugh in these troubled times.

Posted by: johnife at November 13, 2008 7:02 PM in response to Inside Third & Bond: Week 62

Thanks for the info, Hudson Co. I assume the $/SF includes includes the GC's general conditions? If so, sounds like you got a very fair price there. In the course of my job I've been researching affordable housing costs (to get an idea of the differences between those developments and the market rate / condo projects I'm more typically involved in) and they, with a much lesser finish/appliances specification than what I would imagine you're calling for, seem to be running around $220 to $225/SF.

Have to agree with you on the unlikelihood of a huge fall in construction costs resultant from the recession. There might be a fairly substantial easing though, as this article from the era of the early '90s slowdown records (including mention of one of the jobs i was on in my days with Morse Diesel):
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE7DE1438F932A3575AC0A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
I'm hearing anecdotal evidence of mid-rise concrete frames falling from $85/SF to $70/SF over the past three months or so.

As to bkdev's comment on the substructure cost per SF, it sure does seem high but I'm guessing that you have a true cellar level on the project with the cost of all its components (excavation, slab on grade, basement walls and waterproofing, etc.) being spread over only 5 floors. While the actual support elements of a building substructure (i.e. the actual foundations) have a relatively constant relationship to the building square footage on a particular site whether the building be short or tall, the basement construction element gets much cheaper per gross building SF as the building gets taller.

Posted by: johnife at November 13, 2008 3:12 PM in response to Inside Third & Bond: Week 62

I don't thing Chang is so much "sticking it out" as about to "stick it to" the neighborhood with yet another of his crappy Drivit-clad, soon-to-be-welfare-hotel monstrosities.

Posted by: johnife at November 13, 2008 11:12 AM in response to Chang Starts Demo at 46 Nevins

fsrg,

Here ya go

http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2005/04/decent_townhous_1.php

Posted by: johnife at November 7, 2008 3:23 PM in response to Horror Show Friday

I'd just knock out all the loose plaster and put in piece of sheet rock. Make sure that the sheet rock is slightly thinner than the surrounding plaster--3/8 works best in my house but our original plaster is very thin. Once you've secured the sheet rock you can plaster over the entire patch, essentially skim coating over the top of the sheet rock. Once its painted you shouldn't notice any difference between it an the original plaster.

Posted by: ralph gardens at June 17, 2009 1:37 PM in response to Another plastering question

hello:
Do you have a phone number for artistic abode tile? I ordered a sample kit via ebay about a month ago and have received nothing as of yet. I read your glowing review, which is great but these peole have my monet and I have no product.
Thank you
Mark

Posted by: angushopper at June 19, 2009 3:43 PM in response to Installing floor mural/tile persian rug

hello:
Do you have a phone number for artistic abode tile? I ordered a sample kit via ebay about a month ago and have received nothing as of yet. I read your glowing review, which is great but these peole have my money and I have no product.
Thank you
Mark

Posted by: angushopper at June 19, 2009 3:44 PM in response to Installing floor mural/tile persian rug

I agree with johnife. The super may actually be qualified to do the work, but given the fact that he's doing two jobs at once, he's probably not giving either the attention they deserve. I wouldn't want him for my super, and probably wouldn't want him doing work for me. Plus, in NYC, most coops have a LICENSED contractor rule. Check that. In a building I used to live in, building staff could do SMALL jobs that were outside of coop responsibilities, but it was more of a service/favor to shareholders. I think that's ok.

Posted by: Minmin at June 26, 2009 11:20 AM in response to Hiring a Super for Renovation?

you need a permit to even think about building in nyc...if you build illegally and sell , you will be liable for endless damages (misrepresenting area, illegal construction..etc)..bad idea

Posted by: eman1234 at June 28, 2009 8:35 PM in response to DOES A LOFT NEED A PERMIT ?

There are tricks used to build beyond the allowable FAR by calling the extension loft space as "storage loft", "mezzanine". They all need to meet DOB requirements and can't legally be counted as an occupied space, meaning you can't count the area towards your SF when you resell.

Regardless of how you file the loft with the DOB, building without a permit will become a big issue when you resell. In the past year, I filed a case against an owner who was selling an coop unit with an illegal loft extension. They ended up losing a lot of time and money. The people who purchase your unit will face legal issues when they file any work with the DOB and it will come back to you.

Posted by: housieQ at June 28, 2009 11:41 PM in response to DOES A LOFT NEED A PERMIT ?

Hello Andrew I do Kadex ceilling and if you need some help I can help you I been Working on it as pro in jersey city where building almost touch the skay too :) 1917 864 1787 thanks..

Posted by: veachef at June 29, 2009 11:13 AM in response to looking for info on kadex ceiling finish