oversized brick

You should get a good roofer to install the skylight and hatch to prevent leaks. A Bilco hatch with a piston assisted lift is great. You can get pyramid skylights made to order your roofer or contractor can help you with the right size.

Posted by: tcurran42 at May 16, 2008 1:41 PM in response to skylights & roof traps

This deck sounds like it was improperly installed. In most cases it is against building code to have a wood deck sitting directly on the roof, which was not designed to carry the load of a deck, never mind a roof garden. If this is a roof on a older masonary row house you need to have everything supported on steel beams. You would also have to file drawing with the DOB and obtain permitts. If you would like to talk about further assistance you can email me.
tim@gosafehaven.com

Posted by: tcurran42 at April 15, 2008 12:06 PM in response to Roof and deck inspection

Is your roof deck sitting on the roof or is it resting on steel beems going into or on top of the brick side walls

Posted by: tcurran42 at April 14, 2008 10:45 AM in response to Roof and deck inspection

The first thing you need to do is develop a budget, scope of work that needs to be performed and your wish list. This is best by doing a room by room walk thought. Break this down to tasks and trades which are followed up by prices against your budget.

I don't normally discuss items like this openly online. Because people will say I'm doing it to drum up business.

If you would like you can email me tim@gosafehaven.com I also do construction/restoration consulting and project management. The developer of the Brownstoner is a past client.

Posted by: tcurran42 at April 1, 2008 1:43 PM in response to House Inspection

The reason I am call a realist and not an alarmist is that I have 20 years of experience restoring and renovating brownstones and buildings over 100 years old. For the last 9 years I have been inspecting them. I explain to my clients that not all alarming conditions found are deal killers and I'll give possible solutions on how they may be repaired. I am respectful to the nuances of older houses and the clients budget for renovation. Almost anything in older homes can be repaired or restored given the size of the budget. So my clients get a very realistic view and approach on what would have to be done if they want to buy the property.

Tim Curran
Safe Haven Inspections

Posted by: tcurran42 at March 31, 2008 8:36 PM in response to House Inspection

Tim,

How do you estimate costs for such a broad range of possible issues? My architect can't seem to do this.

Posted by: guest at March 31, 2008 9:41 PM in response to House Inspection

The first thing you need to do is develop a budget, scope of work that needs to be performed and your wish list. This is best by doing a room by room walk thought. Break this down to tasks and trades which are followed up by prices against your budget.

I don't normally discuss items like this openly online. Because people will say I'm doing it to drum up business.

If you would like you can email me tim@gosafehaven.com I also do construction/restoration consulting and project management. The developer of the Brownstoner is a past client.

Posted by: tcurran42 at April 1, 2008 1:43 PM in response to House Inspection

I agree that you want a thorough, but not alarmist inspector. For those who say they want an alarmist inspector, the downside to this is that such an alarmist approach might scare you away from buying a house which is actually perfectly workable. Our inspector (not Tim alas) did provide a very thorough report, including some significant red flags that we indeed will need to watch out for (i.e. erosion of foundation). But, when I spoke to the inspector to find out how scary these issues were (as some may recall, I was very nervous after receiving the "fair" rating), our inspector pointed out that, in spite of the scary-sounding language in the report, many of the issues he pointed out were in fact quite par for the course with these old brownstones. It would be a pity to be driven away from a potentially good purchase by an inspector who does not carefully explain that, while issues are important to point out, they can also be addressed and repaired. That said, our inspector worked with us to give estimates for the costs to repair these issues, and we used the report to negotiate $50K off of our purchase price.

Posted by: housesearcher at April 1, 2008 9:22 PM in response to House Inspection

OUCH - I'm an architect and I just went through this one

Two roof areas - pitched and observable, one flat and concealed - the flat roof looked good, felt good as the pitched area, the pitched roof looked and is beautiful

WRONG - 107 years and I just ended up re-decking the roof

Posted by: guest at April 14, 2008 1:15 PM in response to Roof and deck inspection

Response to tcurran42: it is sitting on the roof on what appear to be wood supports.

Posted by: mlilla at April 14, 2008 5:37 PM in response to Roof and deck inspection

This deck sounds like it was improperly installed. In most cases it is against building code to have a wood deck sitting directly on the roof, which was not designed to carry the load of a deck, never mind a roof garden. If this is a roof on a older masonary row house you need to have everything supported on steel beams. You would also have to file drawing with the DOB and obtain permitts. If you would like to talk about further assistance you can email me.
tim@gosafehaven.com

Posted by: tcurran42 at April 15, 2008 12:06 PM in response to Roof and deck inspection

I second the recommendation for Premiere Roofing. They replaced our skylight and hatch 4 years ago.

Posted by: guest at May 17, 2008 3:38 PM in response to skylights & roof traps

The best source of the best quality skylight hatches is New England Skylights.
Go to www.newenglandskylights.com

Posted by: guest at June 3, 2008 9:52 PM in response to skylights & roof traps