adding a floor and preserving the thingygummy?
Sorry I don’t know the name, The thing that runs along the front edge of most brownstones and townhouses, that looks like it is holding the sky up? If you have a 3 story townhouse not in a landmarked district, with available FAR, is it practical to add a brick floor that matches the frontage,…
Sorry I don’t know the name, The thing that runs along the front edge of most brownstones and townhouses, that looks like it is holding the sky up?
If you have a 3 story townhouse not in a landmarked district, with available FAR, is it practical to add a brick floor that matches the frontage, and to move the thingie to the new top? or is this so hard that it would be better to think about set-back extensions instead?
Calling all Brownstone Architecture 101 students! The historical precedent, and most aesthetically pleasing option, for adding a floor to your house is called a mansard roof (typified by modified dormer windows above the original cornice). There are a zillion examples in every brownstone neighborhood in Brooklyn. Sometimes they were actually part of the original building, eg. the French-inspired Second Empire brownstone style of the 1870s that you can see on Washington Ave just north of DeKalb. Sometimes they were added 10-30 years after the house was first built. Someone on our block of St Marks Ave (nr Carlton) added a 1.5 storey concrete bunker to his house, set back 10 ft or whatever is required. It’s unspeakably ugly. It doesn’t relate in anyway to the rest of the building: the windows in front are modern sliding French doors for f***’s sake. And the height/shape don’t line up at all with the 4-storey house it’s adjacent to. Please don’t do this! It’s a visual assualt every time I look out my front windows. If you need/want to go modern, there are plenty of ways to do something decent looking.
You can get a new fiberglass cornice made.
There are places that still make cornices…Do a search on this site and also search on cornices in your favorite search engine.
I’m looking at having a cornice put on – the original one in the 1940’s tax photo I bought shows the house had a cornice…but alas, no more…
My house is not landmarked, so I am not sure why I would need an architect, expediter, etc.
Hoagie
If you’re unfamiliar with the term “cornice”, you’re probably not gonna be familiar with construction costs.
Between $200 and $400 a square foot for new construction, the range depending on the quality. That doesn’t include the restoration work on your existing facade, but it does include soft costs such as architect and/or expediter (for permits), structural engineer etc. . . .
So: if you want to add 500 sq feet up there (half the floor of a regular brownstone, say), you’re looking at between 100G and 200G. If you want to add the whole floor, then double those estimates.
Anyone else have a different price range?
it means putting the points back on the bricks that have worn off over the years….
Does anyone have pictures of an additional floor that was added tastefully? Also, how much would something like this cost?
Repointing means getting the old grout between the bricks out and replacing it with new grout. I think . . .
100% repointing brick means grinding the cement between the bricks down an inch or two and refilling all the joints with new cement. Older brick buildings often need to be repointed because cement has fallen out or come loose.
Often on the back of buildings, you can get away with “spot pointing,” which means basically only repointing the worst sections of the brick. You don’t want to spot point the front of building because it doesn’t look good.
What exactly does it mean to “repoint brick” ?