brownstone facade work debacle
-Wondering if anyone has an ideas on how to rectify a botched bstone facdae job without starting from scratch. First, some background: our facade was crumbling (in Boerum Hill) and we got three estimates in. The lowest estimate was so much lower than all the rest–nearly 25k lower (the guy said he wanted to “break…
-Wondering if anyone has an ideas on how to rectify a botched bstone facdae job without starting from scratch. First, some background: our facade was crumbling (in Boerum Hill) and we got three estimates in. The lowest estimate was so much lower than all the rest–nearly 25k lower (the guy said he wanted to “break into” the neighborhod–that we thought: how bad can it be? The work was done a year 1/2 ago possibly too close to the winter/freezing temps. There are no substantial cracks (so far). The carvings/lintels over the window are well executed as well. The problem is that the surface is completely mottled and patchy, and features about seventeen different shades of brown. Looks horrible. What a waste of 27k. Which is (yes) what it cost. We gave the guy an extra 500 bucks this spring to come back and try to “even” the color with some chemical wash. But it did absolutely nothing. Looks possibly even worse now. Some places are grainy, some are smooth looking. Help! Anyone know of any solutions? For record, there were weird white streaks on teh surface this winter, as well–our contractor blamed “salty” rain water.
NeoGrec, I am wondering about your caution against muriatic acid. I have a similiar problem to the original poster – the previous owner of my brownstone tried to patch and resurface the front of my building and it has a mottled appearance. I got a guy to look at it who did some decent work for a friend and he suggested giving the surface of the building an application of muriatic acid. Why should one stay away from muriatic acid? Thanks very much for any info.
Don’t ever go for the lowest bid if the bid is MUCH lower than everyone else.
Did the guy even have insurance?
Cheapness costs more than you’ll ever save.
The white streaks are called efflorescence. This is caused when salts leach out of brick, stucco, concrete etc. It’s causes are slightly mysterious but it has to do with the amount of water IN the cement used for the new facade, or BEHIND the new surface (do you have water entering the cement through bad flashing/caulking at the roof line?), or ON the new surface (ie. rain falling on fresh work before it had a chance to dry out completely). Talk to a professional about how to fix it. Whatever you do, DON’T use muriatic acid. There are proprietary brands that can be used to rinse away the streaks; also, repeated water washes can help (but NOT power washing).
my best advice is to contact more than one Contractor..call D&H Contracting at 7184145363. This is just so that you can get an idea of their pricing and also ask for reference of their previous brownstone work..which will actually help you recognize their result of their work.
Thanks for the rec–I’ll give him a call.
Sorry for the (original) mutiple post! My first time.
We just had our facade done by Muhammed from N and M construction and they were great. He does a ton of work for buildings on Eastern Parkway so you might want to call him and see what he can do. He wasn’t cheap, but was punctual and unlike must people in this industry knows how important customer service is.
His number is 917-952-5616. You can tell him Vivian gave you his info.
good luck
Suck it up and do it right with a qualified and price appropriate contractor
Didn’t you already your lesson about going for the cheap fix?
Please post again