Cost of renovating apartment's electrical and plumbing
Hi guys, I could use your renovation experience. We saw an apartment that needs to have its electrical and plumbing replaced. The apt is around 650 sq feet, 1 bathroom. I have no sense of how much doing these two major renovations would go for, but I expect a lot. Anyone undertaken a similar renovation?…
Hi guys,
I could use your renovation experience. We saw an apartment that needs to have its electrical and plumbing replaced. The apt is around 650 sq feet, 1 bathroom. I have no sense of how much doing these two major renovations would go for, but I expect a lot. Anyone undertaken a similar renovation? What did it run you?
Thanks for your comments. It’s good to know that they don’t actually need to gut the walls to work on the electrical and plumbing. 11:34, the apartment is a co-op.
It’s interesting, I was reading an article recently about how renovations are slowing down in rest of the country and costs are actually going down. What’s the chance that might happen here? I know, I know, it’s not happening. We can hope, can’t we?
Thanks again!
Is this a co-op or condo?
7-10 for electrical, 3-6 for plumbing.
I know, 11:31, it’s crazy how much more costly NYC is for home improvement labor than L.A., and for work that isn’t as good. Truly annoying.
OP, don’t let anyone tell you that you need to “gut” the walls for replacing plumbing and electric. That’s a common ripoff tactic by contractors here. In CA I replaced all my electric, and incoming and outgoing plumbing and they did it with only a few holes that were not that big. For a small apartment just be your own contractor and hire a good electrian, and good plumber yourself. You don’t need the middle-man. Authorize them to make holes in the walls where need be, but not entirely removing walls. Then hire a team that does plaster work, skim coating and painting to patch up and smooth out the work the electrician and plumber do. Look at recommendations for electricians and plumbers and plasterers on the archives here on Forum.
I personally recommend Paul Laidlaw and his team for electric, they do very good work, are high regarded and priced better than some outfits. For plumbing, we are still searching for the ideal plumber. I can say I don’t like Midwood plumbing, in my experience they quote one price then charge another and their prices are very high not necessarily for doing the best work either. We also had a bad experience with Aladdin. Aladdin never sends the owner, it’s just younger guys who take photos for the owner then a week or two later you get a quote and a diagnosis. We paid them a lot of money for what turned out to be not the solution at all for the problem. Won’t use them again.
One possible way to price electrical jobs is to ask a pro how much they charge to replace the wiring and devices by the “Point.” A point is any box that will house a lightswitch, a wall outlet, a sconce, a ceiling fixture, or a junction box (sometimes hidden or plastered over). If these boxes already exist the price should be less, although this is not always the case.
The price for replacement wiring using existing metal boxes could be anywhere between $50 to $150 per point, although I must say, I moved here several years ago from the west coast and I think electrical work is MUCH more expensive here. Last year I wanted a new wall sconce and two new electrical outlets, all to be run from a nearby existing outlet, and the estimate was like $1200. I never had the work done. In LA it would have been less than $500. This did not include wall repair (drywall in my case.)
Redoing all the electrical and plumbing unfortunately requires redoing alot of other things as well. Portions of walls, probably the kitchen and bath depending on what you mean by “replacign the plumbing”. It’s hard to say without more detail of what you think needs to be redone.