Contractor price per square foot?
We are considering buying a modest brownstone – 16.5 x 40′, 3 stories (currently used as 2 family with top floor rental). What is a “safe” cost per sq ft to budget for renovation? It seems to be all over the map – I’ve been quoted 200/psf up to 500/psf. We are not “fancy” types…
We are considering buying a modest brownstone – 16.5 x 40′, 3 stories (currently used as 2 family with top floor rental). What is a “safe” cost per sq ft to budget for renovation? It seems to be all over the map – I’ve been quoted 200/psf up to 500/psf. We are not “fancy” types – we have a tight budget and like a simple, clean look (a la Dwell magazine) and are not dealing with restoring tons of old detail, since the house does not have much. So far, a couple of architects have said we could squeak by and renovate 2 floors for 200-250K, but I have trouble meshing that to contractor prices I’ve been given.
Re: work we want to do – The house is in decent shape but we do want to do pretty major work including: flipping configuration so that we could first live on upper duplex (and hopefully eventually afford to take over garden) though this means putting kitchen on parlor; nearly gutting parlor floor (taking down a bunch of walls, creating kitchen & possibly a powder room and closet); top floor some reconfiguration but not as extreme – mainly ripping out kitchen to make bedroom larger (currently that room is a LR) and possibly add closet space, renovate bath and add add’l closet space, and maybe change door entry point to small study in front half of room (currently opens from adjacent BR, we want it to open from hall).
We are about to go to contract but are dying to get more of a sense of the true cost of renovation – can it done be rather thriftily? To me, 200-250K seems like a hell of a lot of money!
Thanks –
agree. bedstuy be for them that can’t afford park slope.
if you are renovating in bedstuy and you put in a subzero fridge you are over investing. its just common sense. it has nothing to do with the neighborhood which is great. you will never get that investment back when you sell. if you are renovating in park slope it makes sense to put in those kind of high end appliances because when you sell a brownstone for $3m instead of $1m people are looking for that level of finishes, etc.
Hello 6:07, I had the same reaction to that statement that “obviously, in BedStuy high-end would be overinvestment.” It made my hackles go up. I am renovating a house in BedStuy and do not feel that anything I do is “over” investing. It is a beautiful neighborhood, with lovely houses and good neighbors. I am thrilled to be in BedStuy.
Nearly all of the materials we used were “off the shelf” as well. It depends on what shelf you’re talking about.
4:01…”Obviously its Bedstuy so doing anything high end would be overinvesting in the house”
Why did you buy in Bedstuy to begin with? Why not look for a smaller brownstone in Park slope and pay $3.5m for it and go high end.
I don’t think price per square foot is the relevant metric for renovation costs. We did a fairly extensive (and somewhat high-end) renovation on our house — new electrical throughout, a new bathroom with a new hot water riser, lots of wood trim and doors stripped and stained, all interior walls repainted — and in the end spent around $75 per square foot (now that I price it out; it never occurred to me to budget it that way). But half of our basement is unfinished and we left it that way. Without that factored in, it was still less than $100 psf.
But we also had estimates all over the map before we started. in any case none of the contractors who bid on our job thought in terms of overall square feet. it was a matter of pricing out the subcontractors for each part of the renovation. in the end, we ended up going with the highest bidder because he seemed the most honest, and it was the right call; we spent just a bit more than his estimate, but that was due to change orders that we pre-approved. and the place looks great.
the only way to get a real handle on the cost is to get a number of competitive bids (at least three, more if you have time) and then look at where the price is averaging out. also compare the costs of the individual subcontractors in each case — if one sub comes in much higher than the others, tell the contractor about the rival bids and ask what he can do to lower costs. also beware of very low bidders, since they often bid low just to get the job and then the costs pile up once you’re in the middle of the job.
Good luck!
It’s been over a year but Randy Well’s # is 646-2567454. He and partner Nick did much of our work, including some built-in bookshelves. you can tell him Chandru recommended them. Caveats: need to keep track, they might make decisions you don’t agree with, but for us we were in the house while work was going on, so no problem. Workmanship is good. Easy to deal with. But not too available, so timing may be an issue.
OP: don’t get your question about off the shelf, I’d think most all material was all off the shelf unless it’s something like cabinets and shower enclosures or something.
We did a complete gut rennovation of a brownstone in Bedstuy for $75psf (hard costs). Obviously its Bedstuy so doing anything high end would be overinvesting in the house. As an architect I’ve also worked on $500psf renovations. You can do plenty for $200psf. Not everything but a lot. If you set your budget your architect should meet it. Or at least at the end it should come down to you making choices to leave in items for additional money over that budget or not.
I’m happy to help or advise if you like. tbraude at gmail dot com
I’m the OP, and when I say the place is in decent shape, I just mean that the inspection said it was in “fair” condition – not a total gut job. We’re not into smash and destroy for the sake of it, and it’s not like $200-250K is chump change for us – in fact, it will basically wipe out our nest egg – but everyone seems to tell me that it is totally unrealistic to renovate 2 floors for less than that. The reason we have to gut the parlor floor is that the current owner lives in a warren of tiny rooms – tiny bedroom, weird middle section with fugly closets on either side (with rolling doors) and tiny front office. There’s no point in spending over $1million for a house and then having to live in that kind of cramped setting since our current apt (which is alas too small) would then be a much better living situation. Also, do people find they can get good quality materials “off the shelf”?