Guidelines On Permitting
My wife and I have a house in Williamsburg we’ve been struggling to renovate. We got approved for an Alt. 1 renovation but every bid we’ve gotten back from contractors has been way beyond our means to implement. All the contractors have made hugely expensive bids and haven’t shown much interest in working with us….
My wife and I have a house in Williamsburg we’ve been struggling to renovate. We got approved for an Alt. 1 renovation but every bid we’ve gotten back from contractors has been way beyond our means to implement. All the contractors have made hugely expensive bids and haven’t shown much interest in working with us. So much for the recession.
As a result, we’re changing course. We are going to need to do electrical upgrades, plumbing upgrades, and install a boiler. We also need to do some shoring up of the structure, but that mostly involves putting some supports in the basement.
Our process of getting our DoB permit approval was a nightmare that took five months of hell. If we are contracting with individual contractors for the above mentioned items, independent of our original plan, is there any guide to how the permitting plans work? We see this house as a multi-year upgrade process, working room to room, as we are living in the house.
Most of the folks on our street seem to do their work behind closed doors, without permits, and get away with it. I’m not totally comfortable with that, but I do want to minimize the fuss and get working.
Any thoughts?
if you want to take & get an estimate call kushner studios 212-965-0914
Jack, we upgraded our electric and replaced a boiler with permits and without a general contractor. Both the vendors are licensed and handled the permit work. It was done legally and with permits.
We also had some very minor structural work to do in the basement. We tried to employ licensed engineers and architects and requested permits, and everyone we interviewed laughed at us and told us to do it ourselves.
You cannot act as the GC without being approved by DOB. If it is rather simple work, then more than likely you can get approved. The structural work you are talking about will not get approved. The electrical & plumbing cannot be pulled by the subs until the general permit is pulled. Give me a call. I have a good contractor you can talk to.
Don’t you worry! Your plumbers and electricians will file for you, and it’s very speedy. A whole house electrical upgrade requires permits. If you are merely repairing existing plumbing and not changing the location of any fixtures, no permits are needed.
I highly recommend WCK Electric in Bed Stuy. Paul is the owner. They are fast, extremely reliable, and reasonably priced. They completely rewired top to bottom three floors plus a basement for $15,000 in November 2009. Took three weeks.
For our boiler upgrade, we used Nu-Lite of Maspeth. They charged us $6,500 to install a new Peerless oil boiler (no separate hot water heater). They would have charged $12,000 to switch to gas, which also might have taken slightly longer with the permits (and the estimate would not have included re-doing chimneys if necessary). It took them two or three days. This was also in November 2009.
Good luck!
Is it possible to use the permits that come from the plan approval and use them to do things like structural, plumbing, electric, even though the end result will differ from the design plan, and we won’t take advantage of the CofO change called for in the application?
Electrical & plumbing upgrades other than change out of existing fixtures and fittings will require a DOB filing. If you’ve made the application and it’s been approved, your electrician and plumber will be required to pull the permits and undergo controlled inspections, and ultimately, provide you with sign-offs. You can be your own general contractor, but beware: coordination, sequencing the work, paperwork administration, etc., will drive you nuts. Two last things: make sure everybody who works in the building is covered with builder’s liability and workers comp; be aware of the new EPA lead paint removal regulations. Good luck.