Help with new rowhouse purchase

Another thing about the hatch…be sure that it’s locked. We have a neighbor that was robbed in the middle of the night (the robbers came in thru the hatch). He had recently moved in and hadn’t dealt with installing a lock on his hatch.

kachuri999

in About Brooklyn 11 years and 1 month ago

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murphy84 | 11 years and 1 month ago

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My boyfriend and I just purchased a rowhouse in Bed Stuy in pretty good condition. It’s the first time we’re responsible for such a large property so we’re definitely excited but also in need of advice from experienced members of this site. 1) We need to get a basement vent cover for the back of the house. The previous owners just had plywood with cinder blocks and bricks over it. Where can we buy one of these (large square metal ones) and how do we properly seal it? The front cover is in good shape but needs a proper seal. 2) The vestibule area going into the garden apt is a mess. Peeling paint all over the bricks, bubbling paint (but no water inside once we poked a hole in) on the ceiling and a wooden door covering the storage area. Picture attached. Inside the storage area whatever the underside of the stairs is coated with (red sandy substance) is coming off and accumulating on the floor. I read that people install gates there for ventilation. Does anyone have pictures of what this area looks like in their home? Do we peel back all of the existing paint to the brick and leave exposed or paint again? We know we need to refinish the steps as there seems to be a water/moisture issue but we’d like to make this area nice and presentable for now. 3) There is a metal gap between the garden level door on the side of the house and the actual brick facade. (It’s the upper left corner, just looks black in the picture) Is this some kind of vent? I can’t tell if this is something we need to get bricked over or if it’s meant to stay open and we need to figure out a way to prevent any bugs or mice from crawling in and out of it. Thanks in advance for your advice and suggestions.

murphy84 | 11 years and 1 month ago

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Additional pictures attached

cate | 11 years and 1 month ago

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Congratulations on your purchase, especially one in such good condition! (1) Do you mean the hatch? It doesn’t need to be sealed. Just locked. (Or the windows inside locked.) (2) Seems like almost everyone’s stoops leak. Ours does. You can get it resurfaced for about $2,000 but pick someone really good as it is easy to mess this up. The area looks fine to me. You are lucky you seem to have your original under stoop door. If it were me, I would keep it. The metal gates people talk about are the ones leading outside, not under the stoop. The gap at the top is useful for ventilation. Yes, you can get it all stripped if you like. Re whether to paint or seal, depends on the surface and its exposure. Consult with an experienced mason. (3) I can’t tell from the photo. Probably an unintentional gap between the original door surround and the new one that was added to make the replacement door fit in the hole.

Arkady | 11 years and 1 month ago

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Any iron monger (see archives) can do the hatch cover. Not much point to getting under stoop area gussied up until you get the steps done – it’ll just happen again.

mozeeatupu | 11 years and 1 month ago

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Not sure if you are referring to the fresh air intake louver, like

http://2.imimg.com/data2/RU/NB/IMFCP-3286880/exhaust-air-louver-al-250×250.jpg

. If so, 4th Ave Burner and Heating has them. http://www.4thaveburner.com/

murphy84 | 11 years and 1 month ago

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Thanks everyone for the responses so far. The cover I was referring to is below, picture attached. The inspection report calls it a ventilation shaft. The one pictured is in the front of the house and our inspection report says it has a bad weather seal. The shaft in the back is covered with plywood and bricks over it so I’d like to get one just like the one pictured but don’t know where. The reason we want to make the vestibule/stoop area nicer is because we’ve decided to rent out the bottom duplex and the tenants will be using this as their main entrance. If it was up to us, we’d tackle this area at a later time but we think it will be hard to rent out the unit if the entrance currently looks like this. We’re looking for the quickest and cheapest temporary solution in order to show the place and in a month or two can properly address the issues with the stairs.

deano | 11 years and 1 month ago

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For hatches, you indeed want an ironworks to make new front & back hatches for you. They’ll come measure & discuss details; metal hatch frame gets bonded to the masonry around the rim of your hatchways, and if made with a small (half-inch) lip to keep rain water at bay, still allows for relatively low profile hatch doors that no-one will trip over and will likely keep your cellar much, much drier. Make sure to determine if you need to build in a hooded vent in one of them to allow air into cellar for your boiler, and you can also specify a little metal periscope to allow you to get a garden hose up into your front yard area. For under your stoop, i’m with Arkady – if you have water seeping there, fix that first. In the meantime, sweep it clean and monitor how much water it takes in during rains, get a handle on how bad the issue is. Then leave that understoop door open (or remove it) to help keep things dry as possible under there, and i’m pretty sure (re)painting any masonry is a bad idea…

cate | 11 years and 1 month ago

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Your picture shows a hatch. It does allow ventilation into the cellar, although it is not what I would call a vent (either an air or plumbing vent). I agree with everything Arkady and Deano say.