Ballpark current cost estimates to redo a brownstone facade?

The amount of detail has a significant impact on price besides the size. Many of the facades are redone and lose all the wonderful detail. You can view this as an opportunity to restore any details lost over the years via cheaper restorations.

italianate

in General Discussion 2 years and 1 month ago

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ysabil | 2 years and 1 month ago

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Park Slope 18′ wide 3 story brownstone, non-landmarked district, facade is apparently the original brownstone material (not the colored cement) but it has had multiple repair patches over the years by previous owner. There are numerous cracks and patches of delamination, so I need to get this sorted out in the next year or so.

However, we are about to commence a fairly extensive semi-gut renovation this fall, and I have decided to punt on doing the facade work until after that is completed and our finances recover a little!

Anyway, I am looking for recent ballpark costs for this type of project so I can plan – I am guessing the entire facade has to be redone, scaffolding, removal of old, scratch coat, finish coat etc. I’ve heard wildly different numbers ($40k, $75k, upwards!) and am trying to get a better sense from anyone who has had this work done recently, and also any recommendations for specialist masons.

We used to live in a nearby condo with a brownstone stoop and had that redone maybe 12yrs ago. I think the cost back then was ~$9k and work was done by Abdul Malek of Malek Construction, who seemed to do a good job. But I have no idea of current pricing for a full facade so any info gratefully received. Thanks!

neilw | 2 years and 1 month ago

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All I can recommend is getting many estimates until you get a price that makes sense (your happiness with that estimate is another matter). I am redoing my stoop and got multiple estimates ranging from 24k to 7800. There’s enough people not doing the legwork of getting multiple estimates that contractors feel they can throw out wild numbers and get lucky.

justinromeu26 | 2 years and 1 month ago

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contrary to what neilw has suggested, most contractors actually believe that homeowners are talking to someone else. i have never heard anyone say “we will throw a wild number and maybe they won’t talk to someone else and we’ll get lucky”. i can say that i had a boss who would sometimes throw a wild number if for some reason he did not want a job (it could be any reason: location, parking, the color of the shirt the customer was wearing) and if he got it, he would do it because there was added money in it.

if you are going to do what neilw is suggesting (and i suggest you do) know how to use a bid “system”. getting “bids” is not done to find the cheapest price but to find the safest price (a lot of people come on here lamenting failed projects after they made the mistake of selecting the lowest bid. know this: contractors are human and we can and do make mistakes when writing quotes and if we do something wrong figuring materials or worse , labor, the job can go down the toilet fast and a contractor might not get through a job without asking for more money). you want to look for the bids in a field of bids or toward the top of the cluster. The safest price is never the lowest price and should automatically be disregarded as suspect. in neilw’s case, i would assume that there is something wrong with the 7800 (something is missing or has not been considered) and i might think the 24000 is too high. say he got 4 quotes and two were around 20k, i might think one of them is the one. if you get 3 quotes and they are far apart, get a 4th quote and see if it lands near the others

Also, i used the word “bid” here. You should not use that word (you are looking for a “quote”). Do not use the word “bid” because you might scare off the good contractors. Some of us are suspicious of homeowners using a bid system because we think they are looking for the cheapest and we know the cheapest is never the best (we do not want to be part of something like that). When I worked in big buildings, in management, we used to get “bids” for things like roofs but those contractors are used to working in a system like that (it is easier when the amount of materials and labor can easily be determined) and they also knew that we, as pros, would use the bid system properly and base contractor selection on attributes other than the bottom line (because we had our jobs to protect and if a job fails on its face 2/3 the way through, there would be a lot of shouting).

Sometimes when you do this, you have to look at what people are offering. You want apples to apples. Someone might offer something a little different and your research might tell you their approach is better but maybe you like another contractor a little better. so you take what you like that one person offered and you ask the others to resubmit using what someone else offered. this way you can see what the numbers really mean when comparing the quotes.

neilw | 2 years and 1 month ago

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@homeinspector I can only speak from the experience of multiple neighbors getting similar work done and admitting to contracting work from more well-known area contractors without getting multiple bids. Their prerogative, and they said they felt safer doing so. Multiple estimates are always a good idea!

justinromeu26 | 2 years and 1 month ago

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yes, i do get some customers come to me and i suspect they are only talking to me. sometimes they tell me that. i cannot speak for anyone else but i would never exploit such a situation.

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 2 years and 1 month ago

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Wouldn’t it STILL be helpful to the OP if someone who’s recently had their brownstone façade redone were to chime in with a ballpark price? My house is limestone and Roman brio so I have no idea.

justinromeu26 | 2 years and 1 month ago

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Right bob. This was written about a few months back and i think someone threw a price of 75k out but even if that is correct, i have no idea as to what size house that was. Can you search it? I am on a job.

hasibur.rahman07 | 2 years and 1 month ago

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It ranges from 60-80K+ for 4 floors. Bob people want to provide help even if they can’t answer the question.

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 2 years and 1 month ago

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So reduce that by a quarter for the OP
s 3 story house? Maybe a little less since it’s 18’ wide?

justinromeu26 | 2 years and 1 month ago

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so to try to be helpful, i booted a post from Eli Forsyth up last night. its older. but maybe op can work off it.

ysabil | 2 years and 1 month ago

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Thanks to everyone who responded. I will definitely get multiple bids (3 minimum) closer to commencing the work, level them, and not take the lowest. For now I was just looking for a very ballpark number. It seems like I am likely looking at something like $60k-$75k by the time I get round to bidding this out. That’s close enough for my present planning purposes, which were essentially to establish if this was a <$50k job, a $50k-$100k job, or a >$100k job. Appreciate all the input!

ysabil | 2 years and 1 month ago

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HomeInspector, I take your point about the term “bid”. I am involved in larger construction projects through my work and we always use that term when obtaining detailed proposals from GCs as part of formal capital construction procurement so it’s a term I am accustomed to using when talking about this type of thing. But I appreciate it may be off-putting for smaller scope projects/contractors.