Price Friendly Rennovations Possible ?

We used

Dan Catalfumo, VP
Professional Construction Enterprises Inc.
300 W. Service Rd., Suite 2-A
Staten Island, NY 10314
profconstr@aol.com

For our upstairs bathroom and found him relatively reasonable………though I still think it should be cheaper in NYC than it is……

deancollins

in General Discussion 9 years and 9 months ago

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mgalstyan | 9 years and 9 months ago

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Hello Everyone !

I’m new to the world of brownstone renovating.
Any/all advice will be welcome.
I’ve been doing research the past few weeks to get an idea of how much we will need to shell out to get some work done. I’ve heard roughly 100k/floor. I’ve also heard it can range anywhere from 300/sq. ft all the way up to 1,000 sq. ft.
A third architect told me not to even think about it unless I had 1mm to throw at the project.

Has anyone been able to tackle a semi-gut reno with prices that are more realistic?
At this rate I’m assuming everyone in NYC has 1 million laying around to add to home repairs ?

paolex2009 | 9 years and 9 months ago

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If you don’t have knowledge of construction yourself you have no way to know if any price quote you receive is “high” or “low”. So you need to find people in your neighborhood who’ve had similar work done and ask for their input, or you need to find a friendly contractor and pay him for his time and have him go through the details of your project so you can be a bit more educated in what’s really involved and how much the specifics cost.

Suffice it to say though that if you go for the lowest price, you will be sorry and will need to deal for the shortcuts for years to come. However a $million is a rediculously high number, but unfortunately their ARE people who have a million dollars sitting around and that drives the cost up for everyone.

And if I may say so, you WANT to be involved in the details to help make decisions that maintain the integrity of your brownstone. Not enough people do that sadly.

paolex2009 | 9 years and 9 months ago

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If you don’t have knowledge of construction yourself you have no way to know if any price quote you receive is “high” or “low”. So you need to find people in your neighborhood who’ve had similar work done and ask for their input, or you need to find a friendly contractor and pay him for his time and have him go through the details of your project so you can be a bit more educated in what’s really involved and how much the specifics cost.

Suffice it to say though that if you go for the lowest price, you will be sorry and will need to deal for the shortcuts for years to come. However a $million is a rediculously high number, but unfortunately their ARE people who have a million dollars sitting around and that drives the cost up for everyone.

And if I may say so, you WANT to be involved in the details to help make decisions that maintain the integrity of your brownstone. Not enough people do that sadly.

mgalstyan | 9 years and 9 months ago

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Thanks Allen!
Yes I def want to be involved in EVERY step of the process. I hadn’t thought of polling my neighbors that sounds like a good idea. That makes me feel better, I was thinking of throwing in the towel before I even started

Augustiner | 9 years and 9 months ago

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Home repairs or an extended paint job with new kitchens are fundamentally different from a semi gut. By doing a major renovation or a c of o change you are triggering a whole set of requirements that will cost you big cash for fire code upgrades and other surprises.
Contractor prices rose just as property prices since 2008, and they good ones are all very busy. A solid semi gut without c of o change will cost you between 200-300 per sqf inc. all soft costs – and that’s a price conscious build without extension.

paolex2009 | 9 years and 9 months ago

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“c of o”? Normal speak, please.

paolex2009 | 9 years and 9 months ago

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“c of o”? Normal speak, please.

CarmenR | 9 years and 9 months ago

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Certificate of Occupancy.

CarmenR | 9 years and 9 months ago

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What exactly are you planning to do? If this is just adding a new vanity or two the price is different than if you’re removing load-baring walls, adding new rooms, repairing foundations, etc…

mgalstyan | 9 years and 9 months ago

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Two main parts of the reno are:

Moving kitchen from first floor to the parlor floor
Moving two bathrooms from center of house to the back corner of the house
This would require us knocking down what I believe is a load bearing wall to open up the parlor floor

empathie00 | 9 years and 9 months ago

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there was another long discussion on this very topic not too long ago – I have no idea anymore how to link to old threads (am sure it’s in the community guidelines but I don’t have time to read thru those now, sorry!! …but the thread was titled [Screen Shot 2016-07-05 at 9](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s1/:brownstoner:R9E2:screenshot20160705at9.54.32am.png.jpg)

empathie00 | 9 years and 9 months ago

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D. Stephens for what it’s worth, the code issues involved in getting a new C/O are crazy unless your house had already been updated to one of the new codes. Even then, it can be messy. Our house had no C/O (older than 1938) which meant that everything in the whole house had to be brought to code from almost 100 years ago – even things we hadn’t planned to touch. So that can turn a semi gut into a full gut pretty quickly. Good luck!

mgalstyan | 9 years and 9 months ago

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Thank you !

mgalstyan | 9 years and 9 months ago

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Oh gosh that sounds brutal …

CarmenR | 9 years and 9 months ago

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Removing the load-baring and stiffening walls on your parlor floor can trigger a LOT of unexpected necessary repairs- those walls were there for a reason. It will likely require a new beam to be introduced which may been concrete footings extending all the way to the cellar, at which point you’re basically looking at a gut.

If this is a multi-family, this may also trigger sprinklers.

If architects are telling you it’s going to be expensive, it will be expensive. They WANT business and to make money.

slopefarm | 9 years and 9 months ago

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A lot of good advice in this thread. I few additional points.

1. there is an axiom with a lot of wisdom to it that work can be done well, fast, or inexpensively, but never more than two of the three.

2. Everyone’s scope of work is different. So sound out friends, neighbors, etc. but, your mileage may vary.

3. Unless the bids are close, throw out the low bidder.

4. Whatever you decide this will likely cost, based on architect, bids, discussions with others, make sure you can handle 50% more. Don’t work too close to your monetary edge.

5. Since you are doing structural work, hire the architect and GC separately. You need the architect to be independent, not too close to the GC, for quality control on structure.

6. LIke any business, there are good folks and bad in the reno world. If you detect a whiff of BS from anyone you hire or a major vendor (cabinets, etc) drop them like hot potato. BS is not the same as disagreement. But if you think someone is BSing you, you are probably right and they will keep doing it. No one who BSes, does it just once.

cate | 9 years and 9 months ago

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It really depends on the scope of work. It is possible to renovate a house for about $350K but the scope of work will be different than what you will get for a $1 million renovation. Moving a lot of wet rooms, as you’re proposing, will add to the cost, require an architect, require an Alt-2 permit, take longer, etc. Maybe talk to a number of architects and see if they all tell you the same thing. Or reduce the scope of work. We address some of these issues in this post. http://www.brownstoner.com/interiors-renovation/renovation-costs-kitchen-bathroom-brooklyn-house/ Good luck!

mgalstyan | 9 years and 9 months ago

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You guys have given me quite a lot to think on thank you !

Does anyone know if doing upgrades but leaving the wet rooms in place would require a permit ?

I have heard nightmares about how long paperwork may take from NYC Dep of Buildings

CarmenR | 9 years and 9 months ago

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What kind of upgrades?