Creating a partition dividing a double-duplex brownstone--suggestions?

Greetings, I am a long-term, very appreciative lurker on the Forum, and now I have a question: My wife and I have just, finally, closed on a legal 2-family, 4-floor brownstone (Stuyvesant Heights) that is configured as 2 double duplexes. We will live on the garden and parlor floors and rent out the top two floors as a single unit. Our problem, which I know is a common one, is how to partition the two units in a way that is simple, clean, and preserves privacy for us and for the tenants. How best to do this? Complications/other factors: the house has a beautiful staircase bannister that we want to preserve, and because my sister and law will likely move in to the upstairs duplex in 4 or 5 years, we?d want the partition to be easily removable. We will hire an architect consultant for our renovation, but the more we think out our options in advance, the less we?ll be paying him or her (I think). In a perfect world, we?d rent out the garden floor and live on the upper 3 but we can?t afford that option. I?ve found several discussions in the archives but they were thin on details. Can anyone help me with descriptions (or even better, photos or plans) of good solutions?

robertbullock

in Renovation 9 years and 9 months ago

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Rick | 9 years and 9 months ago

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I’m listed in the Local Home Pros section on this website. Rick Ladd Brooklyn http://brownstoner.staging.wpengine.com/rickladd

terryhoppy | 9 years and 9 months ago

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Rick: can I have your number; this is something that I have been looking for.

robertbullock | 9 years and 9 months ago

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Thank you very much, the pix are especially helpful and show how the partition can really blend in with existing features. To daveinbedstuy, if I understand you correctly (I sometimes have a hard time visualizing without pix) and if it’s not too difficult, we will want to preserve access from the parlor level entryway to the double doors that open into the parlor room. Thanks again.

daveinbedstuy | 9 years and 9 months ago

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Most brownstones are configured with a set of double doors on the parlour floor leading into the front parlour along with an additional one down the hallway there that leads to the staircase to the garden level. You could wall off the end of that hallway either completely or with a door depending upon whether you still want to use the double parlour doors to enter your front room. That would be the cheapest option.

Rick | 9 years and 9 months ago

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As Trump would say ” build a wall, a really big wall”. A privacy wall can be built walling in the stairs with out removing any details. It need not be ugly. Here’s one that I built for a client. This one was built on the garden floor to separate the garden rental from the owner triplex. A door was added at the base of the stairs. Yours would be on the parlor floor entrance. Depending on your layout, you may want two interior doors, side by side, dividing the two apartments.

cmu | 9 years and 9 months ago

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What is the concern? Aesthetics? If this is the typical brownstone, you (owner) enter via the parlor doors (replaced as necessary, double doors are simple & fit well.) There is a wall at the end of the stairway which isolates your space from the common hallway. The stair banister is untouched. Many places do not even bother with isolating the tenant space, but if you have the typical landing at the top, you should be able to put a door there and a wall beside the hall baluster (so you don’t destroy it). Don’t know is this is ‘to code’ but anyone can do this. And you can take the wall down if it is isolated from the baluster.