DIBS Refinishes His Facade

Reader, commenter and frequenter of Brownstoner after-work gatherings, daveinbedstuy today shares with us the tale of his recent facade renovation…

I recently had the facade on my brownstone refinished. It had been covered with 2-3 layers of paint and was crumbling badly on the garden level, primarily the stoop area. I got a number of estimates and the price range was wide. After a recommendation from a neighbor who owns a number of properties and has had work done by a local guy, I went with Millad from CTG Construction. He literally lives around the corner.

We had an extensive discussion about the work needed and both he and I came to the same conclusion independently that we’d try to save as much of the original flat stone as possible from the parlour level and the top floor. (For before, during and after photos, click here.) This would be in the best interest long term instead of chiselling ALL of it off. The lintels & sills for those levels howvere, needed to be completely rebuilt.

The first step was…

…to apply two coats of paint stripper on the parlour level and top floor facade where we intended to save the stone. This stood for about a week and a half and was then powerwashed leaving a paint-free surface. It was nice to see.

All of the original brownstone was chipped away from the garden level and stoop area and rebuilt with a layer of masonry and two layers of brownstone “slurry.” Since this was going on for the past 3 months, you can imagine the difficulty working around the rainy weather; which is why it took almost 3 months! Millad was adamant that each layer needed adequate drying time before an additional layer is added; something I have not witnessed when watching other jobs around the neighborhood.

As you can see from the accompanying flikr photos, it was a major job at the garden level. The parlour and top floor sills & lintels were rebuilt. Millad’s mason is excellent. He formed crisp detailed lines in each rosette and the work on each side of the stoop.

With the flat brownstone surface on the parlour & top floor level about 90% in nice shape, there was some patching necessary. This has resulted in an imperfect match in some areas but I knew that was the case going into the process. Some of you may want a perfect match throughout but that will cost you a lot more money as well and I believe that the integrity of the existing stone is more important. You can see this in the last few pictures of the finished product.

My original tall double door entryway had been closed in to make a transom and a single 36″ door sometime in the 40s or 50s when the building became a two family, as was required by the fire department back then. The casings were very detailed fluted pilasters and looked nice so I decided against returning the entryway to the original style (plus it would be an additional $12-14,000) and I went on a search for an appropriate door to replace the fugly one that was there. I found a beautiful double tombstone window door at www.archantiquities.com in maine…about $1,600 including shipping. I replaced the door myself and added the hardware from www.houseofantiquehardware.com.

I also believe that a black entry, window casings % cornice is the most appealing color scheme.

Millad drew up a contract and everything went as contracted. The only addition was that we determined that the space underneath the stoop should get a new skim coat of cement because it was just exposed brick and needed to be repointed.

$20,000 + $1,500 for the additional masonry work under the stoop. This was at the low end of most of the quotes. Millad was very easy to work with and his men are very conscientious.