Flip-Side of Prohibitively Expensive Windows
We know first-hand how expensive it is to replace the extra-long parlor floor windows having done it last year ourselves. (For those fortunate enough not to have had to do it, it’s a couple thousand bucks or more per window.) So it’s not surprising that many houses took short-cuts over the years, using standard length…
We know first-hand how expensive it is to replace the extra-long parlor floor windows having done it last year ourselves. (For those fortunate enough not to have had to do it, it’s a couple thousand bucks or more per window.) So it’s not surprising that many houses took short-cuts over the years, using standard length windows and just filling in the difference. The patch job at 211 Carlton Avenue is particularly crude though. GMAP
couple of thousand bucks wow for windows. my extra long and narrow ones that i’m replacing i dont think cost more than a few hundred and its not standard sizes. maybe youre contractor is a rip off.
A lot of these brownstones just end up in the wrong hands. It’s a disservice to the historic district and the next buyer when things like this are done. It just goes to show that these antique buildings are much more expensive to restore than it seems.
LPC needs to get crack down.
Then it would definitely have to be temporary or Landmarks would end up fining them for sure…
No it is in Landmarked District, Prime FG.
Brownstone is not fake stone, it is real stone, sandstone I believe. Repairs and resurfacing is done with died cement because it is cost prohibitive to replace the original stone.
The house in the post must be outside of a landmarked district I presume…?
There is/was such a thing as “real” brownstone. It is a sedimentary stone that is prone to deterioration over time. Repairs are usually done with coatings of cement or stucco of varying composistion. Many, if not all contractors refer to this coating as “brownstone”. In theory it is possible, but expensive, to get newly quarried stone and replace some stones in your facade. Has any one done this or seen it done at the residential scale?
My experience has been that issues of technical language like this (what is brownstone?) have been the biggest impediments to getting the facade repaired the way we intended.
Here is a great article on Brownstone restoration at the institutional scale:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9501E3DD163AF934A15755C0A96F958260&sec=&pagewanted=print
The brownstone stucco re-facing is quite expensive 40-60K for a standard facade. And, as I have learned, it’s not suitable over a woodframe house.
When I lived on Clermont Ave there was one townhouse where the stoop had been removed, but the door (to nowhere) was still there — pretty funny.
So could someone then use brown stucco on their home, and turn it into a brownstone? I just priced vinyl siding at $8/sf for a corner house – comes to almost $20K. for that much could I invest and create a brownstone?