Renovation costs / builder recommendations

I would say in general renovations are $150/sq ft and up depending on finishes, etc.

I can recommend Design by Francois - www.francoistenenbaum.com

He has done a couple of townhouses, however on the Upper East Side. Contact info on website.

In general, you can probably get away with a low end renovation for $100-200/SF, mid-level would be about $200-300/sf, and a high-end would be $300-$400 and beyond. Do you have an idea of finishes, fixtures, appliances?

Primer (Jeff) always comes recommended on here. I am working with him on a few jobs now and would definitely recommend setting up a meeting with him. You can see some of his work at www.primerenovationsnyc.com

Manhattanrenovations.com 212 685 6358 guys name Andrew Harrington his company did a few brownstones in the city he could give you detailed price. Range could get very vague depends on the level of your renovation and what you chould save; based on experience i would say 180-500

BuiltINstudio, he is not so much recommended, as he recommends himself. which is fine, man's gotta work, but not the same thing.

Well, lucillebluth, like I said, I am working with him on a few jobs, so rather than saying he is recommended on SE, I can personally recommend him.

thanks for the quick responses. what abour prices for building a roughly 400 foot addition on the roof of brownstone?

Post this question on brownstoner.com.

For a townhouse reno with mechanicals, plumbing, down to studs & joists, you would be hard-pressed in Manhattan with a GC to come under $350/ft.

Are you talking accessory space rooftop addition or fully plumbed, central A/C?

Thank you BuiltIn,

Lucille is right, while I have been recommended by few, most of the time it is me who is asking someone if they would like me to take a look at something.

I also receive many calls from people from this site just to ask me for advice and I am very happy to give it.

Quinny, BuiltIN is right with his numbers and NYC might be as well. It depends if you are doing a true gut renovation or just a renovation. You might not need all the mechanicals done or you might want an elevator to be installed so it really depends on the scope of work

The addition would be fairly straight forward, a full bathroom, no central a/c and a flat roof for patio space. Being a landmark building, what kind of obstacles does this present?

quinny- Design by francois whom i recommended above has dealt with the landmarks preservation board on several occaisions for townhouses he has done.

if you want something nice - GET A REAL DESIGNER -a full service one so it will look good and who knows an architect and an expideitor etc... or get a botched job that will look so.

also in regards to "just redoing the bathroom", they may ask youto redo the whole plumbing to the chase- you never know.

Design by Francoi does upsacle budget jobs - I would say looking at the portfolio on the website you'd would never be able to tell these are budget jobs...

www.francoistenenbaum.com

designbyfrancois@yahoo.com

I would hire Gary Eisner and Terence Kinee of BuiltIn studio. I am working with them on several projects right now and they have really impressed me. As it is a small world I just found out they designed my friends complete summer house which is beautiful. It's worthvthe call. Their website is
www.builtinstudio.com

quinny,

I've heard upwards of 1 year for approval due to it being in a historic district.
If you're adding another level, are there other 'similar' buildings on the block that have additions or number of stories? If not, there's really a low low low chance of it being approved.

Sounds like you're might be looking to purchase this studio?:
"136 West 70th Street #9"
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/590831-coop-136-west-70th-street-lincoln-square-new-york

Don't believe the broker babble...do your own research

3 issues that jump out at me:

1) Landmarks - when your application goes to DOB, it will be flagged as "landmarked" - your app needs to go to LPC and approved by the community board. Definitely adds time to process. At the last CB7 meeting (UWS), a few of the applications including one for a significant top floor addition to 326W80 (? - look at DOB records) was rejected. It's not just about the front facade.

2) FAR? Do you have enough FAR to build a real rooftop addition? And I'm not sure what the setback rules are, if any, if you are even allowed to do 400 sqft. Talk to an architect. If you post on Brownstoner, you will hear from some Bk-based architects (they do travel).

3) What kind of building upgrades will you have to do re adding an extra bath,and presumably greater electrical load? You may want to look into getting an on-demand water heater.

5thGen: I agree with a designer/arch recommendation but I checked out Francois' website and I really didn't like most of the stuff on it. It doesn't scream amazingly well-designed or "rich-looking" to me. Having said that, sometimes designers have to do what their clients want.

BTW, if it is 136W70, the owner of 130 and 132 wanted to knock his 2 THs into 1 and do a tremendous amount of work in the rear. I hear he's having a difficult time getting approval for the job as proposed, and he's already owned the 2 properties for over a year.

up

We're filing for permits to do a rooftop addition right now. (Just a bulkhead and a deck - no room, though we do have available FAR.)

I can tell you that we've spent over $25,000 just to get to this stage between architect, engineer, expediter, lawyer, miscellaneous co-op fees, permit application fees, etc. And this is with an easy board that did not require independent reviews.

There will be many people with their hand out during your renovation -- and to be honest, you're nuts if you try to work around having an architect, structural engineer, and expediter for a project like this. Our actual construction costs will be about $250 per square foot, but once all of the other professionals involved are paid, I'd estimate about $400 per square foot excluding the cost of the roof rights.

this may be a stupid question, in fact it probably is, but what about sticking one of those nifty little modular prefab houses up there? do people do that? where in manhattan might that be possible, as far as community boards go?

MADE LLC. A design to build firm = no middlemen and no hassles. http://www.made-nyc.com/

where could one build this?

http://www.subissati.it/p/it/190/monofamiliari_fino_a_100_mq

or at the very least, park this?

http://loftcube.net/

Community Boards only have input as far as landmarked areas are concerned. I doubt they would approve a modular prefab house where they wouldn't approve a more traditional design.

Check out modern-sheds.com

MADE LLC - I believe they did work in Julianne Moore's house (the kitchen is amazing) and also at 20W71. Beautiful, but not cheap. I very much doubt that they could deliver for under $350/sqft.

hi 10023! thanks for answering. ok, as clueless as i am, i actually did know the community board thing. here's a better way to ask my question. can you think of any legal/code/beurocratic obstacles to the prefabs? why are they not more common here? the industry on a national and global level is pretty evolved and competetive, there are some really really nice ones. even buying one, and having a builder combine it with a top floor apartment seems like such an easy and cheap option, surely i'm not the only one who's thought of this. why do you think we don't see more prefabs on rooftops?

Because the learning curve (according to a few NYC architects) is steep. And each application of a prefab would involve making sure it conforms to code (not a cheap exercise). The bottom line is that all-in, costs/sqft for a prefab structure which may need a tremendous amount of shoe-horning is about the same as a "custom" built addition.

Also, most of the time, penthouses are added by owners who own the whole townhouse - and they're not typically looking for the cheapest solution possible. The situation of the original poster is rare, though not unheard of. On 70th street (maybe 120?) the co-op added a new apartment ~20 years ago on the roof to make some $. Ditto 11RSD & 255W90. A prefab had it been available would not have yielded resale value.

There was a rowhouse somewhere in the Village featured in one of the shelter mags (maybe Dwell?) that had additions made from metal shipping containers or something like that. The owners were trying to minimize costs, but I remember thinking that the per-sqft costs were pretty high.

I saw an article a few years about a prefab penthouse in London, but I've never heard of it in NYC.

In any event, your go-to guys around here for prefab, if you like a modern aesthetic, are
http://re4a.com/

I suspect there are major costs, community board approvals and permit complications involved in closing off a Manhattan street for crane operation, and maybe even problems getting wide-load vehicles around tight corners.

The latter is not that big a deal.

thanks guys. so you're saying my plans to house my family in a compound of loftcubes on the roof of a building with a good address will probably not work out. dang. back to the drawing board.

lucillebluth, you can put them in them tool sheds that are always hanging out outside Home Depot.

make your clever jokes now alan, but in the post apocalyptic near future, you are welcome drop your personal house pod on the roof where the bluths are squatting anytime for a visit. bring booze.

nyc10023, you seem to be quite familiar/know a lot about permitting/landmark etc. What warrants a rejection at a community meeting and how much weight does the landmark commission assign to community cocerns? What is FAR? For your square foot cost, does that include arch fees and permitting (all aspects of the project taken into account)? I actually spoke with a woman at the landmark commission and she gave the impression that as long as plans were presented with sight lines clearly showing that the addition won't be visible (or only a fraction at a long distance) the permitting process wasn't bad. Her comments were basically the opposite of everythnig i've read on this site. needless to say, i'm confused now.
thanks everyone for the helpful comments.

I was at the last CB7 meeting (with a vote) and from speaking to the CB7 members who present the proposals in landmarked areas, they pretty much go with the LPC recommendations.

FAR is the floor-area-ratio - one of the constraints on how much you can build on a plot of land. See http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/glossary.shtml.

350/sqft is what I've been told by various architects and contractors and yes, that includes permits & drawing fees. But bear in mind that is a minimum. Of course, you can always cut here and there.

Every time I've spoken to an LPC rep, they ALWAYS say it's not too onerous. But of course, if you're the one seeking permission to do something, even a few weeks delay boils down to money. The bottom line is that being in a landmarked area adds time to the process. Time is (usually) money.

nyc10023, how do yo find the FAR for a specific building or is there a standard number for brownstones? thanks