Gut Reno Cost + Contractor/Designer

To me, kitchen estimate looks low if you're including appliances.

Are floors a full replacement (i.e., remove everything down to the slab & replace to current construction standards, and with strips, not parquet? Floors are closer to 25-30k, unless you're going with something really low end (engineered bamboo, for example) (which you will be unhappy with in 1 yr, because it will look like $%!@).

Cost of the 1/2 bath in the WIC will be pricey, as you'll probably have to go through the downstairs neighbor's ceiling to get the plumbing in and tied to the existing waste lines. 25-30k & a few bottles of wine for the neighbor.

Timing: actual work may be only 3 months, but planning, drawing, specifying stuff, & getting all requisite approvals will add 3 months at the front end.

brettjw,

Have you spoken to the building management company on what they need based off of this info? Or directly to the owner's of 7G to see how they accomplished it?

If you choose to go wet over dry with the 1/2 bathroom at existing WIC, I'm confident you will need the architect on board. Plus you are gutting the kitchen, bathroom, potentially building an office room, and adding a 1/2 bath. #1 of your final notes doesn't sound like it will go smooth.

Your budgets are slightly low. More importantly, you appear to be missing sections which will go above your current total estimate of $100-125K. Wood floors; have you included demo of existing floor and base, new base, fixing sub-floor? No mention of protection, plaster work, general conditions, overhead and profit. Have you factored in all electrical? If you drop a ceiling for lighting, is that carpentry included?

Walls:1; will the office be furnished independent of GC? Walls:3; would you keep the 3 doors for the large WIC? I'm assuming not which adds new doors/frame design and interior closet to cost.

Hope this helps.
CC

A few thoughts:

1) This feels way closer to $175-250k based on other threads
2) Summing up the individual renovation elements is far from complete and there's pieces missing, some of which you and CapitalCraft have already mentioned (electricity, mill work, skim coating walls)
3) There may be other project creep like built-ins, closets, upgrading finishes. Given that labor is such a huge component of the cost, spending a little more on better finishes and customization can greatly improve the ROI of the entire project. Plus, it's really easy to be sucked into upgrades once you get excited about your new home.
4) Yes, you will need an architect. Even minor renovations require professional drawings, and if you are gutting a bathroom and kitchen and adding wet space and potentially walls, you will definitely need an architect.
5) Timing depends on the various levels of approval (building architect, board, DOB) which get more complicated as you move walls, gut bathrooms, and create wet spaces, and you need to factor in some cost for an expediter. I would imagine it would take a minimum of 1-2 months before you even get the permits to begin. I'm not trying to be discouraging, I'm just advising you to be realistic. There's a lot to the process that's beyond your control, and 3 months seems a little aggressive for what seems to be a substantial renovation.

This is 1100 sf. Considering the scope of work you've described, this is on the cheap $150/psf including architect, contractor, expeditor, board engineering review costs, materials, labor, and a modest contingency fund for fixes/changes. More likely and realistically, I would think you're at $200/psf. And that still feels a bit low, to be honest.

I think the range of reality when all is said and done is $200,000 - $250,000. Not including furniture.

Close to $200K, even if you go for mid-range finishes.

To create a bath in the closet, you will need a licensed architect (or engineer) design & submit plans.

Brettjw,

I think it could be close if you do a lot of leg work, find great prices, going Ikea will really help. I do have to tell you that knowing that you cant install junction boxes in the ceiling is a pretty well known fact for 95% of buildings in Manhattan.

You should make sure that the contractor has experience with Ikea. If not it could be a nightmare

I wouldn't think about doing this without an architect. And make sure that construction oversight is included. $200,000 is the ballpark. Could be more but won't be much less by time architect fee, expeditor, and other fees are included.

minumum 200k, and only if all goes smoothly (which rarely happens, esp with wet over dry, wall moving, etc), and if you use medium/low quality finishes

3 mos?? no, try minimum 6 mos

3 months is impossible. Period. Once you close, you can submit plans to the building for review by their engineer. Assuming you have plans ready to submit the second you close, the back and forth between your architect and the coop engineer will take about 2-3 weeks to complete. If plans must be redrawn and altered, maybe add a week or two. Then you get your permits through an expediter which takes about 2-3 weeks. During all this time you can be interviewing contractors and sending the plans out for bid. The problem is that if the plans get altered during the coop review process then the bids you receive will have to be amended also. It gets sloppy. Best to take things in order.
What you can do in the meantime, is make EVERY material and finish selection possible from paints to hinges to doorknobs to moldings to lighting to switches to precise door styles and details to cabinet pulls... Have it all in the architect's drawings so the contractors are bidding on EXACTLY what you want. Avoids surprises and sets expectations accurately on all sides to minimize fighting later.

Moving with extreme organization, from the day you close (assuming you already have an architect retained and some preliminary drawings done), it will be 3-4 months until you swing a hammer in the apartment. It will be another 4-6 months to get all the work done assuming you stay on top of the job.

Just ran into some friends who've been renting since July while they renovate. They seemed frazzled, so I didn't pry, but apparently the old rule of "add 50% to time and 50% to money" holds true for them.

Looking at the building permits, I'm wondering what relation the Cost Affidavit money bears to actual expense.

NWT,

In response to your add 50% to time and 50% money. That happens but usually that is due to the client adding on much additional work. In the last 10 years I had maybe 3 projects where more then 10% was added and that was because the client would add a bathroom or decide to do a lot more work.

Kyle,

Not that it is probable but it is possible that a renovation on a 1,100 sq ft apartment could be done in 3 months. I wouldnt bet on it but if there is nothing that complicated and everything is purchased there is a chance

100k should be sufficient dependent on the quality of the finishes. I am just not sure about the .5 bathroom; the coop board may not approved it as it is difficult to re-direct plubming in a coop. Could be easily done in a house but not sure in a coop as the unit below you will be affected as well.

Primer, my estimate of time here was based in part on the new bathroom being proposed and the amount of back and forth the board's engineer is likely to engage in over that with the owner's architect. The fact that paint has to go over currently wall-papered walls also suggests time needed for skim coating the walls. Between all the new plumbing, gutting, rebuilding, moving walls, new floors, electrical, etc this is really a total gut. I don't see it in 3 months, or rather I should say I've never seen it done in 3 months from closing.

Primer05, I think you're right. Sometimes when I hear people complain I'll ask whether they had change orders. They'll say "Oh, not many" but "not many" turns out to be major change in scope, etc.

I've got a friend now who has to be driving the architect crazy over a tiny kitchen, just making decisions before the work starts.

Kylewest,

Not disagreeing with you. Even without all that any gut renovation can take much longer then expected. You do have to be very fortunate to get done quickly

Thanks everyone for your comments. With regards to the extra .5 which would be adding wet over dry, i could eliminate this to cut cost/time as it's not an essential for me. In fact, the only reason I thought of it was because this is what unit 7G did with the WIC in the foyer. As for the rest of the questions regarding to what extent the floors need to be redone, how to manage the combining of the 3 closets in bedroom, etc - the simple answer is i have no idea. I've already been informed that the seller wants to accept a bid by the end of the week - I dont understand how anyone can bid it without knowing for sure that the board will accept plans to renovate?