When Renovating Your Brownstone or Prewar Co-op, Flexibility Is Key

When I was maybe ten or eleven, space got a little tight in our house and my parents decided to renovate the garage to be, in part, a room for me. It was super exciting since I got to make what wound up being some distinctly odd design choices (fire-engine red carpeting, anyone?). But a big part of what I remember was the immense trouble my parents had with their contractor, who disappeared halfway through the project.

Home renovation – anything from smaller projects to total guts – brings with it two things: the excitement of creating something new and (hopefully) better and the anxiety of getting that done without destroying your home or bank account. And if you don’t have a good contractor to help you through the process, it can be a true nightmare.

To get a better sense of some trials and tribulations you could face when undertaking a home renovation and how an excellent contractor could help you through them, we touched base with Home Evolutions Corp., a General Contractor who specializes in high-end renovations. They’re based in Port Jefferson but work all over New York City, Brooklyn, and Long Island.

Home Evolutions Corp. Project Manager James Cullen spoke with us about a recent gut renovation they did on a brownstone in Park Slope.

One of the owner’s priorities was creating more ceiling height throughout the home. His architect had drawn up plans as such, but James describes a snag they came up against early in the process:

“In the middle of demo, we found that there were many pipes exposed including gas pipes, steam pipes and risers, waste pipes, vents, drains, and water pipes. All of these pipes needed to be relocated in order to gain more ceiling height in the basement and to follow the set of blueprints. There were many soffits that needed to be built around certain steam pipes and water pipes since some of them could not be moved. This was not on the original plan, but this is part of what can happen when you really can’t see inside the walls before you start a project like this.”

The architect, Jimena Bruguera, pointed out how a great contractor can help work through practical challenges to a project’s original design.

“The apartment had utility pipes running across the whole ceiling space that were incorporated or rerouted as it was needed by the floors above through the years; we found quite some surprises during demolition. The challenge was to incorporate all of the client’s requirements without taking any additional floor or ceiling space and actually gaining as much extra height as possible. From the beginning, HE saw this issue as a puzzle to solve. They were very helpful through the process and they had great suggestions that ended up giving the client what he was looking for.”

For his part, the brownstone’s owner highlights a separate, somewhat smaller issue that came up and how Home Evolutions Corp. worked with him to make sure he got what he wanted. He realized that his new bedroom bathroom’s shower was smaller than what he was looking for. James and HE owner Aaron Bornstein went to great lengths to makes sure their client was satisfied.

According to the client, they came up with several solutions and “prior to the work being done, I received a drawing with the proposed shower’s dimensions and a physical model was created in the bathroom so that I could determine whether it was suitable.”

No matter how extensive your project is, it will inevitably hit a snag. Whether it’s something large or small, you need to go into the process ready to adapt.

“The client is always told to be prepared for any unforeseen issues or changes that might occur during the duration of the project,” James says.

Having experienced my parents’ renovation project and then my own recent one, my recommendation would be to believe him. Being prepared for change is probably the second-most-important thing you can do when undertaking a renovation.

The first? Understanding the process and how it should work. Check back for a future post on the ins and outs of working with a contractor on a home renovation project.

If you want more information in the meantime, you can always reach out to Home Evolutions Corp. directly through their website at http://homeevolutions.us/get-in-touch/ or by calling (631) 241-5795.

This post was sponsored by Home Evolutions Corp. If you would like to reach our readers, please contact us.