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Hey guys, I am looking to do some home renovation and am wondering whats the general consensus regarding whom you'd hire for this type of work -- general contractor or specialists. Also do you guys know and recommend any contractor/specialist?
Scope of Job:
An attached town house built in 1930 with cinder blocks walls + wooden beams and floor
1 - Replace oil heat/water boiler with modern gas heat/water boiler in basement
2 - Replacing multiple doors
3 - Knocking down existing basement wall (room divisions) and replace with concrete wall(don't ask)
4 - Remove and replace existing wooden floor in basement with concrete.
5 - Rewire basement and 1st floor with modern electrical wiring
So..... should I hire a general contractor to handle everything or should I hire specialists(HVAC, carpenter, electrician, etc. etc) seperately? Any advices or recommendations?
I would hire a general contractor for most of the work, save for the HVAC. You might have that work performed separately.
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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
Are we doing this legally or illegally? If the current boiler is legally recongnized by the city (fuel tank permit FDNY and boiler permit DEP) then you'll need to apply for an Alt 2 permit filed by an architect or engineer duly liscensed. Use a plumber not HVAC guy. Any decent plumber would have somebody on call to file. The trick here is to avoid putting all your other renovations on the alt 2. Most architects don't like filing a plan that doesn't quite cover the entire job, the walls and electric should be included, but what the heck. Do the boiler first and then go back and do the rest after a final sign off from the DOB. The order should be demo first, then build walls and floor, run electric and have some reasonably competent carpenter frame and hang the doors. The only thing that will draw the attention of neighbors would be the transporting of multiple bags of concrete into the house.
Forgot about the oil tank, another reason to do that legally, makes a mess.
Don't know where you are so it's hard to give recommendations.
thanks for the info, guys, especially modsquad's reply.
I am in Flushing, Queens area and would like to do this as legally as possible. I am not looking to convert the basement into livable space -- just want to knock everything down for the time being and think about dividing the space into rooms in much later renovations (years down the road).
The oil tank may be the tricky thing. I bought the house 2 years back and the asinine home inspector didn't see that the oil tank was put in illegally. To add to this, I believe there is an old underground oil tank in the backyard -- I actually called up DEP to see if they were able to find record of the old oil tank getting disposed at my address --- there ware none. All of these spell... trouble.
FWIW, a few years back I converted a building in Soho to gas and left the oil tank in place. The only thing the FDNY required was that I fill the fill lline with cement so as to render it unusable. You don't have to take the tank out just get ride of the need for annual inspections. We ultimately took it out literally brick by brick. My experience with DOB inspectors is that they are very narrow in what they inspect. Short of a catastrophic failure of the oil tank while he is on site inspecting the new gas boiler nothing will be said.
Last edited by modsquad81; 04-06-2010 at 09:05 PM..
Reason: content
That does sound like it could be potential trouble, especially if the second tank was put in because of a problem with the one that is suspected to be in the yard. Good luck!
For some good contractors, check The Franklin Report. You can usually find a reliable provider from their list, but be sure to check references, etc. as you would with any contractor.
__________________
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
yes we are already experienced such type work.so you can rely on us.The master plan for my basement renovation is that there is no real master plan. Just a bunch of ideas, measurements, and images in my head. I know I will be renovating the entire basement in two phases. Phase one, which is well underway at the time of this writing, is the “front half” of the house.Just go through this site [URL="http://mybasementrenovation.com/"]Basement Renovation[/URL]. you may get all necessary help from here.
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