MK's Profile

Name:
MK
In Brooklyn Since:
1990
On Brownstoner Since:
2007
Location:
Brooklyn
Neighborhood:
Brooklyn Heights
Abode:
Rental
Profession:
Librarian
Sex:
Female
Age:
40
Website:

Author's Posts

April 24, 2008

Central Air compressor unit.

I am hoping to get some advice on my central air compressor unit issue. I had a central air sytem installed in my brownstone back in 2004. Since then, I have had to have several acid washes on the coil in my unit. I was told this is because I have a great deal of dirt, dust, leaves, feathers (from pidgeons) etc. that cake on the coil and cause the need for the acid wash. Over the few years I have had this unit I have been extremely attentive to keeping the area around the unit clean as well as cleaning the unit itself at the end of the season and covering it when it is not in use tightly with a bungy cord. My question is this: Has anyone else had this issue? If so, what have you done about it? Just to wash this coil costs $525.00 from my central air company in addition to the fee that I pay for general service calls which is around $400.00 for the year. Any advice/information would be appreciated. Thank you.

April 17, 2008

Linoleum Floor Cleaners.

Hi All:

I wondered if any of you out there have used a good vendor for cleaning linoleum floors? We are looking to clean the floors located in the common halls of our brownstone. This includes the stair case and landings going up 5 flights. Any information or referrals would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

February 27, 2008

Removing decales from a bath tub.

Dear All:

I have the task of removing some unsightly star fish themed decales from the bottom of a tub lined bath tub. Does anyone out there have any suggestions of how to most carefully remove these decales without damaging the tub in any way? Many thanks in advance.

February 20, 2008

Renovation - price comparisons

Dear All:

I am hoping to gain some valuable advice from those out there who have gone through kitchen and general renovations. I am about to embark on my third (and hopefully last) phase renovation in my brownstone home. In this phase I am going to renovate my kitchen and a guest room to accommodate our daughter who is quickly growing out of her small nursery room. The bids that I have received so far from both an electrician and contractor seem a bit high; granted the last renovation I did was in 2004 and I did not do a kitchen renovation at anytime. I want to ask those who have been through all of this before and fairly recently if they feel the numbers add up. Here are the figures I have gotten to date:

Electrical work: $18,000(this includes re-wiring kitchen, installing 4 high hats in ceiling, new plugs, dimmers, under the counter lighting), re-wiring bedroom (this includes on center ceiling light fixture and new plugs), and some re-wiring in a back livingroom area to accommodate and mount new flat screen TV).

Contractor bid: $37,000

This includes preparing the kitchen for new cabinets, renovating new bedroom (new dry wall, new windows, new closet construction, painting).

I realize that not all details have been included, but that is the job in a nutshell. Any advice that can be afforded would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to all in advance.

October 1, 2007

Mounting Flat Screen TV

Dear All:

I wondered if anyone out there has had experience and can offer some advice on mounting a flat screen TV to a brick wall? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

August 21, 2007

What's that smell?

I live in a brownstone that was duplexed into the basement back in 2000. There is a door to the boiler room at the front end of our renovated hallway that leads to the back rooms off of the garden. When I can home yesterday I experienced a faint smell of urine coming from the front area in the boiler room (gross!). Does anyone out there know what could possibly cause this odor? We have had sewer issues in the past but this is a completely different smell.

I have of course called our maintenance professional to check it out and see if we need professional plumbing assistance, but I thought I would ask all of you out there in brownstone land if you ever encountered this before. Many thank!

*MK

Author's Comments

Many thanks again to all who responded to my inquiry. You have all confirmed to me what I felt to be quotes on the high side of things.

I meant to clarify that I have been and am absolutely gathering additional quotes to compare and contrast pricing out this renovation. What I find interesting is the differences in prices between each of the contractors/electricians that come into my space to see the job we want done. I find it difficult at best to have a clear understanding of what things should run these days given that it has been a few years since my last reno. Guest at 5:27 mentiones, "We had 8 hi hats installed for $800". The electrician who recently submitted an estimate wants way more than for four high hats and additionally said it would run me $3,000 to install 3 feet of my under the counter lighting.

I very much appreciate the input and advice. I will continue my search until the right professionals are found. Many thanks again.

Sincerely,

Posted by: MK at February 21, 2008 2:37 PM in response to Renovation - price comparisons

MK here:

Thank you both for your responses. Just to clarify, yes, the contracting price is for prep type work on the kitchen. My semi-custom cabinets are running me around 15K (The cabinet vendor offered a price of $1800.00 included in that price for installation. For some reason the contractor who quoted me the price above wanted an additional $3200 to install the cabinets). And yes, of course I have to factor in the new counter tops, appliances, and tile work on the back splash. If anyone has any suggestions on how they did a similar job for less please share. I would appreciate any advice. Thanks again!

Posted by: MK at February 20, 2008 3:24 PM in response to Renovation - price comparisons

Thanks to all who responded. Since my brick is 100+ years old I think I had best work with a professional.

Posted by: MK at October 2, 2007 12:07 PM in response to Mounting Flat Screen TV

Many thanks to all who responded. The smell remains a mystery; but seems to have subsided as of last night.

By the way "Guest @ 8:33 PM": I disagree that urine smells are normal in old brownstones. I go downstairs several times a day in my basement space (which as mentioned in my original post has been renovated) and have never smelled anything like this which is why I bothered to post my inquiry. What could you possibly mean by "It's Brooklyn, it's a urine smell. What's new? Get over it?. Are you suggesting that people from Brooklyn are such thoughtless pigs that they just pee anywhere they please? As someone born and raised in Brooklyn I find that comment not only offensive but just plain ignorant and unnecessary.

If you do not have something constructive to say please keep it to yourself.

Posted by: MK at August 22, 2007 11:23 AM in response to What's that smell?

Thanks for the reply and thought. I thought about cats, but after investigating the area, I did not see any evidence of cats.

Other things going on near my property that I neglected to mention was yesterday the City was doing a repair on a hole in the middle of the street where there is a sewer connection and the brownstone next door is having a basement pipe rehabilitation.

*MK

Posted by: MK at August 21, 2007 10:20 AM in response to What's that smell?

Responses to Author's Forum Comments

Quite possibly someone just went back there and urinated... years back, our co-op had a problem with people climbing over the locked gates leading down to our basement entrance who then proceeded to relieve themselves on our property...

Posted by: bren at August 21, 2007 11:56 AM in response to What's that smell?

Are you sure it isn't all the rain kicking up weird smells? Whever there's a lot of dampness, smells have a tendency to emerge. Old house funk -- kinda like wet dog funk.

Posted by: NeoGrec at August 21, 2007 12:57 PM in response to What's that smell?

Rats. They happen. Even if you have the cleanest, nicest, most expensive place in New York, the freak storms and flooding subway tunnels have been causing a diaspora.

Posted by: bheightsejp at August 21, 2007 5:10 PM in response to What's that smell?

Urine smells are normal in old brownstones. Especially in the basement. If this is the first time you have smelled it, either you don't go down there often or your sinuses are usually very bad.
It's Brooklyn, it's a urine smell. What's new? Get over it.

Posted by: guest at August 21, 2007 8:33 PM in response to What's that smell?

You mention it is in the front - if you mean front of the house my guess is that the boiler is vented through the scuttle. Can somebody pee down it?

Posted by: guest at August 21, 2007 8:55 PM in response to What's that smell?

Many thanks to all who responded. The smell remains a mystery; but seems to have subsided as of last night.

If you do not have something constructive to say please keep it to yourself.

Posted by: MK at August 22, 2007 11:23 AM in response to What's that smell?

First one strong caveat-I used Garfield Kitchens (now known as Brooklyn Kitchens ) on Fifth Ave and Garfield. I like my cabinets very much, Rich Maid. I do not recommend Garfield to anyone-their pricing is questionable, they are not welcome to changes and you will make changes and last it was necessary for me to appeal to the sales rep. to get work done. However, this lack of judgement was more than made up by my selection of two fellows who functioned as my general contractors, project supervisors and therapist during my entire renovation. A & T is the name they give themselves, initials of their first names. Call Thad at (646) 831-8319 if you're interested.

Posted by: bergenbabe at February 20, 2008 3:58 PM in response to Renovation - price comparisons

Get more quotes from a couple more contractors on both prep and installation. Don't let them separate it out and don't tell them what you were quoted by this first contractor.

My kitchen contractor markets his company as a kitchen contractor but does electric and walls and general contracting too, and I think he's worth calling to get one quote for the whole shebang. His name is Anthony Riccio: 347.267.1681

You can see reviews for him on the apartment therapy website. Good luck!

Posted by: guest at February 20, 2008 4:03 PM in response to Renovation - price comparisons

The electric quote seems very high. the outlets, and fixtures are all easy superficial jobs. We had 8 hi hats installed for $800. We had a new circuit and breaker boxes brought into brought each of the 4 unit and that job ran $7,500. Granted it was 5-6 years ago but $18k seems very high.

Posted by: guest at February 20, 2008 5:27 PM in response to Renovation - price comparisons

I would say the quote is really high. I would shop around. The contractor bid was $37,000?! That takes some balls. ( and I'm a contractor myself! )

Posted by: Rick at February 20, 2008 5:43 PM in response to Renovation - price comparisons