Renovating a home is expensive. It involves a lot of people, a good amount of time, and there are lots of unknown. A person can’t possibly know everything regarding DOB fees, codes, electric, plumbing, framing, underpinning, reinforcements etc. And because of this you need to depend on the expertise of others. And you can’t spend […]
The ten things I like to do before making a construction decision Read More »
I had to paint the hallway of one of my tenant’s apartments. So I’m in the paint isle and I have a dilemma. Normal paint is cheap. Low VOC or non VOC paint is almost twice the price. Which one do I buy? They don’t care if the paint is low VOC… I’m not sure
Are you green when nobody is looking? Read More »
Our green show house in Brooklyn had a concrete back yard. It was three inches of solid impervious, heat making concrete. The death valley of back yards. Without the space. So we tore up the concrete and sent it on it’s heavy way. Now we have rich dark soil ready for life. We have big
Edible Garden in Brooklyn Read More »
I went by a house renovation the other day. They were doing all sorts of fancy stuff – especially a super high end radiant floor heating installation. And then they were putting in 3 1/2 inch fiberglass insulation for the exterior walls. From the perspective of a green brownstone builder that’s like ordering a really
Insulating a Brooklyn green brownstone Read More »
There is a gut renovation going on accross the street from our green show house. It is a classic renovation where a lot of money is being spent and not much thought going into how it is done. The owner is getting reamed with prices IMO. A couple weeks ago there was a dumpster full
Example of Green Building How NOT to build Green Read More »
From another blog. Hmmm… interesting. In the last 5 years a significant portion of the arab nations have been putting in large electrified rail networks: Iran has connected all its main cities, and built promissory links to the borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey. Syria is developing new lines, Libya is opening lines, the southern
a sign of the times? Read More »
We are renovating the facade of the top floor with similar slate that was there before. It is called Pennsylvania Black diamond cut. It actually looks grey. PA Black is a little softer than other slates but still great stuff. We bought our slate from Doug Cochran at Reclaimed Roofs, Inc. Doug is a good
Renovating with Salvaged Slate Read More »
Here is an example of the newest recessed LED lighting. There are two shown, one with a wider width than the other. By Juno. It is not cheap, coming in at around $225 US per light. They have heat sinks to keep them cool and each unit has the transformer built in. Why they put
LED recessed lighting Read More »
If you saw a house without the sheet rock you would be very surprised how many electric wires there are snaking all over the place. As in the world now, our house is a huge electromagnetic jungle with electromagnetic fields both big and small crisscrossing our bodies from many directions. Why Electrical Wiring Needed? As a
Electrical Wiring and EMF Read More »
I needed some help designing some stairs in the Brooklyn Green Show House. I knew what I wanted but I didn’t want the headache of calculating all the dimensions. It is basically a double turn and the space was tight so you had to be really careful with the measurements. So I posted an add
