Pricing
How we price an old building
What decides the price
In an old building the price follows the condition, not the square footage. The survey tells us which of these apply.
How much of the frame is sound
Access: a bank barn is not a ranch house
What was altered and has to be undone
Materials: salvaged or milled timber, lime, true divided glass
Permits, and any historic-district review
What the estimate includes, and what it doesn't
The estimate lists each job from the fix-now pile with its scope, the allowances we've set and what we've left out.
Included: scope by room or bay, materials, named allowances, who is on site, the weeks it takes
Not included: permit fees, an engineer's stamp, conditions found later, anything on the leave-alone pile
What happens at the survey
Two of us, most of a day. Clear a way to the cellar and the attic, and tell us what worries you. The survey is a paid visit; its fee is in your booking confirmation.
If we open a wall and find something
Rot behind a sill, a beam cut for a pipe, knob-and-tube wiring in the attic. We stop, show you with photos, and write a change order with its price before we go on. Nothing is billed that you haven't seen.
When you get the number
In writing, after the survey. Jobs in the fix-now pile get a fixed price. Fix-next jobs get a price good for the season we name. Hourly billing is for work that can't be scoped, and we say so before we start.
No prices here: the building's condition sets them, and the survey is how we find it.
Paying
Deposits and payments
The schedule is written into your contract and follows New York rules.
At signing
A deposit, as New York rules allow, to schedule the crew and order timber.
During the work
Payments tied to stages of the work, not to dates.
At the end
The last payment is due after the walk-through, when the work is finished.
Borrowing
We don't arrange financing. If you plan to borrow, ask your bank before the survey, and we'll give them the estimate.
Why no averages
We don't print an average
An average of old buildings is a number nobody has paid. A stone farmhouse with a sound frame and a barn that is leaning don't cost the same to repair, even when they are the same size.
So we print what moves the price, and we put the number in writing after the survey. If a price here would have helped you decide whether to call, the survey fee is the price to ask for.
Ask for the survey
The survey fee is quoted when you book.