One of the most common and feared problems for homeowners is water leaks and damage. Our latest for BrickUnderground.com tells you all about our recent experiences and what you are in for when you purchase an old house.
Stay tuned for our next post because it gets even better, or worse, depending on how you look at it.
Nothing says “family time” like clearing sewage-filled pipes with your loved ones.
Longtime New Yorkers Angela Tiffin and Andrew Nichols bought their first brownstone in South Park Slope in May 2012, and have spent two years renovating—first, their own duplex apartment and in recent months, a third-floor rental unit—much of it with their own hands. You can read more about the project at their blog, Brownstone Cyclone.
If this isn’t a proverb, it should be: as soon as you complete something during a renovation, something else goes wrong. When you’re dealing with a 100-year-old brownstone, it happens more often than not. And water is particularly destructive because the damage extends both to the thing leaking, as well as its surroundings—home insurance policies have a high deductible for water-related damage for a reason.
Brownstone Cyclone 
Sewer exploding out of the clean-out trap: not fun or pleasant, but quite spectacular. Ours too happened around Christmas time, a few weeks after we bought the house. The culprit: paper towels flushed by the previous tenant.
Update on this – the leak ended up coming from the patio doors on the parlour floor that were installed improperly by the contractors. They refused to pay for or fix the damage – be careful who you contract with. We fixed it in the end.