The Blog
Working notes on NYC's brick and brownstone buildings — how to read a facade before it fails, what the trade's words actually mean, the filing every tall building lives under, and how honest quotes are built. Written from the scaffold side of the wall.
Facades — Reading the Stone
Flaking stone, open joints, displaced lintels — the checklist for reading a brownstone facade, and which signs cannot wait for spring.
Read the note →Brick & Mortar — Terms of the Trade
One is the repair, the other is a finish. Why the word on the quote matters less than the mortar that goes back into the wall.
Read the note →Regulations — Local Law 11 / FISP
Five-year cycles, three classifications, and the repair scope that closes them out — FISP explained from the owner's side of the filing.
Read the note →Stoops — Repair or Rebuild
A destroyed finish over a sound structure is one job; a settled stoop is another. Two documented Brooklyn stoops show where the line falls.
Read the note →Estimates — Reading a Quote
No honest quote exists sight-unseen. The factors that actually set a repointing price — and how to spot the quote with work missing from it.
Read the note →Brick & Mortar — The Craft
Historic walls are built to spend their mortar, not their brick. Strength, color, texture — the three matches that keep a repair from becoming damage.
Read the note →Water — Finding the Entry Point
The stain is the exit, not the entrance. How water really gets through a brick wall, and the entry-point-first way it gets stopped.
Read the note →The Roof Edge — Parapets & Flashing
Most top-floor 'roof leaks' start at the edge — open coping joints, tired parapet mortar, flashing that lost its anchor. The detail, explained.
Read the note →