Before starting a renovation in NYC you need to get an ACP-5 filled out and filed with the DOB. This is the first of many forms to file with the city to obtain a construction permit. It’s basically an asbestos assessment report that can only be stamped by a certified asbestos investigator. That means you need to hire a company to come over and take samples for testing. They charge per sample test and they take about 30 to 40 samples. An asbestos test can run anywhere between $3,500 and $6,500 depending on the scope of the project. This is the form which you can download straight from the Department of Buildings website:
After the investigator arrives, they jab everything from the walls to the roof and put all the samples into separate vials. About a week later, you get the results. In our case, we skimmed by having no asbestos found inside the house. On the roof however, the tar was full of it. The roof replacement was part of our work scope, so we needed to have the asbestos removed before the city would issue us a work permit to begin construction. This led to the next phase of this procedure. Hiring an asbestos abatement contractor. My general contractor knew a company who could do this, so for $14,000 we were ready to begin removing the asbestos off the roof.
The first thing the abatement company did was designate a “clean” room and a “dirty” room for the workers to change into and out of their hazmat suits. Then they set up a temporary shower at the entrance to the asbestos area. Everything was walled off with plastic and caution tape. It felt like the scene from E.T. where the government came in and took over Elliot’s house.
When all the asbestos tar plus four layers of roofing membrane were stripped off the 130 year old wood planks, they bagged it all away. Now it was time to assess the damage of the roof having been neglected for so many years.
The roof
The first thing we noticed were six roof beams that had separated from the party wall and were just hanging in mid air. The rest of the roof planks must have been keeping them in place because whatever ledger they were sitting on had rotted away years ago.
We needed to replace a few planks here and there, but overall the base layer on the main roof was in descent shape. My contractor put a temporary rolled roofing down so that we could revisit the roof later.
Before we could walk away from the roof for a while we made another discovery. The brick chimney on the roof was not connected to the rest of the brick chimney running up through the house. There was about 7′ missing between the top of the chimney breast on the second floor to the underside of the chimney on the roof. Completely gone! The chimney was just sitting on top of the roof not attached to anything. I’ve seen some crazy things done to houses before, but never this one. This chimney was originally for two fireplaces, but they were bricked up long ago. Now there is an 8″ diameter steel exhaust pipe that runs through the chimney from the boiler in the basement.
Fortunately my contractor had a brilliant solution to the chimney. Once he removed the bricks off the roof, a 2×4 did the trick holding up the boiler exhaust. That’s better. Ugh.