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Brownstone Renovation Brooklyn, NY

Your Brownstone Deserves More Than a Generic Contractor

Renovating a Brooklyn brownstone means navigating landmark rules, aging infrastructure, and a building that’s often 100+ years old. We handle all of it permits, trades, and finishes so you don’t have to manage it alone.
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Top 1% Licensed NY Contractor

Our BuildZoom score of 120 ranks us in the top 1% of 77,888 licensed New York contractors verified independently, not self-reported.

WBE Certified Business

We hold WBE Certification (License #MWCERT2018-175) a city-issued credential that fewer Brooklyn general contractors carry than you'd expect.

Superintendent of Construction Licensed

Beyond a standard contractor license, we hold a Superintendent of Construction license the higher-tier DOB credential required for complex, full-building renovation work.

Free On-Site Estimates

We come to your Brooklyn brownstone, assess the full scope, and give you a clear picture of what the project involves no cost, no commitment.

Brooklyn Brownstone Renovation Contractor

This Is Not an Apartment Renovation

A brownstone is a full building. It has load-bearing walls, aging foundations, exterior masonry that’s been through a century of Brooklyn winters, and plumbing and electrical systems that were never designed for modern life. Renovating one requires a contractor who thinks like a builder not just a finisher. We’ve spent over a decade working on exactly this kind of project. From gut renovations in Bed-Stuy to historic restorations in Park Slope, we manage the full scope: structural work, mechanical systems, exterior masonry, interior finishes, and every permit in between. One team. One point of contact. No handoffs to subcontractors you’ve never met.
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Call: 718-237-4900

Brownstone Gut Renovation Brooklyn

What a Real Renovation Actually Gets You

When the right contractor handles your brownstone, the difference shows up in ways that matter long after the crew leaves.
  • Your permits are properly closed out no open DOB violations waiting to surface when you sell or refinance.
  • Your original details plaster medallions, hardwood floors, marble mantels are protected during demolition, not treated as obstacles.
  • You stop coordinating between a mason, an electrician, a plumber, and a general contractor who don't talk to each other.
  • If your brownstone is in a landmark district, your LPC approvals are handled correctly before any work begins not discovered as a problem midway through.
  • You get a contractor who answers your calls and emails something that sounds basic until you've worked with one who doesn't.
  • The finished building reflects what the neighborhood was built to be modernized where it counts, preserved where it matters.

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Historic Townhouse Renovation Brooklyn

Most of Brownstone Brooklyn Is a Landmark District

If your brownstone sits in Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights North, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, or Boerum Hill, there’s a good chance it falls inside a designated Landmarks Preservation Commission historic district. That changes the rules and the budget. Work on a landmarked building requires LPC approval before it starts. For straightforward in-kind repairs same material, same profile, same color you typically need a Certificate of No Effect, which is a same-day staff approval. For visible changes to the facade, new windows, or cornice alterations, you need a Certificate of Appropriateness, which involves a full LPC hearing and can take three to six months. Many homeowners don’t learn this distinction until a stop-work order shows up on their door. We make sure you understand exactly what approvals your project requires before a single tool comes out. We handle that process alongside the DOB filings not as a separate problem for you to manage.
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Landmark Brownstone Restoration Brooklyn

Every Trade, One Team, Zero Confusion

Brownstone renovation isn’t a single job it’s a sequence of jobs that have to happen in the right order. Foundation and structural work before framing. Rough plumbing and electrical before drywall. Exterior waterproofing before interior finishes. When those handoffs go wrong, the whole project stalls. We manage every trade directly: carpentry, drywall, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, painting, masonry, and more. If your brownstone is a mixed-use building with a commercial ground floor a restaurant, a retail space, an office we handle that renovation too, not just the residential floors above. One client hired us to renovate a co-op apartment on the fourth floor of a 100-year-old walk-up in the middle of summer. No elevator, no easy access, no margin for error. We finished on time, communicated throughout, and delivered what we promised. That’s the standard we hold ourselves to on every Brooklyn project, whether it’s a single floor or a full five-story brownstone gut renovation.
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1

Free On-Site Assessment

We visit your Brooklyn brownstone, assess the full scope, and identify any permit or LPC requirements before you commit to anything.

2

Permit Filing and Approvals

We handle DOB filings and, where required, LPC approvals so your project starts on solid legal ground and stays there.

3

Construction and Final Sign-Off

Our team manages every trade through to completion, then closes out all permits properly no open violations left behind.

Brownstone Renovation FAQs

Common Questions About Our Service

Costs vary significantly depending on scope, condition, and whether your brownstone is in a landmark district. Published 2026 cost guides put a full gut renovation at roughly $400 to $800 per square foot for major work. If your building is in an LPC historic district which covers large parts of Park Slope, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Crown Heights expect that figure to increase by 15 to 25 percent, largely because of material requirements and the approval process. Landmark-grade restorations with historically accurate facades can run $1,000 to $1,200 per square foot or more. Facade restoration alone typically runs $30,000 to $80,000 for a full front. We give you a clear, itemized estimate after seeing your specific Brooklyn brownstone not a ballpark pulled from a calculator.
It depends on where your brownstone is located and what work you’re planning. Most of brownstone Brooklyn including Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, and Crown Heights North sits inside an LPC designated historic district. If that’s you, any exterior changes require LPC approval before DOB filing, and in some cases before any work at all. For in-kind repairs replacing a window with the exact same profile, material, and color you typically only need a Certificate of No Effect, which is a same-day approval. For visible changes, you need a Certificate of Appropriateness, which involves a full hearing and can take three to six months. We help you figure out exactly what category your project falls into from the start.
A full gut renovation of a Brooklyn brownstone typically takes six to twelve months from permit approval to final sign-off, depending on scope and whether LPC approvals are required. If your project needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, factor in an additional three to six months for that process before construction can begin. Exterior masonry work pointing, facade restoration, stoop repair is also weather-dependent and is ideally scheduled for the drier, temperate months. We give you a realistic timeline during the estimate phase, not an optimistic one that falls apart in month three.
Renovation typically refers to updating and modernizing a brownstone new plumbing, electrical, HVAC, kitchen, bathrooms, and interior layouts while restoration focuses on returning original architectural features to their historic condition. In practice, most Brooklyn brownstone projects involve both. You might gut the mechanical systems entirely while carefully preserving original plaster medallions, hardwood floors, marble mantels, and decorative staircases. The key is having a contractor who treats those original details as assets worth protecting not as things to rip out because they’re inconvenient. We work around historic features during demolition and restore them where possible.
The fastest way is to search the NYC Department of Buildings portal by the contractor’s name or company. You can see their active licenses, any violations on record, and whether their permits have been properly closed out on past jobs. You can also cross-reference on BuildZoom, which pulls directly from state licensing data. Our BuildZoom score is 120, placing us in the top 1% of 77,888 licensed New York contractors. We hold a Superintendent of Construction license plus five additional active licenses all verifiable. We’re also WBE Certified (License #MWCERT2018-175), which is a city-issued credential that requires its own compliance and verification process. Any contractor worth hiring should be able to hand you their license number without hesitation.
Yes, and we have direct experience doing it. Renovating inside a co-op building adds a layer of complexity that most contractors aren’t prepared for you’re working within board-imposed restrictions, building management requirements, and shared spaces where noise, access, and debris all have to be managed carefully. We’ve renovated co-op units in Brooklyn walk-ups where the logistics alone no elevator, upper-floor access, summer heat would stop a less experienced crew. For multi-family brownstones being used as rentals, we also manage the sequencing so that occupied units are minimally disrupted. If your building has a commercial ground floor, we handle that too.