Living in a condo or coop can come with its own set of restrictions, thanks to codified rules that ensure you’re respecting your neighbors. In New York, for example, building regulations often require contractors to replace the pipework all the way back to the water supply. (The same goes for rewiring the electric.) That makes the simple kitchen or bath glow-up you’d envisioned a lot more invasive—but, on the upside, it means you can put the appliances and fixtures wherever you want. “Clients will tell me they want to leave the sinks and tub bases where they are, but gut the whole bathroom,” says Josh Wiener, the founder of the luxury New York building firm SilverLinings. “But once you gut the whole bathroom, you have to do all new plumbing and all new electric. At that point, you can put everything exactly where you want and it won't change the price.”
Similarly, many upgrades in an older building may not be a one-for-one swap:
- Replacing old floors? Some buildings will require a new floating floor (instead of resting the flooring on your downstairs neighbor’s ceiling) to comply with codes designed with sound mitigation in mind.
- The same goes for upgrading an existing speaker system, which could require soundproofing on the ceiling.
- Going even further, some buildings require you to keep the floorplan intact so that a high-traffic room isn’t stacked on top of someone else’s bedroom—meaning designated sleeping spaces can’t be transformed into active spaces, potentially quashing your plan to turn that third bedroom into a den with a large TV.
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