Remodeling a house in Throggs Neck

What this page covers

This page is for owners of one- and two-family houses in Throggs Neck who are planning kitchen, bathroom, basement or whole-house interior work. Elevating a house, structural work, additions and exterior work are not planned services. Service availability has not been established.

Neighborhood data

Mostly houses, many of them older

About 69% of units are in one- or two-family buildings, and another 13% are in three- and four-unit buildings. So many projects involve a second household upstairs or next door. About 59% of units were built before 1960, which makes original wiring, piping, paint and undocumented past alterations normal things to plan for. Read renovating an older home, and note that EPA lead-safe rules apply to paid work that disturbs paint in housing built before 1978.

Edgewater Park and similar communities

If your house is on cooperative land

A 2015 City Planning study describes Edgewater Park as one of a few private cooperative communities in New York City. Residents own their homes outright but lease the land, divided into shares, from owners' collectives, and pay dues for shared areas and infrastructure. The study counted 675 single-family homes on 55 acres. It says a 15-member board of stockholders and residents sets architectural and construction guidelines for the community.

The study also notes that the co-op voted to change its bylaws so that building height could be measured from the design flood elevation, which made flood-resilient rebuilding possible. Community rules can and do change, so the current version matters more than an old summary.

• Ask the cooperative for its current construction guidelines, its approval steps and any contractor requirements, before you ask for prices.
• Treat co-op approval and city permits as separate tracks. One doesn't replace the other.
• Ask how deliveries, parking and debris removal work on narrow private streets.

Address-specific check

Flood maps and the 50% improvement test

Flood exposure varies by address, so check yours on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center and read the city's NYC Flood Maps page. For context only, City Planning's 2017 presentation to Throggs Neck homeowners said Bronx Community District 10, which includes Throggs Neck and nearby neighborhoods, held 60% of the Bronx's floodplain population and nearly 80% of its floodplain buildings, based on 2015 preliminary maps. The 2015 study put about 278 Edgewater Park homes, just over 40%, in the 1% annual chance floodplain.

A DOB rule on alterations in special flood hazard areas treats work as a substantial improvement when its cost equals or exceeds 50% of the structure's market value. Every alteration application must state whether the work is part of a substantial improvement. A whole-house interior renovation is the kind of scope where that question should be answered before the design is fixed, because a substantial improvement brings flood-resistant construction requirements.

See basement finishing and moisture before planning below-grade rooms, and whole-home renovation: what first for sequencing.

A brief for a Throggs Neck house project

1. Record whether the house is on cooperative land and get the current guidelines if it is.
2. Record the flood-map result for the address and keep a copy of the lookup.
3. List the rooms involved, what stays and what changes. Mark anything below grade.
4. If a second unit or tenant is in the building, note shared shutoffs, access and quiet hours.
5. Ask each bidder to price the same brief and to say how they would handle the substantial-improvement question. See how to compare remodeling estimates.

Scope examples: home renovation, kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling and basement remodeling.