In Yonkers there is no brick job small enough to skip the paperwork. The city requires a building permit for all facade repairs, restoration and pointing, and separate permits for the scaffolding and any sidewalk bridging the work needs. A quote that leaves those out is not the real price.
The City of Yonkers Department of Housing and Buildings states it plainly in its published guidance. All facade repairs, restoration or pointing require a building permit. All scaffolding requires a building permit. All sidewalk bridging requires one too. Owners are often surprised that simply renewing mortar joints counts.
As brickwork contractors in Yonkers we file before any work starts and build every permit the job needs into the quote. It makes the number higher than a quote from someone planning to skip them, and it is the only number that holds up when the Yonkers building department checks the address or a neighbor asks to see the permit.
Three kinds of brick work come up most often, and each counts as facade work under the city’s rule.
Raking out and refilling joints is often treated elsewhere as routine upkeep. In Yonkers the city lists pointing alongside facade repairs as work that needs a building permit, so brick pointing here starts with one.
Cutting out cracked or loose units and setting new ones is a facade repair under the city’s guidance, however few bricks are involved. On a Yonkers wall that makes brick replacement permitted work from the first unit.
Taking down and relaying brickwork is restoration, and on larger Yonkers jobs it usually brings scaffolding and sometimes sidewalk bridging, each with its own permit. The rebuilding itself falls under brick repair and installation.
Every one of these is facade work in Yonkers, and every one is permitted before it starts.
For every facade job in Yonkers, joint work included, the permit application goes in before anything on the wall is touched. The scope in the application is the scope that gets built.
Where the work needs scaffolding, it gets its own permit. Where a sidewalk has to be bridged to protect the public, that needs one too. Both are counted in the Yonkers quote from the start rather than added later.
The Yonkers Code requires the permit to be on show, so the owner, the neighbors and any city inspector can see the work is authorized. Anyone unsure can check with the department directly.
What an owner can expect from a brick contractor in Yonkers who treats the city’s rule as part of the job.
The cheapest quote for brick work in Yonkers is often the one that quietly leaves out the permits. It stays cheap until a neighbor calls the city, an inspector notices scaffolding with no permit on display, or a certificate of occupancy is needed and the records do not agree with the work. The city’s answer then is to legalize it through a permit after the fact. Ask any contractor which permits their quote includes, for the wall and for the access. If the answer is none, the price is only part of the cost.
The same permit rule applies across the whole city, from Getty Square, Ludlow and Nodine Hill to Park Hill, Crestwood and Lawrence Park West.
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Yes. The City of Yonkers Department of Housing and Buildings states that all facade repairs, restoration or pointing require a building permit. That covers renewing joints, replacing bricks and rebuilding sections. In Yonkers there is no size of brick job on a facade that falls below the requirement.
Yes. The city states that all scaffolding requires a building permit of its own, separate from the permit for the facade work. On a Yonkers brick job that uses scaffolding, both permits are needed, and a quote should show that both have been allowed for.
Yes. The city requires a building permit for all sidewalk bridging. Where Yonkers brick work runs above a public sidewalk and the walkway has to be protected, that bridging is permitted separately from the facade work and from any scaffolding the same job also needs.
Look in the window. The Yonkers Code requires the permit to be displayed there while the work is under way. If you cannot see one, the Yonkers Department of Housing and Buildings can confirm whether a permit exists for the address or take a complaint and send an inspector.
The city can require it to be legalized. Where work was done without permits and does not agree with city records, Yonkers requires the owner to apply for a building permit to legalize it. It tends to surface when the owner of a Yonkers property needs a certificate of occupancy and the file is checked.
