Loft renovation in the Flatiron District

This was an old printing factory converted to a residential loft in the 1980's.

The decision made back then concerning plumbing risers was to basically keep the sewer line risers in the factory location as some of the floors were still occupied. This meant that plumbing fixtures elsewhere on the floor had to have their sewer lines run on top of the floor slabs and back to the main risers to exit the building. A platform was made necessary to “step over” these sewer and water lines. Our client bought part of the 8th Floor as such. In addition, access to the second means of egress was made to get to the rear fire escape and widened to allow a bedroom and closets, plus two bathrooms and a kitchen.

The person selling had owned the whole floor and so agreed to a raised platform crossing their apartment to the main risers with two steps up and then two steps down. This was all before A.D.A. Codes were enacted of course. The existing plan had the same two steps inside the master bathroom which started after the lavatory and a small utility closet. The worst part was that the toilet, bidet and shower were all at the top of the steps – most dangerous navigating this especially at night.

Our solution was to use wall mounted plumbing fixtures, which kept the drainage off the floors until we could connect directly to the sewer line that was sitting on the floor slab. The steps were relegated to the raised shower portion only, along with safety grab bars. The other bathroom had it’s two steps outside away from the door, so we elected to leave this detail in place. Other keys features were a full electrical upgrade, with meter and service panel. This allowed the entire loft to be re-wired to current Code. We also added a central 2 zone air conditioning system. For maybe the first time, the sprinkler system was updated to account for the lot line windows to not be steel frame, wire glass with fusible link fire units. Lastly, we designed the space to be as open as possible with original floors, exposed conduit electrical power and new LED lighting, large room door openings and upgraded plaster repair work throughout.

-Bob