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Construction is a broad trade, and the word covers everything from a bridge to a new closet. If you are looking for project ideas for your own home, it helps to know which kind of project each idea is, because the kind decides who you need to hire, whether the city is involved and how long it takes. This guide sorts the field, then the home projects within it.
The main families of construction
- Residential: houses, townhouses, apartments, condominiums and other dwellings. Architects and engineers design the work and builders carry it out with subcontractors for the structural, electrical and mechanical trades, all under the local building code.
- Building additions and renovations: adding to or altering a property that already exists. For people who own a home this is by far the most common kind: a new kitchen, a larger bathroom, a walk-in closet, an extra room.
- Institutional and commercial: schools, hospitals and clinics, shops, offices, warehouses and hotels. These call for architects and engineers who specialize in the building type.
- Highway: building, altering and repairing roads, streets, paths and parking areas.
- Heavy construction: the works that are neither buildings nor roads, such as flood control, water treatment plants and water and sewer lines.
A renovation contractor works in the first three. Ours is interior work: apartments, townhouses and houses, plus shops and offices, described on our commercial spaces renovation page.
Home project ideas, from light to heavy
A cosmetic refresh
Paint, plaster repair, refinished floors, new cabinet doors or new cabinets in the same places. The Department of Buildings lists painting, plastering, installing new cabinets and resurfacing floors as minor alterations that may be done without a work permit (Department of Buildings). The contractor still needs a Home Improvement Contractor license from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (ours is number 2019617-DCA), and a co-op or condo may still want to know.
One room, done properly
A kitchen or a bathroom taken back to the walls and rebuilt. This is where most home projects sit, and it is where the city usually comes in: the Department of Buildings says most kitchen and bathroom renovations need a permit application filed by a professional engineer or registered architect.
Built-ins and millwork
A wall of bookshelves, a fitted closet, an entertainment unit, a window seat. These change how a room works without touching plumbing or wiring much, and they suit an owner who wants a visible result with little disruption.
A gut renovation
The whole apartment or house stripped and rebuilt: new layout, new wiring and plumbing, new kitchen and baths, new floors. It needs drawings, filings and, in an apartment building, the board’s full review. See apartment renovation in NYC.
Combining apartments
Two neighboring units joined into one, side by side or one above the other. It is a design and approvals project as much as a building one, and we plan and build these with our design firm.
How New York City sorts building work
The Department of Buildings sorts building work by the application it is filed under, and its own pages use two sets of names. Its guide to renovating kitchens and bathrooms speaks of New Building and Alteration types 1, 2 and 3, and says most kitchen and bathroom renovations need an Alteration type 2: a renovation with multiple types of work that does not change the building’s use. Its page on obtaining a permit lists the primary applications as New Building, Alteration-CO and Alteration. Your architect or engineer chooses the right one. Whatever the name, doing construction without the department’s approval or permits is illegal, and the work then has to be legalized or removed.
Who each kind of project needs
- Any paid home improvement over $200: a contractor licensed by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.
- Anything that needs plans and a permit: a New York State licensed professional engineer or registered architect to file them.
- Plumbing and gas piping: a Licensed Master Plumber.
- In a co-op or condo: the board’s consent under the building’s alteration agreement.
- In a landmark or historic district: a Landmarks Preservation Commission permit for interior work whenever a Department of Buildings permit is needed.
Choosing your project
Start from the problem, not the idea. If the trouble is storage, built-ins may solve it without a renovation. If it is a kitchen that does not work, moving one wall may do more than new finishes. A firm that both designs and builds can price the options side by side; that is what our design and build page describes, and home renovation in NYC covers whole-home work. For the money side, read how to plan and budget for a home construction project.
Have a project in mind and not sure which kind it is? Call us or send the request form for a quote on your renovation.
Questions people ask
Which home projects need no permit in NYC?
The Department of Buildings gives painting, plastering, installing new cabinets, plumbing fixture replacement, resurfacing floors and non-structural roof repair as examples of minor alterations that may be done without a work permit. Ask an engineer, an architect or the department’s borough office when in doubt.
What is an Alteration type 2?
It is the name the Department of Buildings’ guide to kitchen and bathroom work gives to an application for a renovation with multiple types of work that does not change the building’s use. The guide says most kitchen and bathroom renovations require one, filed by a professional engineer or registered architect. The department’s page on obtaining a permit calls its alteration applications Alteration and Alteration-CO, so you may see either name.