How to Prepare for Your NYC Apartment Renovation

Once a contractor is chosen and the building has the plans, most owners feel the hard part is behind them. In fact the weeks before work starts are when an owner can do the most to keep a renovation on schedule and on budget. Here are five things to do with that time.

Be a confident decision-maker

Everyone involved, you included, wants the job to move forward on schedule. That depends on decisions being made quickly. Your contractor will talk through the larger problems that may come up, and those are not usually what cause delay. The small choices are: a faucet, a paint color, a trim profile. If the faucet is not chosen in time it can arrive two weeks late, the plumber has to be rescheduled, and one small decision has moved the whole job.

So write a list of every selection the job needs, from tile to cabinet pulls, and put a date beside each. Aim to have them all made, and the slow items ordered, before demolition begins.

Compare prices and set a budget

Get a rough idea of the cost of each style and material you are considering. You do not need an exact figure yet, and nobody can honestly give one until a contractor has come in and assessed the condition of the space. A rough range is enough to plan with.

When you divide the budget among rooms, remember where it comes back. If you sell one day, a kitchen and the main bathroom return the most, and money held back on light fixtures, vanities and closet systems improves the return. As a guide, the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report, published by the Journal of Light Construction, put a midrange bathroom remodel in the New York market at $30,376 and estimated that 76.5 percent of it was recouped at resale (Cost vs. Value 2025). That is a regional average for a defined project, not a price for your apartment.

Create a contingency fund

However carefully you plan, something always happens. We have long advised setting aside 5 percent of the original budget, and we would treat that as the floor. In an older building, where the walls hold wiring and pipes nobody has seen for decades, more is prudent.

One rule goes with it: the contingency is for surprises, not for upgrades. Do not spend it to stretch the budget toward a better counter. If the job ends with the fund untouched, that is the time to upgrade.

Visit a kitchen and bath showroom

If you are remodeling a kitchen or a bathroom, go and see materials in person. A door sample in your hand tells you more than a photograph, and a showroom is the place to ask questions and get a sense of prices before you are committed. You will make better decisions for it, before the job and during it.

Bring the room’s measurements, photographs and a sample of anything the new work must match, such as the flooring. Our own kitchen showroom is seen by appointment. The details are on our custom cabinets page.

Ready the apartment and the building

• Finish the paperwork. Buildings want insurance certificates and a list of contractors before anyone enters. The City Bar’s model co-op agreement also calls for at least five days’ written notice of the start date to the managing agent, the superintendent and the building’s engineer.
• Book the building. Ask how the service elevator is reserved and what protection the halls and elevator need.
• Clear the rooms. Pack what is in the work area, and store valuables and anything fragile well away from it.
• Decide how you will live. Stay or go? If you stay, set up somewhere to make coffee and a simple meal, and agree which bathroom remains in use.
• Tell the neighbors. A note with the dates and a name to call buys patience when the noise starts.
• Photograph the hallway and the elevator before the first delivery. Your security deposit answers for damage to them.

The steps of the work itself are described under apartment renovation in NYC, and the kitchen’s stages one by one on our kitchen remodel timeline. If you are at an earlier point and still shaping the project, start with our tips for planning your home renovation.

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