How does your pricing work?

We provide a fixed-price quote based on your space, materials, and scope of work. That number is locked in before we start — no change orders, no escalations. What we quote is what you pay.

How long does a typical renovation take?

Kitchen renovations typically run 3–5 weeks. Bathrooms are 1–2 weeks. Full apartment gut renovations range from 8–16 weeks depending on scope. We build a detailed timeline before signing and stick to it.

What does locked-in pricing actually mean?

It means your final invoice matches your signed quote, to the dollar. If we encounter unexpected conditions in the walls or floors, that is our problem to solve, not a reason to charge you more.

Do I need to hire a separate designer?

No. We work with dedicated design specialists who guide you through the entire process, from material selection to final layout. You will know exactly what your finished space looks like before a single tool is picked up.

Are you licensed and insured in New York?

Yes. Euro Restoration is fully licensed and insured in New York State, New York City, and New Jersey. We carry full general liability and workers' compensation coverage on every job.

What neighborhoods do you serve?

We work across Manhattan: Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Tribeca, SoHo, West Village, Chelsea, Midtown, Flatiron, and more. We are also fully licensed in New Jersey and serve Jersey City and Hoboken.

Do you serve New Jersey?

Yes. Euro Restoration holds a full contractor's license in New Jersey. We regularly work in Jersey City and Hoboken for apartment and condo renovations. The same standards, the same team.

Wet Over Dry in NYC: Moving a Kitchen or Bathroom

The wet over dry rule in NYC is a building rule, not a city code, that stops you from putting a new kitchen, bathroom or laundry over a neighbor's bedroom, living room or other dry space. Co-op and condo boards enforce it through the alteration agreement and their engineer's review of your plans. Whether you can move a wet room depends on what is directly below it and on your building's written policy.

What "wet" and "dry" mean

Wet rooms are rooms with water supply and drains: kitchens, bathrooms, powder rooms, laundry rooms and, in some buildings, boiler or water heater closets.

Dry rooms are everything else: bedrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, offices, closets and hallways.

In most prewar and postwar Manhattan buildings, kitchens and bathrooms stack. The kitchen on the 9th floor sits over the kitchen on the 8th floor, and they share the same vertical pipes, called risers or stacks. The wet over dry rule protects that arrangement.

Why boards restrict it

Boards give three reasons, and they are all practical.

Leaks land on the wrong floor. A leak over a tiled bathroom hits a surface built to get wet. A leak over a bedroom ruins plaster ceilings, hardwood floors and furniture, and starts a claim between neighbors.
Leaks are harder to trace. When wet rooms stack, the plumbing runs straight and uniform. Brick Underground reports that this makes problems easier to find. New pipe runs across an apartment add joints and connections in places the super does not expect.
Older buildings have older pipes. Habitat Magazine described an Upper East Side co-op from the 1920s whose 80 year old copper and brass lines were in delicate condition. Boards in buildings like that do not want new connections hanging off old risers over someone's living room.

There is also a legal angle. Habitat reported that a co-op proprietary lease commonly says approval cannot be "unreasonably withheld or delayed," and an attorney quoted there said courts expect a board to have a justifiable concern when it says no. A written wet over dry policy gives the board that justification, which is why many co-ops adopt one building wide.

It is a building rule, not a code rule

The NYC Building Code does not ban wet over dry. With proper waterproofing, the code allows it. The restriction lives in your building's documents: the alteration agreement, the house rules, or a board policy. That means:

Two buildings on the same block can have opposite rules.
Condos and co-ops both commonly adopt it.
The board can change its policy, so an apartment that got approval ten years ago is not proof you will.

Brick Underground's breakdown of alteration agreements lists wet over dry and relocation of stacks among the standard restricted items. Read your building's version before you design anything. Our guide to the co-op alteration agreement in NYC covers the rest of the agreement.

What is usually allowed

Rules vary by building, so treat this as the typical pattern, not a promise.

Change	Typical board response
Renovating a kitchen or bath in its current footprint	Usually approved
Replacing fixtures in the same spot	Usually approved
Expanding a bathroom into an adjacent closet	Often approved, depends on what is below the closet
Moving a kitchen over the kitchen or bathroom below	Often approved
Adding a bathroom over a kitchen below	Sometimes approved
Moving a kitchen or bathroom over a bedroom or living room below	Often refused, or approved only with heavy conditions
Adding a washer and dryer in a closet	Varies widely, often with drip pans and leak detection required
Moving a stack or riser	Rarely approved

Moving a fixture within the same room is a separate question from wet over dry. Under the 2026 update to NYC's ordinary plumbing rule, a licensed master plumber can relocate up to two fixtures within the same room, up to 10 feet, without a full permit. The board can still say no. See do I need a permit to renovate my NYC apartment for the details.

Conditions boards attach when they say yes

When a board allows a wet room in a new location, expect some or all of these conditions:

A waterproofing membrane under the full floor of the new wet room, with sealed pipe penetrations and a properly sloped substrate
A flood test of the shower pan or floor, sometimes witnessed by the building's engineer
Metal drip pans under washers, dryers, dishwashers and water heaters
Leak detectors, often wired to automatic water shutoff valves
Drawings and product specs for the waterproofing system, reviewed by the board's architect or engineer
A structural review if the floor build up adds weight or height

Brick Underground reports that rules have tightened for laundry rooms and boiler closets in particular, with drip pans, leak detectors and automatic shutoff valves showing up as standard requirements. Leak detection reduces risk, but it does not automatically get you past a wet over dry ban. Some boards treat it as a condition, not a substitute.

Workarounds that get approved

Expand instead of relocate

The most common approach is to keep the wet room where it is and make it bigger. Take space from a closet or hallway next to the bathroom to fit a larger shower. Push the kitchen wall out into the dining area. As long as the expansion is not over a neighbor's bedroom, many boards approve it.

Check what is actually below

Do not assume the apartment below matches yours. Neighbors renovate too. An architect in Brick Underground's reporting moved a client's kitchen into a former bedroom on a Fifth Avenue penthouse because there was a bathroom directly below it. Get the layout of the unit below from the managing agent, building plans, or DOB filings before you rule anything out.

Put the wet part in the old wet footprint

A co-op shareholder in Brick Underground's reporting combined apartments, enlarged her kitchen, and placed the dishwasher inside the footprint of an old bathroom. The new room crossed the old line, but the water connections stayed over wet space below.

Look at what the building already approved

Other apartments in your line may have approved layouts on file. Ask the managing agent, look at past sales listings with floor plans, and check DOB records. A precedent does not bind the board, but it tells you what has gotten through.

Ask before you buy

If a layout change is the reason you are buying, ask the board and managing agent in writing before you close. Brick Underground notes that boards rarely give preapproval for a wet over dry plan before purchase, but you can still learn the policy and what the board's engineer looks for.

Checklist before you plan a layout change

Get the alteration agreement and house rules. Look for wet over dry, stack and laundry clauses.
Find out what room sits below each new wet location.
Locate your risers. Short pipe runs to an existing stack are easier to approve.
Ask the managing agent if the board's engineer has a standard waterproofing detail.
Budget for membranes, drip pans, leak detection and flood testing if the board allows the change.
Have your architect or engineer review the plan against the agreement before the board submission.

Our approach

We have renovated kitchens and bathrooms in Manhattan buildings for more than 25 years and are licensed and insured in New York and New Jersey. Our design specialists work the layout around your building's wet over dry rule from the start, so the plan you fall for is one the board will approve. Pricing is fixed and locked in, and the final invoice matches the signed quote. See our bathroom renovation work for more.

Talk to us

Send us your floor plan and what you want to move, and we will tell you what your building is likely to allow. Get your estimate or call (973) 723-4242.