Forest Hills is one of the few Queens neighborhoods where the word "historic" fits comfortably. Forest Hills Gardens, with its Tudor-style houses, slate roofs, leaded casements, arched passages and curving streets, is known well beyond the borough. Around it, pre-war co-ops line the avenues, many with plaster walls, parquet floors and generous layouts. The brownstone of the search is not the typical Forest Hills building, but the intent is: restore a home with character, and do it without damaging what makes it valuable.
This page covers both kinds of property, because the planning questions are different. A Tudor house is mostly about exterior sensitivity, structure and systems. A co-op is mostly about the board, the building and the schedule.
A Tudor-style house is a bundle of features that reward careful handling: steep rooflines, stucco and half-timbering, casement or leaded windows, arched doorways, plaster walls with textured finishes and woodwork that was built by craftspeople rather than ordered from a catalog. When these houses age, they tend to fail in predictable places.
Slate or tile roofs, flashings, gutters and chimneys need periodic attention. Water entering through a failed flashing can travel along framing and show up as a stain far from the source. Stucco cracks, wood trim rot and masonry joint failure all invite water behind the surface.
Original casements and divided-light windows are a major part of the character. Repair, weatherstripping and storm layers often preserve them better than replacement. If your property is under any design review, replacement is typically scrutinized.
Arches, niches and textured plaster are hard to duplicate. They can be repaired by skilled plasterers, and the cost of repair is often lower than the cost of a convincing replacement.
Boilers, radiators, knob-and-tube wiring, undersized electrical service and old supply lines are common in houses that have not been fully updated. Quietly modernizing what is behind the walls is the point of many restorations.
Forest Hills Gardens is a planned community with its own history and its own standards. Exterior alterations there may be subject to review by the community's governing body in addition to the DOB. We do not speak for that body, and we recommend that owners contact it directly before designing exterior work.
Separately, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission regulates designated landmarks and historic districts across the city. If your property is designated, LPC approval is required before exterior changes, and the LPC lists its permit types on its permit applications page. Confirm your address's status rather than assuming.
Practical advice: collect your deed or co-op documents, any prior approvals and photographs of the existing exterior before starting design. These make review faster and reduce the chance of redrawing.
On a Tudor house, a small mistake can be both costly and visible. A mismatched window, the wrong mortar on old masonry, a modern vent through a stucco wall or an incorrectly repaired plaster arch can reduce the value of the property and invite review. These are not risks to leave to a general handyman.
Our approach looks like this:
We are fully licensed and insured, and NYC requires a Home Improvement Contractor license for residential remodeling. You can read about it on the DCWP checklist page. From blueprints to the final coat of paint, our in-house team carries the project.
We also donate 5 percent of total project cost to a nonprofit of your choice.
Forest Hills' pre-war co-ops tend to be solidly built, with thick plaster walls, tall-for-the-era ceilings, original parquet or strip floors and layouts that are more generous than modern construction. They also come with a board.
Most co-ops require you to submit an alteration agreement, plans prepared or stamped by a registered design professional, a contractor package with license and insurance and a schedule. Some boards ask for a refundable deposit and for a pre-construction meeting. Our article on board approval steps for condo and co-op gut renovations explains the usual sequence. Industry reports indicate DOB reinstated a board attestation in DOB NOW: Build effective January 26, 2026; confirm with DOB and your managing agent.
Boards commonly allow cosmetic work and kitchen and bath renovations, with limits on moving plumbing stacks, changing flooring in ways that affect sound transmission and altering structural walls. Always read your alteration agreement before choosing finishes.
Construction hours in most buildings run weekdays from about 9 AM to 5 PM, narrower than the citywide Noise Code window of roughly 7 AM to 6 PM, so a task that would take a week on an open site may take longer in a co-op.
Deciding what to save is the heart of any restoration. This table summarizes how we usually frame the choice. Our guide to what to keep during a gut renovation gives a longer treatment.
| Element | Usually keep and repair | Usually replace |
|---|---|---|
| Plaster walls and arches | Yes, patch, re-secure, skim coat as needed | Only when delaminated or water-damaged beyond repair |
| Parquet and strip floors | Yes, refinish at roughly $4 to $10 per sq ft | When rotted, water-damaged or too thin to sand |
| Casement windows | Repair and weatherstrip | When frames are beyond repair and approvals allow |
| Original trim and doors | Strip lead-safe, repair, repaint | When missing or damaged beyond repair |
| Plumbing and wiring | Rarely | Often; modernizing is a safety and value upgrade |
| Bathrooms | Rarely | Often; waterproofing failure is common |
The pattern is consistent: surfaces and architectural details are worth saving; systems and wet rooms usually are not.
Almost everything built in Forest Hills before 1978 was painted with lead-based paint at some point. Disturbing it without precautions can spread dust through a home. The EPA requires anyone paid to disturb paint in pre-1978 homes to be certified and to use lead-safe work practices, and explains the program on its RRP page. Our guide to lead paint and demolition in NYC covers the practical steps.
Typical 2026 interior painting for NYC apartments, including prep, ranges from roughly $1,500 to $3,000 for a studio to $6,000 to $12,000 for a three-bedroom, and cabinet painting adds about $3,500 to $9,000 for a kitchen. Houses with high ceilings and detailed trim cost more. See our Forest Hills interior painting page.
Forest Hills floors often justify preservation. Refinishing runs about $4 to $10 per square foot, and installed hardwood runs $12 to $28. Subfloor leveling adds $2 to $8. Parquet repair is a specialist task that we price by the area affected. Our Forest Hills flooring installation page has details.
Kitchens in pre-war co-ops are often small and enclosed. Opening a wall into a dining room is a popular move and requires engineering and board approval if the wall is structural. Typical kitchen costs are $25,000 to $85,000 or more, with six to twelve weeks of work.
Original bathrooms usually have tile over a thin mortar bed on a lath ceiling below. Proper demolition and waterproofing matter. A full bathroom typically costs $30,000 to $60,000 or more and takes three to six weeks. See Forest Hills kitchen and bath remodels.
Most NYC construction requires a DOB permit. Alterations are filed through DOB NOW: Build by a registered architect or professional engineer, as the DOB explains on its permit page. Cosmetic work like painting generally does not need one.
We handle this for you. That means coordinating with the design professional, preparing drawings with the board in mind, submitting filings, scheduling inspections and keeping you informed. Simple filings take weeks and complex ones months, and we build that into the schedule from day one.
Looking ahead, Local Law 33 of 2026 establishes a new NYC Existing Building Code, which DOB says takes effect July 17, 2027. Until then, current rules apply to alteration filings. If your project spans that date, ask us how the change affects your timeline.
If you are unsure what your project needs, Do I Need a Permit? is a quick first screen. For co-op owners, we also offer Forest Hills co-op and condo gut renovations and luxury apartment renovations, each with the board package built in.
Our team charges nothing to review your plans and building rules at the estimate stage. Request a free estimate and we will tell you what approvals your project needs before you commit to anything.
These are typical October 2026 planning ranges for the NY metro area. They are estimates, not quotes. Building rules, access, hazmat, finishes and scope move them, and a written, itemized quote governs.
| Scope | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Cosmetic refresh | $100 to $250 per sq ft |
| Mid renovation with kitchen and bath | $200 to $400 per sq ft |
| Full gut renovation | $250 to $500+ per sq ft |
| High-end or structural | $500 to $1,000 per sq ft |
| Design, engineering and permits | about 15 to 25 percent added |
| Landmark or design review | often 15 to 20 percent on time and budget |
Tudor houses and pre-war co-ops tend to sit at the middle and upper part of these ranges because of repair work, specialty trades and review requirements. A kitchen, two baths and floors in a pre-war apartment will usually cost less per square foot than a whole-house restoration, even though the finishes are similar. For a complete explanation of how the pieces add up, read what a renovation costs in NYC in 2026 and our gut renovation guide.
We serve Forest Hills, Queens, ZIP 11375, plus the surrounding Queens neighborhoods, the other four boroughs, Long Island and nearby New Jersey.
Forest Hills' housing stock includes Forest Hills Gardens, Tudor homes and pre-war co-ops. Locally, that means a combination of community design standards for exterior changes, slate and tile roofs that require specialty repair, co-op boards that set hours and approvals and mature streets where dumpster placement and deliveries require advance planning. For nearby neighborhoods, see Astoria, Long Island City and Sunnyside, or the borough hub, Queens Renovation Services.
Whether you own a Tudor house or a pre-war co-op, the best way to begin is with a site visit. We walk the property, review your board or community requirements, flag items needing testing or engineering and listen to what matters most to you.
Figures and rules in this guide reflect typical conditions as of October 2026. Your written quote, your building or community rules and current DOB requirements govern.