A high-rise condo or co-op kitchen in New Jersey runs about $40,000 to $90,000 in 2026, a bathroom $30,000 to $60,000, and a whole-unit renovation $80,000 to $200,000 and up. Building work adds roughly 10 to 20 percent over the same job in a single-family house, and four to twelve weeks to the calendar before a single tool comes out of the truck — that's board review, not construction.
We do this work in Hudson County towers along the Gold Coast, in Fort Lee co-ops, and in Bergen and Essex mid-rises. The construction is the part we control. The building is the part we manage — and managing it is most of what you're hiring us for.
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The kind of finish our bathroom crews deliver: large-format porcelain, floating oak vanities, backlit mirrors, frameless glass and matte-black fixtures. Example finishes, not a specific customer's home.
A high-rise condo or co-op kitchen in New Jersey runs about $40,000 to $90,000 in 2026, a bathroom $30,000 to $60,000, and a whole-unit renovation $80,000 to $200,000 and up. Typical price: $30K – $200K+. Licensed & insured, written itemized price before work starts, no deposit, one dedicated crew. Serving all 21 New Jersey counties from Paramus. Call (201) 676-3099 or book a free estimate.
Plan on four to twelve weeks from submitting a complete package to holding an approval letter. Many boards meet monthly, which means one missing certificate can cost you a full month. Some Fort Lee and Hudson County buildings also run submissions past a managing agent and an outside engineer before they even reach the board.
The way to shorten it is to submit a complete package the first time. We assemble the whole thing — agreement, drawings, insurance certificates, schedule, product specs, contractor documentation — and we deal with the managing agent's questions directly so you're not forwarding emails.
Summer matters too. A lot of Gold Coast buildings block renovation work between Memorial Day and Labor Day, or during the holidays. We'll tell you your building's blackout window at the first visit, because it decides whether you start in March or September.
Work hours are the big one. Most buildings allow construction weekdays only, roughly 9 to 4 or 9 to 5, no weekends, no holidays. That's a 35-hour week at best, which is exactly why a kitchen that takes five weeks in a house takes seven in a tower. We build that into the schedule we hand you instead of discovering it in week two.
The freight elevator gets reserved in blocks, and in a busy building you're sharing it with movers and two other renovations. Everything in and out goes through it, padded, with corridor protection from the elevator to your door. Debris usually can't go in the building's trash room — it goes out through the freight and into our truck.
Plumbing is the other constraint. Your fixtures tie into shared risers, so moving a toilet or a kitchen stack is often flatly prohibited or requires engineering. A riser shutdown to make a connection means notifying the whole line and a scheduled window, sometimes at 7 a.m. Our master plumber is on our crew, so that window doesn't get missed because a rented sub took another job.
And there's the unit below you. Every wet area we build gets a full waterproofing membrane and, where the building allows, a flood test before tile. Anything we install that carries water carries our 5-Year Watertight Guarantee — which is a promise that means more 14 floors up than anywhere else.
In a condo you own your unit, and the association governs the common elements and the alteration process. Approval is usually a management-and-board process against written rules.
In a co-op — common in Fort Lee and older Hudson County buildings — you own shares and hold a proprietary lease, so the board's authority over what you do inside is broader and the alteration agreement is a real legal document. Boards can and do say no. They're also far more comfortable with a contractor who has done the paperwork before.
In a 55-plus or townhouse association, the rules are usually lighter inside and stricter outside — windows, doors, decks and anything visible. Same principle: find out what's governed before you order anything.
None of this replaces the municipal permit. You still need permits and inspections from Jersey City, Hoboken, Fort Lee, Edgewater or whichever town you're in, and we pull those in parallel with the board package.
Paramus-based, renovating units in high-rises and mid-rises across all 21 New Jersey counties, with most of this work along the Hudson County waterfront, in Fort Lee and in Bergen and Essex buildings. One foreman, one crew, one point of contact for you, your board and your managing agent.
Email your building's alteration agreement and house rules to info@firstcallcontractingnj.com, or text photos of the unit to (201) 676-3099, and we'll tell you what your board is going to require before you pay for a drawing.
typical fixed-price range — your exact number goes in writing after a free visit
How we beat the big chains: Firms that specialize in building work price the board paperwork as a premium service and bill the coordination hourly on top of the construction. No franchise fees, no commissioned salesmen, no rented subcontractors — that's typically 15–30% under national-brand quotes for the same or better spec. Bring us any written quote and we'll match the scope line by line.
“The contractor didn't have the right insurance certificates and the building wouldn't let his crew past the lobby. We lost a month.”
“They ran the demo saw at 7:30 in the morning and the board fined us and shut the job down.”
“The bathroom leaked into the unit below and the neighbor's ceiling came down two months after we finished.”
You found a crew that is actually near you. First Call Contracting is based in Paramus, in Bergen County, and our own licensed techs handle condo & co-op renovations in all 21 New Jersey counties — no call center, no subcontractor sent from two states away. Most of Bergen, Passaic, Hudson and Essex is 15 to 30 minutes from our shop, and emergencies go to the nearest crew, 24/7.
Closest to us: Bergen CountyPassaic CountyHudson CountyEssex CountyMorris CountyUnion CountyAll 21 counties & 219+ towns →
Call (201) 676-3099, text us a photo, or book a free in-home estimate — you get a written price before any work starts.
A high-rise kitchen runs about $40,000 to $90,000, a bathroom $30,000 to $60,000, and a whole-unit renovation $80,000 to $200,000 and up. Expect roughly 10 to 20 percent more than the same scope in a house — that's restricted work hours, elevator logistics, protection and debris handling, all of it itemized on your price.
Four to twelve weeks from a complete submission, because many boards meet monthly and one missing document costs a full cycle. We assemble the whole package — alteration agreement, drawings, insurance certificates, schedule and specs — and deal with the managing agent directly so it goes in complete the first time.
Sometimes, rarely easily. Fixtures tie into shared risers running through the whole line, so moving a toilet or a kitchen stack is often prohibited outright or needs engineering and board sign-off. We check your building's stack locations at the first visit and design the layout around what's actually possible.
Yes. Board approval and a municipal construction permit are two separate things. You need permits and inspections from Jersey City, Hoboken, Fort Lee, Edgewater or whichever town you're in, under the NJ Uniform Construction Code. We pull those in parallel with the board package.
Whatever your building's rules allow, which almost always means hard flooring over an acoustic underlayment meeting a minimum sound rating, and often a required percentage of the floor covered by rugs. We spec the assembly to your building's number and keep the documentation for the file.
Yes, and a lot of our building work is exactly that. You get a photo update text every workday, video walkthroughs at each milestone, and we handle the board, the managing agent and the building staff directly. One point of contact, and you hold final payment until an item-by-item walkthrough.
If you're anywhere in New Jersey, yes. First Call Contracting is based in Paramus and handles condo & co-op renovations across all 21 counties with our own licensed crew. Most of Bergen, Passaic, Hudson and Essex is 15 to 30 minutes from our shop, and emergencies are dispatched to the nearest crew 24/7. Call (201) 676-3099 or book a free in-home estimate.
Alteration agreements · certificates of insurance · building hours and elevator blocks · one crew, one contact
Or call Alex direct: (201) 676-3099
A real person picks up every hour of every day. We tell you what to shut off first, then send the nearest crew.