Recent skylight work
Brooklyn is home, our shop is on Gerritsen Avenue, and more of our skylights sit over Brooklyn rooms than anywhere else. The borough's housing stock is our native language: flat-roofed row houses that need curb-mounted units raised above ponding water, brownstones where landmark rules and original profiles shape what can go in, and Marine Park and Bergen Beach colonials with shingle roofs that take deck-mounted units with proper step flashing.
Leaking skylight in Brooklyn? Start with a professional assessment from New York's original skylight specialists. Skylights are all we have done since 2005: licensed and insured (LIC# 2084179), VELUX Trained & Approved, an official VELUX dealer, 4.8 stars on Google, and a 10-Year No Leak Warranty on every unit we install. Roofers and handymen do skylights on the side; we are the specialists the roofers call. Leaks are the number one reason Brooklyn calls us. Water dripping from a skylight, a stain spreading on the ceiling, a drip that only shows up when it rains or when snow melts: none of that tells you what actually failed. It could be the flashing, the curb, a seal, or a unit that has reached the end of its life, and in most Brooklyn houses it is the last one, a decades-old acrylic dome or steel-framed skylight that has fogged, cracked and rotted its curb. We come out, find the real cause, and give you a straight answer and a price for the right fix, which is usually a new unit installed properly on a sound curb, priced on the spot through the Skylight Finder. Active leaks go to the front of the schedule. New openings, venting units for kitchens and baths, sun tunnels for dark hallways, and supply-only sales to Brooklyn roofers all run through the same shop.
Leaking skylight in Brooklyn? Start with a professional assessment from New York's original skylight specialists. We find the real cause, which on most Brooklyn roofs is the flashing or the curb rather than the glass, and we tell you straight whether it needs a repair or a new unit. A straightforward replacement on a sound existing curb starts at $2,079 installed. Active leaks are flagged the same day. Skylight leak repair in Brooklyn explains what we look for and what it costs.
Call the skylight company first. A roofer sees a roof problem and caulks around the unit; it holds for a season and comes back. A skylight specialist can tell you in one visit whether it is the flashing, the curb or the unit itself, and what the honest fix costs. If the roof around it turns out to be the problem, we will tell you that too.
If it drips on cold clear mornings and stops when it warms up, it is usually condensation on an old single-pane or acrylic unit, and the cure is a modern insulated glass skylight, not sealant. If it comes in during or right after rain, it is a leak, and the assessment tells you where.
Usually not for long. Acrylic domes and steel-framed units from the 80s and 90s fail at the frame and the curb, not at one spot. We will tell you if yours is the rare exception, but the right answer on most of them is a new unit on a proper curb or flashing kit, and we price that on the spot.
Active leaks go to the front of the schedule, and our phone is answered evenings and weekends, not just office hours. Call (718) 646-7053 any time, tell us it is leaking now, and it is flagged to us the same day so we can get someone out in Brooklyn to look at it.
A curb mounted unit on an insulated curb. On a Brooklyn row house that is not a preference, it is the only correct answer. The curb lifts the glass above standing water and snow, and its height is a large part of whether the install lasts twenty years or two.
Sometimes, and it depends on what is under it. If the curb and the flashing are sound we will price a new dome, or a glass unit dropped onto the same curb. On a lot of Brooklyn row houses the curb is what is actually leaking, and then a new dome alone will not hold. We look first and tell you which one you have. Replacement on a curb that is still sound starts at $2,079 installed. More on domes versus glass.
Constantly. Copper pan flashed classics are the traditional answer on a brownstone and our price list calls them exactly that. Landmark work is approval first, and under the Landmarks rules a skylight is judged as a rooftop addition, where visibility from the street is the test. Our page on NYC permits and landmark rules walks through it.
All of it. Park Slope, Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Ditmas Park, Flatbush, Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach, Mill Basin, Bergen Beach, Canarsie, Greenwood and Red Hook.
It depends on the work, and the practical line is the roof deck. Work limited to the roof membrane and coverings sits differently from work that opens or replaces the deck or sheathing. Landmark status can add a separate filing even when nothing is visible from the sidewalk. We tell you which one your job is before you commit.
Our shop is on Gerritsen Avenue, so Brooklyn is a short drive rather than a trip. More of our skylights sit over Brooklyn rooms than anywhere else, and estimates are free.
The roof under a Park Slope brownstone is not the roof under a Bay Ridge semi-detached or a Ditmas Park Victorian, and the right skylight is different on each one. These pages cover what we actually see on the roofs in each neighborhood.