Boards, managing agents and superintendents deal with skylights twice: when the stairwell one starts leaking, and when a shareholder wants one put in upstairs. Both turn into paperwork before they turn into work. We handle the paperwork the same way we handle the roof, which is why buildings call us back.
Stairwell, lobby, hallway and bulkhead units. The ones that are the building's responsibility and the ones that generate the complaints.
Roof access, smoke hatches and bulkhead glazing. Boards search for these together with skylights because they sit in the same opening.
A top-floor unit wants daylight. We give the shareholder and the board the same scope, drawing and insurance package so the alteration application is complete the first time.
Four skylights of the same age fail on roughly the same schedule. We will tell you honestly which ones have time left, so a reserve study is based on something.
Most of the delay on building work is not the work. It is the third round of emails because the certificate of insurance named the wrong entity, or the scope did not match the drawing, or nobody asked the roofer first. We send it as one package.
| What the building needs | What we send |
|---|---|
| Certificate of insurance | Naming the building, the managing agent and the board as additional insureds, at the limits your alteration agreement requires. Tell us the exact wording and we match it. |
| License and credentials | LIC# 2084179, official VELUX dealer, VELUX Trained & Approved installer, in business since 2005. |
| Written scope | Unit by unit. What is being removed, what is going in, what happens at the curb and the flashing, and what is explicitly not in the scope. |
| Product data | Cut sheets, sizes, glazing makeup, finishes and weights for anything going on the roof. |
| Roof coordination | Who holds the roof warranty, what we need from them, and what keeps that warranty intact. |
| Schedule | Dates, access requirements, and what the building has to make available. Written down, so the super is not finding out on the morning. |
| Permits | Which filing the job needs, or a written statement of why it does not need one. |
A leaking skylight in a co-op turns into a dispute faster than almost anything else in a building, because the water shows up inside somebody's apartment and the glass is on the roof.
The lease decides it, not us. In most buildings the roof and the common elements are the corporation's, so a stairwell or hallway skylight is a building expense. A skylight installed in a unit under an alteration agreement usually stays with the shareholder, and the agreement often says so explicitly.
What we can settle is the part everyone is actually arguing about: what failed. The unit, the curb, the flashing, or the roof around it. We put that in writing after we have looked, with photographs, so the board is deciding on facts rather than on whoever is loudest at the meeting.
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. Stairwell and lobby skylights, roof hatch and bulkhead units, and shareholder alterations. We work to the building's alteration agreement rather than around it.
It can if it is done wrong, which is why we ask who holds it before anything is cut. We detail the opening so the roofer can certify their own work, and if the roof is under an active manufacturer warranty we tell you what it takes to keep it.
That is the proprietary lease and the alteration agreement, not our call. What we do is make sure the shareholder and the board are working from the same scope, drawing and insurance package so it does not go back and forth three times.
Usually the building, because the roof and common elements are the corporation's. A unit skylight put in under an alteration agreement usually sits with the shareholder. Read the lease, and get it in writing what actually failed before anyone assigns the bill.
Yes. Send the exact wording your alteration agreement requires and we will match it, including the managing agent and the board as additional insureds.
We stage from the roof wherever the job allows and open and close the same day where the scope permits. Where it does not, you will know that before the work is scheduled.
Yes, and we will tell you which filing the job needs before anyone commits to a budget. We have been filing this work in the city since 2005.
A realistic range from a roof plan and photographs, and an exact number after one site visit. Our unit and installed pricing is published on our site, which is more than most contractors will show a board before a walkthrough.