Recent skylight work
Queens roofs run the full range, attached brick homes in Ridgewood and Astoria with flat roofs that take curb-mounted units, Tudors in Forest Hills and colonials in Bayside with pitched shingle roofs for deck-mounted skylights, and everywhere, attics being converted into real rooms that need roof windows and daylight to become legal, livable space.
Leaking skylight in Queens? 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 Queens calls us. Water dripping from the skylight, a stain on the ceiling under it, a drip that only shows up in a heavy rain: none of that tells you what actually failed. On the attached brick houses of Ridgewood and Astoria it is usually the curb or the flashing on a flat roof; on the Tudors and colonials of Forest Hills and Bayside it is usually a builder-grade deck-mounted unit that has reached the end of its life. 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, priced on the spot through the Skylight Finder. Active leaks go to the front of the schedule.
Sun tunnels earn their keep in Queens more than any other borough: deep attached houses with dark interior hallways and windowless baths, where a rigid tunnel delivers true daylight for a few hundred dollars, installed in a day. Measure your space, check the Skylight Finder for the exact unit and price, and we'll confirm it on a free site visit.
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. Builder-grade units and old acrylic domes fail at the frame, the seals 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 Queens to look at it.
Roof windows rather than standard skylights. They sit in reach, they open, and egress rated sizes exist for when the converted space has to satisfy that requirement. A roof window starts at $913 for the unit with the flashing kit included.
Often not, and that is what a sun tunnel is for. It threads daylight through framing and ductwork a skylight cannot pass, and it goes in inside a day. The unit starts at $370. Deep attached houses in Queens are where it earns its money more than any other borough.
A curb mounted unit raised on an insulated curb, the same answer as any flat roof. What changes on an attached house is access, because getting a crew and materials up safely is a real part of the cost and we price it honestly rather than discovering it on the day.
The seal failed. Builder grade units from the 1980s and 1990s are reaching the end of their lives across Queens by the thousands, and once the glass has fogged there is nothing to repair. It is a unit replacement, and on a sound curb it starts at $2,079 installed.
Where the work needs a Buildings permit, the owner hires a registered design professional as applicant of record and the licensed contractor pulls the permit after the approval. A home improvement licence does not substitute for that. Our NYC permits page explains what triggers it.
All of it. Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village, Forest Hills, Rego Park, Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill, Ozone Park, Jamaica, Bayside, Whitestone, Flushing, College Point, Douglaston, Little Neck, Howard Beach and the Rockaways.
The flat roof on an Astoria two family is not the slate roof on a Forest Hills Tudor or the stair bulkhead on a Ridgewood walk-up, and the right skylight is different on each one. These pages cover what we actually see on the roofs in each neighborhood.