Water is coming in and you want to know what it is going to take. We have been finding skylight leaks across New York since 2005, on brownstones, flat roofs, lofts and commercial buildings. Most of the time the skylight is not what failed. Free assessment, and active leaks go to the front of the schedule.
People call it a leaking skylight. Nine times out of ten the unit is watertight and the problem is the flashing, the metal that ties the skylight into the roof around it. Water does not come through glass. It comes through the seam where two materials meet, and that seam is where the last person cut a corner.
Here is what we find, roughly in order of how often we find it.
| What failed | What it looks like from inside, and what it takes |
|---|---|
| Flashing on a pitched roof | Drips during rain, worse in wind-driven rain, usually at one corner. Step flashing was skipped, reused, or the wrong kit was used. Real repair, and a real fix when the roof around it is sound. |
| Flashing on a flat roof | Water shows up at the ceiling after the roof has been holding water. Flat roofs need a curb, and the membrane has to be turned up and terminated properly on that curb. This is the single most common thing done wrong in this city. |
| The curb itself | Soft framing, rot, a curb that was built too low, or one that has settled. You will often see staining spreading well past the opening. The curb has to be rebuilt before any new unit goes on it. |
| Glazing seal | Fogging or haze between the panes, sometimes with water inside the glass. The insulated unit is finished. No repair exists for this. |
| Acrylic dome, cracked or crazed | Yellowed, brittle, hairline cracks. Common on older flat-roof domes. See the note below, this is where we do things differently from most of the trade. |
| Condensation, not a leak at all | Wet ceiling with no rain. Warm humid air hitting cold glass. Sealant will not fix it and neither will a new unit on its own. |
| The roof, not the skylight | Water travels. A leak twelve feet uphill can present at the skylight because that is the first place it can get through. If the roof is at the end of its life, patching around the unit just moves the drip. |
Every honest answer to "what will this cost" depends on four things, and any company that quotes you a leak over the phone without knowing them is guessing.
What actually failed. Reflashing a sound unit is a different job from rebuilding a rotted curb, and both are different from replacing the unit.
The roof it sits in. Pitched and flat are different details, different materials and different labor. A flat roof with a failing membrane changes the conversation entirely.
Access. On most New York buildings a large share of the cost of any roof work is simply getting people and material up there safely. Walk-up roof access and a scaffold or boom lift are not the same number.
How many. If you have four skylights of the same age and one is leaking, the other three are on the clock. Doing them on one access is much cheaper than doing them one at a time over four years.
Our replacement pricing is published in full on the pricing page, which is more than anyone else in this market will show you before you call. Repairs get priced after we have seen it, because pricing a leak sight unseen is how people end up paying twice.
| Repair makes sense when | Replace makes sense when |
|---|---|
| The unit is under roughly fifteen years old and the glass is clear | The glass is fogged between the panes, the seal is gone and cannot be restored |
| The flashing failed but the roof around it is sound | The roof is near the end of its life anyway, so do both and pay for access once |
| A motor, remote, shade or weatherstrip is the only problem | The frame is rotted, the curb is soft, or it is an old acrylic dome |
| It is one small issue on an otherwise good unit | You have already paid for the same patch more than once |
We are on Gerritsen Ave, so Brooklyn is home. Leak work regularly takes us to Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Windsor Terrace, Ditmas Park, Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Marine Park, Sheepshead Bay and Gerritsen Beach. Brownstone rear-slope skylights and flat-roof domes are most of what we see.
Beyond Brooklyn we cover Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island, Long Island and Westchester, residential and commercial.
Usually yes, and often wind-driven rain specifically. A seam that sheds ordinary rain can fail when water is being pushed sideways at it. It is a real failure, not a quirk, and it will get worse.
Often we can narrow it down a lot. Send a photo of the ceiling where the water shows, a photo of the skylight from inside, and if you can get on the roof safely, one of the unit and the roof surface around it. We will tell you what we think before anyone comes out.
It almost never holds, and it makes the real repair harder because the next person has to remove it. Caulk on top of failed flashing buys weeks, not years.
No. It stopped because it stopped raining that way. What is happening in the meantime is that water is sitting in the framing, and rot is slower and more expensive than a leak.
That happens more than it should, and on flat roofs it is usually because someone used a deck mounted unit where a curb mounted unit belonged, or built the curb too low. That is a detailing mistake, not bad luck.
Most of what we repair is somebody else's work.