A stain on the top floor ceiling that comes back every storm, a stair bulkhead unit nobody has touched since the building went up, or a dome over the kitchen that has gone yellow and brittle. The Bronx runs from detached slate roofed houses in Riverdale to prewar apartment houses on the Concourse to industrial blocks in Port Morris, and the skylight problem is different in each one. We have been repairing them since 2005. The assessment is free and an active leak goes to the front of the schedule.
Find out what is failing before you call anyone. Our leak diagnostic asks six questions about where the water shows and what the glass looks like, then names the likely cause and the four photos that get it priced properly.
If water is coming in right now, call (718) 646-7053. Phones are answered evenings and weekends and an active leak is flagged the same day. We come out, find the real cause, and tell you straight whether the fix is the flashing, the curb, or the unit.
Skylights are the only thing we do. A general roofer working on a skylight twice a year will seal around the problem rather than find it. We have been doing this since 2005, we are an official VELUX dealer and a VELUX Trained and Approved installer, and we are licensed and insured, LIC# 2084179.
Most of New York City is flat roofed, which is why we spend so much of our time saying that a deck mounted skylight does not belong up there. North Riverdale, Fieldston, Spuyten Duyvil and parts of Country Club are the exception. These are detached houses with real pitch, slate, tile or asphalt shingle, and on a pitched roof a deck mounted unit with its proper step flashing kit is the correct build.
What usually fails on them is the flashing kit rather than the unit. Step flashing that was woven in badly, or omitted entirely in favour of a bead of sealant, will hold for a few winters and then let go. On slate and tile the surrounding field has to be opened and reset by someone who will not crack half the slates doing it.
The other common one up there is an attic conversion done twenty years ago where the skylight went in without the shaft being insulated or lined. That runs with condensation in cold weather and gets reported as a leak every time.
Across Throgs Neck, Pelham Bay, Morris Park, Williamsbridge, Wakefield and the rest of the attached housing, the roof is flat or low slope and the skylight belongs on a built curb flashed into the membrane.
The curb is where the leak almost always lives. It is wood, it is decades old, and the usual history is that every roofer who came through coated around it instead of rebuilding it. After the curb comes the counterflashing at the parapet, then the seals on the unit, and only last the glass itself. We open up enough to see which before quoting anything.
If the roof was coated or torn off since the skylight went in, the new work almost always ran straight over the base flashing. It looks tidy and it traps water against the curb. How we price it is on the flat roof skylight page, and the whole diagnosis is on skylight leak repair.
The Grand Concourse, Mott Haven, Longwood, Morrisania and Fordham are full of prewar apartment houses where the only skylight is a steel framed unit over the stair, original to the building and never replaced. Rust in the glazing pocket, putty gone to dust, often wire glass, and water running down the stair walls every time it blows from the east.
These are building jobs rather than apartment jobs, so the owner or the managing agent is the one who has to approve the work. We provide a certificate of insurance naming the right parties, our license number, a written scope, product data and a schedule the super can work with, without being asked for them twice. Detail is on our page for boards and managing agents.
Riverdale in particular is co-op country, and the same paperwork is what keeps a board approval from taking three months.
Port Morris, Mott Haven, Hunts Point and the Bruckner corridor still carry galvanized steel skylights with wire glass over stairs, factory floors and warehouse space. Many of them are vented, some with a hood, and a vented unit with a hood on a building of that age is very often the required smoke vent over the stair, which makes it a filed job rather than an ordinary repair.
Wire glass is the old safety standard. A current sloped glazing build wants laminated glass in the inboard lite so that nothing can come down into the space below. We replace these and we fabricate custom frames where the opening is not a stock size. See wire glass skylight replacement and our commercial page.
Riverdale, Mott Haven, Longwood, Clay Avenue and the Grand Concourse all carry historic district or individual landmark protection in places. The question that decides the job is whether the skylight can be seen from the street.
A replacement on a rear slope or set back behind a parapet is a very different conversation from one on a visible front roof. Like for like replacement is the easiest path and it is often available. Change the size, the profile or the sightline and it becomes a different application. We tell you which one you are in before you spend money on drawings. Detail is on our NYC permits and landmark rules page.
In Manhattan the unit goes up the stair on somebody shoulder because there is no truck parking and no hoist. On most Bronx jobs we can get a truck to the building and a ladder to the roof, which keeps the labor honest and means a larger unit is not automatically a problem.
Where it is a walk up with no roof hatch, or a tight interior stair, we work that out at the measure rather than on install morning. Stairs and hallways get covered before anything comes through and debris goes out the same day.
A repair gets priced after somebody looks at it, because the difference between re-flashing a sound curb and rebuilding a rotted one is most of the bill. What we can publish honestly is the replacement side. On an existing sound curb, a skylight replacement starts at $2,079 installed, with $1,600 standard replacement labor. Cutting a brand new opening starts at $3,500 installed, because framing, flashing and the interior finish are all part of it.
Every number we publish is on the pricing page and none of them are teasers. If the measure turns up rot or a structural header beyond ordinary framing, that is priced separately and you approve it before we touch it.
Acrylic dome or glass is a fair question and we install both. We steer toward glass and we will tell you why. Acrylic yellows and hazes in the sun, glass stays clear, it is quieter in heavy rain, it insulates better and it carries a factory seal warranty. If you want the dome, we will sell you the dome.
New York Skylight Installers, (718) 646-7053. Skylight specialists since 2005 and skylights are the only thing we do. A general roofer patches around a skylight; a skylight company finds what actually failed. The assessment is free and we cover the whole borough.
No, that is the one part of the city where deck mount is the correct build. On a pitched slate, tile or shingle roof a deck mounted unit with its proper step flashing kit is right. What usually fails on those is the flashing kit rather than the unit itself.
Sometimes. If the steel frame is still sound and only the glazing and putty have gone, it can be reglazed. If the frame has rusted through at the glazing pocket, which is common after eighty years, it wants replacing, and a current build uses laminated glass rather than wire glass.
The owner or the managing agent, because a skylight over the stair or a light shaft is part of the building rather than any one apartment. We hand over the insurance certificate, licence, written scope, product data and schedule up front so the approval is not the thing holding the job up.
Often yes. Water gets in at the curb or the flashing, runs along a rafter or a furring strip, and shows up several feet away at the first place it can drop. Where the stain appears tells you very little about where the water entered, which is why we look at the roof and the ceiling together.
Yes, and it is usually cheaper per unit than doing them one at a time because the mobilization and the roof protection are shared across the whole job. Tell us how many and we will price it as one visit.
A like for like replacement on an existing curb is usually treated as ordinary repair work. Cutting a new opening, changing the size, or working on a building in a historic district is a different matter. We tell you which one you are in before you spend money on it. Detail is on our permits page.