A brown ring spreading on the stairwell ceiling, a dome that finally cracked, or plywood somebody screwed over the opening years ago because nobody could find the leak. We are a Brooklyn company, based on Gerritsen Avenue, and we have been repairing skylights across this borough since 2005. Most of the time the skylight itself is not what failed. 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 today, call (718) 646-7053. Phones are answered evenings and weekends and an active leak is flagged the same day. Our shop is at 2728 Gerritsen Avenue, which means a Brooklyn job is a short drive and not a trip in from another county with a travel charge on the end of it.
Skylights are the only thing we do. A roofer who touches a skylight twice a year will tar around the problem and call back in April. 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.
From Park Slope through Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, the original skylight sits at the top of the stair with a decorative laylight hanging below it. They are a pair, and most owners forget the laylight is up there until plaster starts coming down on the top landing.
These weather units are usually single glazed, painted shut, and running on putty that gave up decades ago. We replace the unit above with insulated glass and leave the laylight where it is worth keeping, which on an original interior it almost always is.
The shaft between the two matters as much as the glass. A shaft that was never insulated will stream with condensation in January and look exactly like a leak. We check that before quoting anything. Real figures for this work are on the brownstone skylight page.
Most of Brooklyn is flat or close to it, so the unit belongs on a built curb and flashed into the membrane. A deck mounted unit, the kind made for a shingle roof, does not belong on a flat roof and will leak eventually no matter who set it.
When the water starts, the curb is the usual answer. It is wood, it is thirty or forty years old, and every roofer who came through coated around it instead of rebuilding it. After the curb comes the counterflashing where the roof turns up into the parapet, then the seals on the unit, and only last the glass.
If the roof was coated or replaced since the skylight went in, the coating almost always ran straight over the base flashing. It looks tidy and it holds water against the curb. How we price that work is on the flat roof skylight page, and the full walk-through is on skylight leak repair.
Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach, Mill Basin, Bergen Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge are full of bubble domes that went on in the seventies and eighties. The acrylic yellows, hazes, goes brittle and finally splits, usually along a corner.
Swapping the dome alone is sometimes the right call and we will say so. But a dome that cracked on a twenty year old curb is normally sitting on wood that is soft at the corners, and new plastic on a bad curb is leaking again inside a season. We open the corners and look before we quote.
We install both acrylic and glass and we will tell you honestly why we steer toward glass. Acrylic yellows and hazes, glass stays clear, it is quieter under heavy rain, it insulates better and it carries a factory seal warranty. If you want the dome, we will sell you the dome. The comparison is on our acrylic dome page.
There is a version of this job in every Brooklyn neighborhood. The stair skylight leaked, nobody could find where, so it got covered with plywood and roofing cement and the top floor has been dark ever since. Sometimes it was tarred flat and you can only find it from the roof.
That opening is almost always worth reopening. The curb underneath is the real problem in nearly every case, and once it is rebuilt and flashed properly a glass unit goes on it and the stair gets its daylight back. In a row house with windows on two walls only, that stair skylight is the only daylight the middle of the house ever gets.
In Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Williamsburg and Greenpoint the skylight is usually over a common element. The stair bulkhead, the light shaft, the hallway at the top of the line. That makes the roof the building, not the apartment, and the job needs the board before it needs a crew.
Five things get the managing agent moving instead of stalling: a certificate of insurance naming the building, the managing agent and the board as additional insureds, our license number, a written scope saying exactly what is being opened and closed, the product data sheet, and a schedule the super can live with. We hand all five over without being chased. Detail is on our page for boards and managing agents.
Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Boerum Hill, Crown Heights North, DUMBO and Ditmas Park are all landmarked in whole or in part, and the question that decides everything 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 anything 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 will tell you which one you are in before you spend money on drawings. The detail is on our NYC permits and landmark rules page.
Gowanus, Red Hook, Sunset Park, Bushwick, East Williamsburg and the Navy Yard still carry hundreds of galvanized steel skylights with wire glass in them, over stair bulkheads, factory floors and warehouse space. The steel rusts from inside the glazing pocket and the putty turns to dust.
Wire glass is the old safety standard and it is not what a current sloped glazing build uses. A replacement wants laminated glass in the inboard lite so nothing can come down into the space below. We replace these units and we fabricate custom frames where the opening is not a stock size. See wire glass skylight replacement.
A repair gets priced after somebody looks at it, because the gap 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 the framing, the 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.
New York Skylight Installers, (718) 646-7053, based at 2728 Gerritsen Avenue in Brooklyn. 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.
Our shop is on Gerritsen Avenue in Marine Park. That is why a Brooklyn call does not carry a travel charge and why an active leak in this borough can usually be seen the same day.
Nearly always. Boarding over is what gets done when a leak cannot be found, and the curb underneath is the real fault in almost every case. Rebuild the curb, flash it properly, set a glass unit on it, and the middle of the house gets daylight back.
Sometimes, and we will say so when it is true. But a dome that split on a twenty year old curb is usually sitting on wood that is soft at the corners, and new plastic on a bad curb leaks again within a season. We open the corners and look before quoting the dome.
Because the coating almost certainly ran over the base flashing instead of stopping short of it. It looks neat from across the roof and it traps water against the curb, so the wood rots faster than it did before the coating went on.
It depends on whether the unit is visible from the street. A rear slope or anything set behind a parapet is treated very differently from a visible front roof, and like for like replacement is often available. We tell you which one you are in before you spend money on drawings.
Yes. We sell units, flashing kits and curbs supply only to Brooklyn roofers, general contractors and owners doing their own work. Details are on our trade page.