A stain spreading across the stairwell ceiling, a unit that fogged up over the summer, or a managing agent asking for paperwork before anyone is allowed on the roof. We have been repairing skylights in Manhattan since 2005, on prewar co-ops, townhouses, lofts and commercial buildings. 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 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 itself.
Skylights are the only thing we do. A roofer who works on skylights twice a year will patch around the problem. 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 Manhattan skylights sit over a common element. The stair bulkhead, the light shaft, the hallway at the top of the line. That means the roof is the building, not the apartment, and the work 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 that says exactly what is being opened and closed, the product data sheet for the unit, and a schedule the super can live with.
We hand all five over without being chased. Full detail is on our page for boards and managing agents, and if the alteration agreement wants something else, tell us and we will fill it out.
Almost every Manhattan roof is flat or close to it, which means the unit should be curb mounted, sitting up on a built curb and flashed into the membrane. A deck mounted unit, the kind sold for a shingle roof, does not belong on a flat roof and leaks sooner or later no matter who installs it.
When the water starts, the curb is the usual culprit. It is wood, it is thirty or forty years old, and it has been re-coated around rather than rebuilt. After that comes the counterflashing where the roof turns up into the parapet, then the seals on the unit, and only last the glass. We open up enough to see which it is before quoting anything.
If the roof was coated or re-done since the skylight went in, the coating usually went right over the base flashing. It looks tidy and it traps water against the curb. More on how we price that work on our flat roof skylight page, and the full diagnosis walk-through on skylight leak repair.
On the East Side, the West Side and down through the Village, the original skylight sits at the top of the stair with a decorative laylight hanging below it. The two are a pair and people forget the laylight is there until plaster starts coming down.
These are usually single glazed, painted shut, and running on putty that gave up decades ago. We replace the weather unit above with an insulated glass skylight and leave the laylight alone where it is worth keeping, which on a landmarked interior it usually is.
The shaft between the two matters as much as the unit. A shaft that was never insulated or lined will run with condensation in January and look exactly like a leak. We check that before we quote glass. Figures for this kind of work are on the brownstone skylight page.
A large part of Manhattan sits in a historic district, and the rule that matters 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.
Below 23rd Street and across the old manufacturing blocks there are still hundreds of galvanized steel skylights with wire glass in them, on stair bulkheads, over factory floors and on warehouse roofs. The steel rusts from the inside of the glazing pocket and the putty goes 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 that nothing can come down into the space below. We replace these units and we also fabricate custom frames where the opening is not a stock size. See wire glass skylight replacement.
A repair is 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 gets priced separately and you approve it before we touch it.
Acrylic dome or glass is a fair question and we install both. We will steer you toward glass and 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.
There is no truck parking and there is usually no hoist. The unit goes up the stair or through the bulkhead hatch on somebody shoulder, which is why the size that fits the opening is not always the size that fits the building. We work that out at the measure, not on install morning.
Stairs, hallways and the elevator cab get covered before anything comes through. Debris goes out the same day. If the building requires a specific freight elevator window or a protected path, give it to us with the alteration agreement and we will build the schedule around it.
New York Skylight Installers, (718) 646-7053. We have been Manhattan skylight specialists since 2005 and skylights are all we do. A general roofer patches around a skylight; a skylight company finds what actually failed. The assessment is free.
Almost always the building, because a skylight over the stair or a light shaft is a common element rather than part of your apartment. Your board or managing agent runs the job. We give them the insurance certificate, licence, scope and product data they need to approve it.
A like for like replacement on an existing curb is often treated as ordinary repair work. Changing the size, cutting a new opening, or anything visible from the street in a historic district is a different matter. We tell you which one you are in before you spend money on it.
That it is almost certainly a seam or a piece of flashing rather than the glass. A joint that sheds ordinary rain can fail when water is being pushed sideways and upward at it. It is a real failure and it gets worse, it does not settle down.
Probably condensation rather than a leak, especially on a single glazed unit or an uninsulated shaft. It is still a problem worth solving, but the fix is insulation and glazing, not flashing, and anyone who quotes you flashing for it has not looked properly.
If the curb is sound and the unit is not fogged or cracked, re-flashing and re-sealing is often the right answer and it is the cheaper one. If the frame has rusted through, the seal has blown or the curb is rotten, replacing it costs less over ten years than paying for the same repair three times.
An active leak is flagged the same day we hear about it. For anything in a managed building we also need the board paperwork started, so tell us the managing agent on the first call and we will begin that in parallel rather than after the fact.