Recent skylight work
Forest Hills is the other kind of Queens roof. South of Queens Boulevard, and above all in Forest Hills Gardens, the houses are Tudors and colonials with steep pitched roofs, slate and shingle, dormers and real attics. Skylights here are a deck mounted unit with step flashing worked into the shingles, or a roof window in an attic that is being turned into a bedroom or an office. It is a different product and a different install from the flat roof work we do in the rest of the borough.
The most common call from Forest Hills is a builder grade skylight from the 1980s or 1990s that has fogged between the panes or started to drip at the bottom corner. That is the unit reaching the end of its life, not the roof, and the answer is a new deck mounted VELUX with fresh flashing, from $2,079 installed. A roof window that opens for egress and ventilation in an attic conversion is $904 for the unit plus the install, and a new opening cut through the roof and framed starts at $3,500.
Forest Hills Gardens has its own rules on exterior changes, and the corporation reviews them, so we tell you early what will and will not get through. North of the Boulevard the attached brick houses and the Cord Meyer apartment buildings are flat roof work with curb mounted units, and we do plenty of that here too.
Leaking skylight in Forest Hills? 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. 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. 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. Active leaks go to the front of the schedule.
Not the glass, no. Fogging means the seal in the insulated glass unit has failed and the unit is at the end of its life. The fix is a new unit in the same opening, which on a sound roof deck is $2,079 installed and usually a single day.
A roof window is a skylight built to be within reach, opened by hand, and large enough to climb out of. It is the right unit for an attic bedroom or office where the code wants a second way out. The unit is $904 and we install it into the rafter bay with the flashing kit made for your roofing.
Not if it is flashed properly. Slate and shake take a specific flashing kit and a specific method, and most of the leaks we see on Forest Hills Tudors come from a shingle flashing kit used on slate, or from no step flashing at all. We flash to the roofing you actually have.
In the Gardens, exterior changes go through the corporation's review, and a skylight on a street facing slope will get looked at. A unit on a rear slope is usually an easier conversation. We tell you which before you order anything so nothing gets bought twice.
On a top floor unit in one of the six story buildings, yes, with the building's approval. The building will want a certificate of insurance, a written scope, and an answer on the roof warranty. We put that package together.
All of it, the Gardens, the Van Court and Cord Meyer sections, and the blocks either side of Queens Boulevard and Metropolitan Avenue, plus Rego Park and Kew Gardens next door. That is 11375 and the surrounding zips.
Astoria · Long Island City · Ridgewood · Jackson Heights · Sunnyside
We cover every part of the borough. See skylights in Queens, our published prices, or NYC permits and landmark rules. Serving 11375.