Recent skylight work
New York Skylight Installers replaces, installs and supplies skylights in Manhattan brownstones, rowhouses and lofts. Official VELUX dealer, LIC# 2084179, skylights only since 2005.
Greenwich Village around Washington Square is Greek Revival and Italianate rowhouses from the 1830s to the 1850s, most of them long since cut up into apartments, plus the NYU and institutional buildings folded in among them. The roofs are flat or shallow, often with a mansard or a later top floor addition, and the skylight that matters most is the one over the stair. On a house with four or five units that stair skylight is the only daylight the core of the building gets, and when it goes the whole stack of landings goes dark.
Those stair skylights are usually the original opening with a much newer unit sitting on a curb that has been built up through three or four roofs. That is the thing we check first. A modern unit flashed onto a curb that is soft, out of square or buried under coating will leak again in a few winters, and the owner ends up paying twice. Replacement on a curb that is still sound is $2,287 installed. A curb that needs rebuilding is priced at the assessment, once we have seen it rather than guessed at it.
The top floor additions are the other Village call. Where a mansard or a later storey created a room under a slope, a roof window in that slope gives real daylight and opens for air, from $1,004 installed. Where someone wants light in a room that never had any, a new opening cut, curbed, flashed and finished is $3,850. Nearly every block here sits inside the Greenwich Village historic district, so the Landmarks step comes before the DOB permit, and a unit that cannot be seen from the street is a staff level Certificate of No Effect we prepare with the job.
Leaking skylight in Greenwich Village? 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, 4.9 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.
Landmarks first, then the Department of Buildings. Nearly the whole neighborhood sits in the Greenwich Village historic district or one of its extensions. A unit that cannot be seen from the street, which covers most rear and stair skylights, is a staff level Certificate of No Effect, and we prepare that with the job. Anything visible from the street takes longer and we tell you before you commit.
Yes. The opening is covered and weathertight at the end of every working day, and the stair stays usable throughout. On a straight replacement the unit is off and the new one is in on the same day, so the building is only working around us for a few hours.
Whoever owns the roof, which is usually the owner or the managing agent rather than the tenants. We send a written scope, a certificate of insurance naming the building, and a straight answer on what happens to the roof warranty, in a form the agent can forward without rewriting it.
Usually yes, and a roof window is the right unit for it rather than a flat skylight. It sits in the slope, opens for air, and in the right size satisfies egress. It starts at $1,004 installed. If the mansard faces the street the Landmarks review is a real one, so that gets settled before anything is ordered.
Age is not the test, condition is. We have found 1850s curbs in better shape than 1990s ones. What kills a curb is water sitting in it, roofing built up over it year after year, and framing that was cut and never tied back. We put a hand on it at the assessment and tell you straight whether it can carry a new unit.
A good number of these houses have no hatch and no bulkhead, and the roof gets reached from a neighbour, a fire escape or a ladder through the top floor. We work that out at the assessment and arrange it before the day rather than discovering it with a crew standing on the sidewalk.
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We cover every part of the borough. See skylights in Manhattan, our published prices, or NYC permits and landmark rules. Serving 10011 and 10012.