Recent skylight work
New York Skylight Installers replaces, installs and supplies skylights in Staten Island houses, cottages and additions. Official VELUX dealer, LIC# 2084179, skylights only since 2005.
Huguenot is detached houses on big lots with a lot of mature trees still standing, which is most of the charm of the place and also the one thing that changes how a skylight behaves here. Houses run from older frame and ranch stock through the 1970s and 1980s build out to newer construction, and a fair number have been rebuilt, raised or re-roofed in the last fifteen years. Whatever the house, if there are oaks and maples over the roof, the skylight is living a harder life than the same unit three streets away in the open.
The failure we see here starts above the glass, not in it. Leaves and needles collect on the uphill side of anything that sticks up through a roof, and a skylight is the biggest obstruction on most of these slopes. That debris builds into a dam against the head flashing, it stays wet for days after rain, and water that should have run around the unit backs up behind it and goes under the laps. The unit is usually fine. The job it was asked to do changed.
Shade does the rest. A roof that never gets full sun stays damp, and damp shingles grow moss and algae which hold more water against the same flashing. On the unit itself, constant shade plus falling debris is hard on an acrylic dome, which scratches, chalks and clouds far faster under trees than it does in the open, so the hallway or landing below goes dim years earlier than it should.
What we do about it is practical rather than clever. Glass instead of acrylic, because it does not scratch or yellow and it cleans off. A proper lapped metal head flashing with a decent kick rather than a bead of sealant, so that even when debris collects the water is still being sent back out on top of the roof. And where a unit sits directly under a heavy limb, we will say plainly whether the sensible answer is to move it on the roof while the opening is being worked on, or to leave it and look at it once a year.
On price, a replacement on a curb that is still sound is $2,287 installed with the $1,760 standard replacement labor already inside it. A fixed unit on a pitched roof starts at $897 including the step flashing kit. A new opening cut, framed, flashed and finished starts at $3,850. For a hallway or a small bathroom with no good roof line for a full unit, a Sun Tunnel starts at $407 and goes in inside a day.
Leaking skylight in Huguenot? 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. Read more about skylight repair on Staten Island.
Possibly not. Leaves and needles pile up on the uphill side of a skylight, hold water against the head flashing for days and back it up under the laps, and that will put water in through a unit that is in perfectly good condition. We check what is sitting above the unit before we condemn the unit itself.
It helps and it is worth doing, but it is a maintenance answer rather than a repair. If the head flashing is a lapped metal detail with a proper kick on it, debris slows the water down and the flashing still sends it back out. If somebody relied on sealant up there, clearing leaves only delays the next one. Which of those you have is what we are looking at on the first visit.
Trees are usually why. Falling debris scuffs acrylic, and a roof that sits in shade stays damp and grows algae on and around the unit, so it chalks and clouds a long way ahead of the same dome on an open roof. Glass does not scratch the same way and does not yellow, and it washes clean, which is why we move people to glass here.
It matters because it holds water. Moss and algae on a shaded slope keep the surface wet for long stretches after rain, and anything wet for long stretches is working on the flashing laps and on the deck below. It is not an emergency, but it is a reason to have the flashing detail looked at properly rather than assumed.
Sometimes the unit is better placed a little further along the slope, and if the opening is being worked on anyway that is the moment to decide. Sometimes the limb is the thing to deal with and the unit is in the right place. We will tell you which we think it is and why, and the one we are not going to do is put a new unit back under a limb that is going to keep dropping on it without mentioning it.
A Sun Tunnel, from $407 and usually installed inside a day. It takes daylight down a reflective tube from a small dome on the roof, so it can get round framing that would stop a full skylight, and it puts a surprising amount of light into a hallway or a small bathroom without cutting a full opening.
Annadale · Tottenville · Great Kills · New Dorp
We cover every part of the borough. See skylights on Staten Island, our published prices, or NYC permits and landmark rules. Serving 10312.