Recent skylight work
New York Skylight Installers replaces, installs and supplies skylights in Bronx houses, rowhouses and apartment buildings. Official VELUX dealer, LIC# 2084179, skylights only since 2005.
Kingsbridge is a mixed neighborhood in a way most of the Bronx is not. A five or six storey prewar walk up can sit directly beside a frame house from the 1890s, with a postwar brick building across the street, all on blocks that climb steeply between Broadway and the hill up toward Riverdale. The skylight job depends almost entirely on which of those buildings you are standing in.
In the walk ups, the skylight is at the top of the stair, usually on a bulkhead or set into a flat roof directly over the stairwell, and it is the only daylight in a staircase that runs five storeys down. Many are original steel framed assemblies with wire glass in them, painted over so many times the frame has swelled, and they leak at the glazing rather than at the roof. That is a different repair from a modern curb mounted unit and we price it as what it is.
What is worth knowing about Kingsbridge specifically is who signs. A walk up here is often owned outright by one landlord or a small family company rather than run by a co-op board with a managing agent, so the approval chain is short and a decision can be made in a week rather than a quarter. Where there is a board, the package is the same one we put together for any building: a certificate of insurance naming the building, the owner and the agent, a written scope, our licence details and product data, and a schedule. Our co-op and condo board page sets that out in full.
On the frame and brick houses the job is more familiar. A straight replacement on a sound curb is $2,287 installed, with the $1,760 standard replacement labor inside that number. A new opening cut, framed, flashed and finished is $3,850. A roof window in a pitched slope is $1,004 installed and it opens for air, which on a finished top floor matters more than the extra glass does.
The hill is the practical problem here and it is worth saying out loud. Streets in Kingsbridge are steep, the gaps between buildings are narrow, and on several blocks there is simply nowhere level to foot a ladder on one side of a house. We work out roof access at the assessment and price it honestly, rather than turning up with the wrong plan on the day.
Leaking skylight in Kingsbridge? 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 in the Bronx.
It depends how the building is held. Many walk ups here are owned by one landlord or a small family company, in which case the owner decides and it can move quickly. If the building is a co-op or has a managing agent, we put together the usual package, a certificate of insurance naming the building, the owner and the agent, a written scope, licence details, product data and a schedule, and our co-op and condo board page explains what that covers.
Sometimes, and the honest answer needs a hand on it. On these assemblies the frame rusts from the inside and the glazing putty hardens and falls out of the rebates, so the water is coming in at the glass line rather than through the roof. Re puttying a frame that is rusting through is money spent twice. We will look at a repair first and tell you straight which way it goes.
Yes. A bulkhead unit sits on its own small structure above the roof, so it has walls, a roof of its own and a junction where that structure meets the main roof, and that junction is where most bulkhead leaks start rather than at the skylight. We look at the whole bulkhead, not just the glass, because replacing the unit and leaving a bad junction solves nothing.
Usually, but not always from the side you would expect. On these slopes one side of a house can have no level ground at all. We work out the access at the assessment, from whichever side actually takes a ladder safely, and if there is no safe position we say so and price the alternative rather than finding out on the morning.
It depends on the address. There are designated buildings and districts in this part of the Bronx and a great many buildings nearby sit outside them, so it changes block by block. Where Landmarks applies the approval comes before the Buildings permit and street visibility drives it. We confirm your address before anything is ordered. The permits page covers the rest.
A straightforward replacement on a sound curb is normally a single day on the roof, and the stairwell is only unusable for part of it. Where the curb has to be rebuilt first, or where the old unit is a steel framed assembly that has to come out in pieces, it runs longer and we tell you that before we start rather than halfway through.
Riverdale · Woodlawn · Morris Park · Pelham Bay
We cover every part of the borough. See skylights in the Bronx, our published prices, or NYC permits and landmark rules. Serving 10463.