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.
Mott Haven has the oldest housing stock in the South Bronx and it is the closest thing in this borough to a Brooklyn brownstone block. Brick and brownstone rowhouses from the 1860s through the 1890s, flat roofs, and over the stair at the back of the house an original opening with a much newer unit sitting on it. On a house cut into three or four apartments that stair skylight is the only daylight the middle of the building gets, and when it goes the whole stack of landings goes dark.
The curb under those skylights is the whole job. It has usually been built up through three or four roofs, so it is soft at the corners, out of square, or buried under so much coating that nobody can tell where the original woodwork ends. A modern unit flashed onto a curb like that leaks again within a few winters and the owner pays for the same work twice. We put a hand on it at the assessment and tell you plainly. A replacement on a curb that is still sound is $2,287 installed. A curb that has to be rebuilt is priced after we have seen it rather than guessed at it.
The other Mott Haven call is the converted industrial building. The neighborhood has a lot of small factory and warehouse buildings turned into apartments and studios, and the glazing up there is often an old steel framed assembly rather than a residential skylight. On those the steel fails before the glass does. Parts of the neighborhood also sit inside designated historic districts, so the Landmarks step can come before the Buildings permit, and we check that against the address before anything is ordered.
Leaking skylight in Mott Haven? 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.
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 old unit comes off and the new one goes in the same day, so the building is only working around us for a few hours.
Whoever owns the roof, which is 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 any roof warranty, in a form an agent can forward without rewriting it.
It often does, and not in the direction people expect. Coating poured over and around a curb hides its condition and can lock water against the wood. It also raises the question of whose warranty covers the roof, which we ask about before anything is cut. Coating is not a reason to leave a failed skylight in place, it is a reason to look harder at the curb.
Some blocks are and some are not. Where a district applies the Landmarks step comes before the Buildings permit and visibility from the street is what drives the review, which for a rear or stair skylight is usually the easier path. We confirm it against your address first. The published rules are on our NYC permits and landmark rules page.
In the steel, not the glass. Water sits in the rebates where the glass beds, the putty goes hard and lets go, and the frame rusts from the inside out while still looking solid from below. Sealing it again buys a season. Whether the steel can be saved or the assembly has to be replaced is decided with a hand on the frame, not from a photograph.
A new opening cut, framed, flashed into the roof and finished on the inside starts at $3,850. The exact number is confirmed in writing after one free site visit, because what the framing looks like above the ceiling decides the rest of it.
Grand Concourse · Riverdale · Throgs Neck · City Island
We cover every part of the borough. See skylights in the Bronx, our published prices, or NYC permits and landmark rules. Serving 10454 and 10455.