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.
Pelham Bay is attached and semi attached brick, most of it put up between the 1920s and the 1950s, on tight lots running back off Westchester Avenue and Crosby Avenue toward the park. A very large share of these houses were built as legal two family homes and are still used that way, and that one fact changes the skylight job more than the roof does.
The skylight in a two family house is usually over the interior stair, and that stair is the one part of the building both apartments share. It is the only daylight in the middle of the house, it is reached through a common hallway rather than through anyone's apartment, and it sits at the top of a shaft that runs the full height of the building. A straight replacement on a curb that is still sound is $2,287 installed, and the $1,760 standard replacement labor is already inside that number.
Before we price a two family stair skylight we want to know two things that have nothing to do with the roof. Who owns the building, because an owner occupant upstairs and an absentee owner with two tenants are different conversations, and whether the crew can reach the roof without going through an apartment. If roof access runs through a tenant's unit, that tenant has to be told in advance and the date has to suit them, and finding that out on the morning costs everybody a day.
The back of almost every Pelham Bay house is a low slope rear extension, and that is where the second skylight usually is, over a kitchen or a back bedroom. On a low slope roof water sits and moves slowly rather than running off, so curb height does real work. A curb that was built proud of the roof surface keeps the flashing out of standing water. A unit set almost flush will find its way in eventually no matter how well it was sealed.
If what you want is air rather than light, a manual venting unit on a flat or low slope roof is $1,092 installed. On a stair shaft that nobody can reach, the solar venting unit at $2,100 is usually the better answer, because it opens on a remote, it closes itself when the rain sensor gets wet, and it needs no electrician and no wire run up the shaft.
Leaking skylight in Pelham Bay? 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.
The owner of the building signs, and that is usually the only signature needed, because the stair is common space rather than part of either apartment. What does need arranging is access. If the only way onto the roof is through one of the units, that tenant has to be told in advance and the date has to work for them. We settle that at the assessment rather than on the morning.
It will usually be brighter. An old acrylic dome yellows and clouds over the years and loses a great deal of what it started with, and a shaft that deep shows it badly. Glass does not yellow. If the shaft walls are a dull colour, painting them flat white before we close up costs very little and does more for the light at the bottom than most people expect.
Because the back extension is a low slope roof and the main roof is not. Water runs off a pitched roof and sits on a low slope one, so anything at the edge of a low slope opening is in standing water for hours after rain. The fix is usually curb height rather than more sealant, meaning the unit is set up on a curb built proud of the roof surface so the flashing is never sitting in the water.
A solar venting unit, $2,100 installed. It runs off a small panel in the frame with a battery behind it, it opens and closes on a remote, and a rain sensor shuts it automatically when it gets wet. There is no electrician and no wiring run up the shaft, which on a three storey stair is the expensive part of a wired unit.
Replacing an existing skylight in the same opening is normally maintenance and does not need a Buildings permit. Cutting a new opening does, because that is structural work on the roof, and a new opening framed, flashed and finished runs $3,850. What is on our licence and insurance, and what a permit actually covers, is set out on our NYC permits and landmark rules page.
No. There is no Bronx premium and no Pelham Bay premium. The published prices are the published prices, the roof and the access decide the rest, and the on site assessment is free.
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We cover every part of the borough. See skylights in the Bronx, our published prices, or NYC permits and landmark rules. Serving 10461.