Recent skylight work
Prospect Heights is a rowhouse neighborhood with a flat roof on almost every building. Three and four story brick and brownstone houses run the blocks between Flatbush and Washington, most of them about twenty feet wide, most of them with a stair bulkhead at the back and an original skylight over the top landing that has been patched more than once.
That stair skylight is the job we are called out for most often here. The old ones are wire glass or a site-built wood curb with putty glazing, and once the putty goes the leak runs down the stairwell wall and shows up two floors below, which is why people think the problem is somewhere else. A replacement on a sound curb starts at $2,079 installed. Cutting a new opening starts at $3,500.
Most of the neighborhood sits inside the Prospect Heights Historic District, so anything visible from the street is a Landmarks conversation before it is a roofing one. A flat glass unit set low on a rear bulkhead is usually straightforward. A raised lantern on the front slope is not. We work out the Landmarks position before anything is ordered rather than after.
Usually yes, on the rear or on a bulkhead where it is not visible from the street. Flat, low profile units set close to the roof plane are the easiest to get through. Anything that reads as a raised structure from the sidewalk is a much harder conversation. We look at your roof and tell you honestly which one you have before you spend anything.
Because water runs. On a stairwell skylight the water comes in at the curb, tracks down the inside of the shaft and comes out through the plaster wherever it finds a seam, which is often two floors down and nowhere near the roof. It is the single most common thing we get called out for in this neighborhood.
The roof is almost always common element, so the board approves the work even when the skylight only serves your unit. Boards want the insurance certificates, the scope, and a clear answer on who owns the unit afterwards. We put all of that in writing. There is more on our co-op and condo board page.
Yes, and most people do. Wire glass was a fire rating, not a strength feature, and modern laminated glass is safer, clearer and far better insulated. If the opening has to keep a fire rating we will tell you and price the right unit for it.
Prospect Heights including the blocks off Vanderbilt, Washington, Underhill and Carlton, and across to Grand Army Plaza. Zip codes 11238 and 11217. We are a Brooklyn company, based on Gerritsen Avenue, and the whole borough is a short run for us.
Yes. We use Wisetack, which gives a real decision without a hard credit pull and takes about a minute on your phone. All financing is subject to credit approval and your terms may vary. Nothing is added to your price for using it.
Park Slope · Crown Heights · Fort Greene and Clinton Hill · Prospect Lefferts Gardens · Bedford-Stuyvesant · Boerum Hill · Windsor Terrace · Brooklyn Heights · Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill
We cover every part of the borough. See skylights in Brooklyn, our published prices, or NYC permits and landmark rules. Serving 11238 and 11217.