Recent skylight work
Prospect Lefferts Gardens has some of the best kept rowhouse stock in Brooklyn, and a lot of it still has its original roof glass. The limestone and brick houses through Lefferts Manor, Midwood Street, Rutland Road, Maple and Lincoln were built with a skylight over the top stair landing, and on plenty of them that skylight is the one the builder put in.
Original does not mean sound. Wire glass, putty glazing and a wood curb have a service life, and once the putty fails the water runs down the stair shaft and shows up in the ceiling plaster well below the roof. A replacement on a curb that is still good starts at $2,079 installed. If the curb has gone soft it gets rebuilt first, which we quote honestly rather than hiding inside the unit price.
Part of the neighborhood sits in a historic district and the Lefferts Manor blocks carry their own long standing deed covenant, so it is worth being clear early about what applies to your house. Anything on a rear roof or a bulkhead is normally the straightforward route. We settle that before anything is ordered.
Sometimes. If the curb is sound and the frame is intact, a reglaze and a proper reflash buys real years. If the curb is rotted or the frame has moved, repair is money spent twice. We look at it from the roof and from the stairwell and tell you which one you have, in writing, with a number on each option.
Laminated safety glass. Wire glass was a fire rating rather than a strength feature, and it is neither as safe nor as warm as modern laminated units. The clear glass also makes a real difference to how much light reaches the bottom of the stairs. If your opening has to hold a fire rating we will say so and price accordingly.
The curb is almost certainly the culprit. Water enters at the joint between the glass and the curb, or between the curb and the roof, then runs down inside the shaft and exits at the first seam it finds in the plaster. A roof that looks fine from above tells you nothing about the curb.
The covenant is about how the houses are used and about the front of the buildings rather than about roof glass, and a rear or bulkhead skylight is not usually what it reaches. That said, part of the area is in a historic district and the two are separate things. We check both against your specific address before anything is ordered.
Prospect Lefferts Gardens including Lefferts Manor, Midwood Street, Rutland Road, Maple, Lincoln, Sterling and the blocks off Flatbush and Bedford. Zip code 11225.
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We cover every part of the borough. See skylights in Brooklyn, our published prices, or NYC permits and landmark rules. Serving 11225.