Staten Island
Window Restoration on Staten Island
The fifth borough, fully serviced — St. George, Stapleton, New Brighton and Tottenville. Victorian and Colonial Revival wood sash, on the borough's oldest freestanding housing stock.
Yes — we work on Staten Island
Worth stating plainly, because the question comes up: HM works across all five boroughs, and Staten Island is one of them. Same crews, same Newark workshop, same LPC filing service, same EPA Lead-Safe certification. There is no reduced service tier for the fifth borough.
We restore windows in St. George, Stapleton, New Brighton and Tottenville, and elsewhere across the borough on request.
A different housing stock from the rest of the city
Staten Island’s historic architecture does not look like the other four boroughs, and the difference is fundamental: it is dominated by freestanding single-family houses rather than attached terraces or apartment houses.
That changes the work in concrete ways. A freestanding house has four exposed elevations instead of one or two, so there is more glazing per building and considerably more weather exposure — including, on the north shore and at Tottenville, genuine maritime exposure with salt-laden wind driving at the windward face. Wind-driven rain on an unprotected elevation is the single hardest condition a wood window faces, and it shows up as concentrated decay on one side of a house while the sheltered elevations are sound.
It also changes the Landmarks arithmetic. A detached house is a small building by LPC’s definition — six storeys or fewer and under 40 feet of frontage — which means material has to match the historic window at the primary facade. But a freestanding house has no obviously "non-visible" rear in the way a rowhouse does; more of its envelope is visible from the public way, so more of it is treated strictly. LPC’s "minimally visible" test — an elevation seen at such an angle that its configuration cannot be recognised, or where only a small portion is visible — becomes a genuinely useful argument on a detached house, and it is worth making properly rather than assuming.
Victorian and Colonial Revival sash
The borough’s older housing runs heavily to Victorian and Colonial Revival wood sash, and both come with details you do not meet as often elsewhere in the city.
Victorian — the north shore’s nineteenth-century houses, with two-over-two and one-over-one double-hungs, bay and oriel windows, arched and gabled openings, decorative upper sash with small coloured or patterned lights, and a great deal of applied wood trim around the opening. Timber-framed and often timber-clad, so the window, its casing and the cladding behave as one system: fail the paint film and water moves between all three.
Colonial Revival — early twentieth century, more disciplined, and defined by its muntins. Six-over-six and eight-over-eight true divided lights, symmetrical elevations, and shutters. The muntin grid is the whole character of these windows, which is why replacement units with snap-in grilles or grilles between the glass read as obviously wrong. Where an original cannot be saved, Landmarks does allow simulated divided lights in place of true divided lights — but only if the muntins match in material, are permanently affixed, and the spacer bars replicate the appearance of a true divided light. A grille sandwiched inside a sealed unit does not qualify.
The restoration methods are the ones set out on our wood window restoration page: paint removal, epoxy consolidation, Dutchman repairs to bottom rails and sills, reglazing with period-matched glass, mechanism rebuild, weatherstripping and repaint.
Designation, and checking your address
Staten Island has designated New York City historic districts — St. George / New Brighton among them — alongside individually designated landmarks, National Register listings, and a great deal of genuinely old housing that carries no designation at all. The four categories look identical from the sidewalk and have entirely different permit consequences.
So we check the address rather than the neighbourhood. If the building is designated, we manage the LPC filing end to end — survey, photography, drawings, specifications, the Portico submission and liaison with staff through to sign-off. If it is not designated, you get the same restoration standard without the filing, and we will tell you plainly that no permit is needed rather than billing for a process you do not require.
One point that applies either way: any Staten Island house built before 1978 should be assumed to contain lead paint, and disturbing it during window work triggers federal RRP and NYC lead-safety requirements regardless of whether the building is landmarked. We are EPA Lead-Safe certified and that work is part of the job.
Common Questions
Questions we get asked on this work
Do you really service Staten Island, or only the other four boroughs?
We service all five boroughs, Staten Island included, with the same crews and the same Newark workshop. Our primary service area is New York City’s five boroughs plus nearby New Jersey.
My Staten Island house is old but I do not think it is landmarked. Do I still need a permit?
Quite possibly not — but the answer depends on the specific address rather than the neighbourhood. Staten Island contains designated New York City historic districts, individual landmarks, National Register listings and a lot of old housing with no designation at all, and they look the same from the street. We check the address during the assessment, and if no permit is required we will say so.
Our windows are much worse on one side of the house than the others. Why?
That is the classic freestanding-house pattern, and on Staten Island’s north shore and at Tottenville it is often maritime exposure. Wind-driven, salt-laden rain on the windward elevation is the hardest condition a wood window faces, so decay concentrates there — bottom rails, sills and sill horns — while the sheltered elevations stay sound. It usually means a mixed scope: some elevations restored, one needing significantly more intervention.
Can Colonial Revival six-over-six windows be matched if one is beyond repair?
Yes, but the muntins are the thing that has to be right, because the grid is the entire character of the window. Landmarks permits simulated divided lights instead of true divided lights only where the muntins match in material, are permanently affixed and the spacer bars replicate the true-divided-light appearance — so a grille snapped onto the glass or sealed between the panes does not qualify.
Free Assessment
Get a free on-site assessment.
We visit your building, inspect the windows one by one, discuss any board or Landmarks requirements, and walk you through the options — restoration, replacement and approvals. No cost, no obligation.