Boerum Hill · Brooklyn Neighborhood
Glass & Glazing Services in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
Boerum Hill puts three different glazing problems inside twelve blocks: 1840s row houses only two and three storeys tall, the display windows of Atlantic Avenue on a truck and bus route, and new residential towers at the Atlantic Terminal edge that need a freight booking and a certificate of insurance before anyone touches a pane. We work all three.
Boerum Hill Glass Company
Three Kinds of Glazing in Twelve Boerum Hill Blocks
The residential core — Dean, Bergen, Wyckoff, State and Pacific Street — is older and lower than most of brownstone Brooklyn. A lot of it went up in the 1840s and 1850s as modest two- and three-storey brick houses with wood cornices, shallower front-to-back than the big Italianate blocks further south, with smaller window openings and lower ceilings. That changes the work: panels are rarely oversized, but the openings are frequently out of square and the frames are often original, so the decision is usually how much of a sash to save rather than what size to order. The interior blocks also hold something unusual for the borough — former stables and carriage houses, now houses and studios, where a wide original cart opening has been filled with glass. Those are custom every time: a single run of steel or thermally broken aluminium carrying a lot of area, with no stock size that fits.
Atlantic Avenue and the towers at the north end are a different business entirely. Atlantic carries buses and heavy truck traffic over several converging subway lines, and the showrooms and shops along it are fronted by large single panes that take constant low-frequency vibration on top of the usual thermal cycling — which is why a display window here cracks from an edge for no apparent reason years after it was set. We glaze those in heat-strengthened or laminated glass on flexible setting blocks with proper edge clearance, so the pane can move instead of working against a rigid frame. At the Flatbush and Atlantic edge the buildings are new mid-rise and high-rise residential, and the glass is factory-glazed curtain wall or window-wall units. Replacing one of those is a scheduling job as much as a glazing job: building management, insurance certificates, a booked freight elevator and usually an evening or weekend window.
Boerum Hill Services
Glass Systems for Boerum Hill Properties
Across the row houses, the avenue and the towers: skylights and stair-bulkhead glazing, roof-deck and interior railings, shower enclosures and mirrors, replacement sash and entrance doors, storefront and display glass with canopies and vestibules, and emergency repair and board-up when a pane goes on Atlantic.
Where We Work in Boerum Hill
Property Types We Serve
The neighborhood’s four property types sit within a few streets of each other and almost nothing transfers between them — the glass, the access method and the paperwork are different in each case.
Boerum Hill Glass FAQs
Before Your Project Begins
Why does my Atlantic Avenue display window keep cracking?
Almost always because the pane cannot move. Atlantic carries buses and heavy trucks over several subway lines, so a storefront pane here takes continuous low-frequency vibration on top of daily thermal expansion, and if it was set tight against a rigid frame with no edge clearance, a tiny nick in the glass edge becomes a crack that runs. The fix is specification rather than a thicker pane: heat-strengthened or laminated glass, correct edge clearance and bite, flexible setting blocks, and a glazing gasket that absorbs movement instead of transmitting it. We will look at the break pattern on the old pane and tell you which cause you are dealing with before quoting.
Can you replace a window in one of the new towers near Atlantic Terminal?
Yes, and the glazing is the straightforward half. These buildings use factory-glazed curtain-wall or window-wall units, so we measure the existing unit, match the glass make-up and the frame system, and schedule the swap with building management. That means a certificate of insurance naming the building, a booked freight elevator and loading dock slot, and in most buildings an evening or weekend window so the corridors stay clear. Give us your managing agent’s contact when you call 718-758-5515 and we will handle the paperwork directly rather than passing it back to you.
Is my Boerum Hill house in a historic district?
A large part of the neighborhood is, and the district was extended, so blocks that were outside it years ago may not be now. The practical test is the same either way: anything visible from the street — replacement sash, entrance and vestibule doors, storefront alterations on a landmarked building — generally needs Landmarks approval, while rear-facing glass and interior work usually does not. We produce the glass specifications, sight lines and shop drawings your architect or expediter needs for the filing, and fabricate to whatever is approved. Ask us before you order, not after.
Can you glaze the opening in a converted carriage house?
That is one of our favourite jobs here and it is always custom. A former cart opening is wide, often tall, and usually framed in masonry that has moved, so there is no stock unit that fits and no point pretending otherwise. We template the whole opening, then design a single run of steel or thermally broken aluminium with the glass divided to keep each pane within a sensible weight for the lift available — insulated and low-e for a heated space, laminated at the base where people and bicycles pass. Email office@nycallglass.com with photographs and rough dimensions and we will tell you what the opening will take.