Heating in Brooklyn Old Brooklyn heat, kept running
Nearly half of Brooklyn’s homes went up before 1940. We repair and replace the boilers and radiators in its rowhouses.
- Based in Staten Island, serving all five boroughs
- English and Russian spoken
- Licensed & insured
- 24/7 emergency service
- Free estimates
- Financing options available
24/7 emergency service
No heat
A steam or hot-water boiler that will not fire, radiators that stay cold or a system losing pressure in winter is an emergency, especially with children or older people in the home. Check the emergency switch is on, then call us.
Local know-how
Heating in Brooklyn homes
Brooklyn has the oldest housing in New York City: its median home was built in 1942, and 48.4 percent of homes date from 1939 or earlier, more than in any other borough. Houses of that age were built with a cellar boiler and cast-iron radiators, and about three in four of the city’s multifamily buildings still heat with steam.
It is also a borough of small buildings: two-family buildings hold 15.2 percent of Brooklyn homes and three- and four-family buildings another 16.5 percent. Utility gas from National Grid heats 72.4 percent of occupied homes; fuel oil still heats 5.2 percent.
Common problems in Brooklyn
Steam in brownstones and rowhouses
In Park Slope’s ZIP 11215, 72.0 percent of homes were built before 1940; in Bedford-Stuyvesant’s 11216, 63.4 percent. Where those houses still run on one-pipe steam, the system depends on working air vents and pipe pitched back to the boiler.
Oil burners in Bay Ridge and Midwood
Oil is not rare in some neighborhoods: it heats 13.2 percent of occupied homes in Bay Ridge’s ZIP 11209, 12.7 percent in 11225 (Prospect Lefferts Gardens) and 11.2 percent in Midwood’s 11230. Those houses face the conversion question first, to National Grid gas or a heat pump.
One boiler, an owner and a tenant
With 31.7 percent of Brooklyn homes in two- to four-family buildings, one cellar boiler often heats the owner’s and the tenants’ floors. The Housing Maintenance Code makes that heat the owner’s duty.
Gas houses in southeast Brooklyn
Marine Park, Mill Basin and Canarsie (ZIPs 11234 and 11236) are younger and mostly one- and two-family, and 87 to 89 percent of occupied homes there heat with gas, so worn-out gas boilers, furnaces and water heaters are the usual calls.
Replacing a boiler in a Brooklyn house
Gas stays an option in an existing house
Local Law 154 bars fossil-fuel heat in new buildings and in alterations filed as new ones. Swapping the boiler in an existing rowhouse is neither, so a gas boiler remains a choice beside a heat pump.
Small buildings sit below Local Law 97
The city’s building emissions limits start above 25,000 square feet. A brownstone or a small walk-up is far below that, so its boiler choice turns on comfort and fuel cost.
A swap in a rented house
From October to May HPD enforces the owner’s duty to heat a tenant’s floor, so the new boiler is chosen and on hand before the old one is disconnected, and the tenant knows when the heat will be off.
Where we see it
- Park Slope and Windsor Terrace Brownstones and rowhouses, most of them prewar.
- Bedford-Stuyvesant Rowhouse blocks where about half of homes are in buildings of one to four units.
- Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights Brick houses and two-families, some still on oil.
- Midwood and Prospect Lefferts Gardens Older houses where oil heat is still common.
- Marine Park, Mill Basin and Canarsie Younger one- and two-family houses heated almost entirely with gas.
Rules and paperwork
Landmarks permits for heating equipment
Brooklyn Heights became a historic district in 1965. On landmarked buildings LPC requires a permit for most HVAC equipment, including heat pumps, boilers and wall-mounted flues, and its staff can approve equipment kept out of view under LPC Rule 2-21.
How a call works in Brooklyn
Tight cellar stairs
Rowhouse cellar stairs are narrow, so a new boiler is chosen for the way in as well as the heat load.
Party walls and shared chimneys
Flue work on a party wall or a shared chimney is planned so the house next door keeps its venting.
Estimates are free, and emergencies are answered 24/7.
What is included
The work itself is the same in every borough. See everything our heating service covers.
Heating questions from Brooklyn
Can I put a heat pump on a landmarked brownstone?
Often, with an LPC permit. Equipment kept out of view from the street, on the roof or in the rear yard, is the kind LPC staff can approve under its rules.
Why did my radiators go cold after the renovation?
Steam needs pipe pitched back to the boiler and vents that open. A renovation that lowers a pipe or removes a vent can stop steam reaching a room; re-pitching and new vents bring it back.
My house in Bay Ridge still burns oil. What are my options?
Keep the oil burner serviced, convert to gas through National Grid where your street has a main, or move to a heat pump. We price each option for your house.
The boiler also heats my tenant’s floor. Can repairs be planned around them?
Yes. Shutdowns are scheduled with you, the tenant’s radiators are checked on the same visit, and you get a written record.
Free estimate
Get a free estimate in Brooklyn
Cold house? Call now. Heating emergencies are answered 24/7 and estimates are free.