Brooklyn · the brownstone belt

Home inspector in Prospect Heights, NY

Between 2014 and 2024, Lou Rubino inspected 10 homes in Prospect Heights. The neighbourhood's rowhouse blocks come with the trimmings buyers fall for — cornices, detailed parapets, generous bays — and every one of those ornaments is also a building component with a maintenance bill and a failure mode.

Rated 5.0 on Google as of August 2026 · U.S. Army veteran owned · NY licence #16000039568 · 516-330-3870

Ornament is a component here

A cornice is a horizontal ledge that catches weather for a century; the parapet above it is a masonry wall with its cap exposed to everything. Open joints in the coping over a cornice are a classic Prospect Heights finding — small to see, expensive to ignore, because the water that enters there exits through the facade's best features.

Behind the parapet, the flat roof does its usual quiet work. Seams in aging coatings, flashings at every penetration, drainage that depends on pitch nobody can see from below — Lou photographs it all so the report shows you the roof you cannot otherwise look at.

What the inspection can examine here

Cornices and the coping above them — ornament is a component here, with a failure mode.
The flat roof behind the parapet — seams, flashings and pitch you cannot see from below.
Facades in bays and returns — where the detailing concentrates, so does the weather.
The full rowhouse scope — how a Brooklyn row house is inspected.

Photographs from Prospect Heights reports

Brick coping above an ornamental painted cornice, with open mortar joints boxed in red. — The red box marks open mortar joints in the brickwork along this ledge above the cornice. The report notes open joints in the brickwork at the brick ledge and window sills, where water can get into the wall.

Flat roof parapet wall and skylight edge with open flashing seams marked by red arrows and a red line — The arrows and red line mark flashing joints opening up along this flat roof's parapet wall, with another arrow at the skylight edge below. The report notes the flashing around the skylight and the party wall is not done properly and recommends a licensed flat roof contractor when the roof is replaced.

Both photographs are from Lou's own Prospect Heights inspection reports, chosen because they show a building component and nothing that identifies a property or an owner.

From the Prospect Heights files

More of what Lou has actually photographed on Prospect Heights inspections. Open any note to learn what the finding means for a buyer — every link stays on this site.

Silver-coated flat roof with a metal drain strainer near a sliding door; a red circle marks a low spot between the drain and the wall — A lower flat roof; the red circle marks the area between the drain and the bedroom wall that the report notes is not pitched toward the drain, so water can stand there instead of running off. A flat roof only works when every part of it slopes to a drain.

Why this matters — the flat roof

A flat roof hides everything from the street: membrane seams, patches, drainage and parapet condition. Patching is normal maintenance — the report records what condition the membrane shows today and whether repair or further evaluation is the honest next step. How roofs are examined and reported.

All photographs are from Lou's own inspection reports for jobs in this area, screened so nothing identifies a property or an owner.

Where this sits in Lou's territory

Lou covers Long Island, the five boroughs and Westchester from his base in Wantagh, and the archive behind these pages shows where that work has actually concentrated.

Also nearby: Park Slope · Crown Heights · Clinton Hill · all 26 towns.

Buying in Prospect Heights?

His Prospect Heights file goes back to 2014. Yours would not be the first.

Schedule an inspection Call 516-330-3870

Not sure yet? Read what New York requires of your inspector or see a real report.