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Brooklyn · town homes

Home inspector in Cypress Hills, NY

Between 2017 and 2018, Lou Rubino inspected two homes in Cypress Hills — two jobs, each with a written report, and the photographs below come from them. The reports cover two town homes.

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What the Cypress Hills reports found

Across the reports, the summaries listed 23 repair-or-replace items, most of them under the exterior, heating and cooling equipment and the roof, chimney and attic. A repair-or-replace item is HomeGauge's term for something that was not working as intended or needed a specialist's look — it is not a verdict on the house, and the full report explains each one with photographs.

Cypress Hills is in Brooklyn, and Lou covers it from his base in Wantagh the same way he covers every other place on this site: same licence, same report format, same-day report as a rule. The count above is history from his own files, not a service boundary — call or text 516-330-3870 and he will quote the actual property.

Related: The Brooklyn page · What an inspection costs · Schedule an inspection.

What the inspection can examine here

  • Siding, trim, flashing, grading and drainage — where water is being sent, and whether it is being sent at the house.
  • The heating plant and any central air — operated in normal mode, dated from the data plate, with the flue and clearances looked at where accessible.
  • The roof, chimney and attic — how the roof was observed is stated in the report, as New York requires, and the attic is entered wherever a hatch allows.
  • Radon — a separate, optional test arranged alongside the inspection.

Photographs from Cypress Hills reports

Brick side wall of a building seen from below with a red line and 20 foot label marking the deteriorated parapet.
Left side parapet wall is falling apart for a length of 20 feet. The red markup measures the affected run along the top of the wall.
Attic framing with a red arrow pointing to where roof rafters bear on a wall, insulation and debris below.
In the attic the roof rafters are supported in the middle to a bearing wall, as recorded in the structural section of the report.
Open trap pit in a basement floor with red arrows at two pipe openings and the label pipe emptying into trap pit.
Cover missing from the trap, allowing sewer gas to escape. Red arrows mark the open pipe ends emptying into the trap pit.

All three photographs are from Lou's own Cypress Hills inspection reports, chosen because they show a building component and nothing that identifies a property or an owner.

Buying in Cypress Hills: the questions with sourced answers

Each answer below cites where it comes from — the Census, the office that holds the permits, the state code, or Lou’s own reports.

How old are the houses in Cypress Hills?

The Census puts the median year built for homes in zip code 11208 at 1950, and about 42% of the 37,261 housing units there were built before 1940. An older house is not a worse house, but its wiring, plumbing and roof were installed under different rules and replaced piecemeal, which is exactly what the inspection looks for. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2019–2023 5-year estimates, tables B25035 and B25034, ZCTA 11208.

What kind of housing is Cypress Hills: single-family, two-family or apartments?

Of 37,261 housing units in zip 11208, about 4% are detached single-family houses, 30% are two-unit buildings, and 26% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. A two-family or a co-op is a different inspection from a detached house: shared systems, common areas and what the board or the other unit controls. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2019–2023 5-year, tables B25024 and B25003, ZCTA 11208.

Who holds the building permits and certificate of occupancy for a house in Cypress Hills?

NYC Department of Buildings handles permits and certificates of occupancy for every address in the borough. Permits and COs are kept by the municipality, not the inspector; checking them is a records search, usually through your attorney. The inspection reports the condition of what is there and flags work that typically needs a permit — a finished basement, a dormer, a moved panel — so you know what to ask about. NYC Department of Buildings. Lookups: BIS https://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bispi00.jsp; DOB NOW Public Portal https://a810-dobnow.nyc.gov/publish/#!/

Which building code applies in Cypress Hills?

Brooklyn is governed by the New York City Construction Codes enforced by the NYC Department of Buildings; the State Uniform Code does not apply inside New York City. Source: www.nyc.gov.

Public water and sewer, or well and cesspool, in Cypress Hills?

NYC DEP supplies the borough with more than 1 billion gallons a day from upstate reservoirs, serving about nine million customers; there is no private-well supply. NYC DEP runs the sewer system (over 6,000 miles of sewers) and 14 wastewater resource recovery facilities treating 1.3 billion gallons a day; homes are on city sewer, not septic. The inspection reports what the house actually has and its visible condition; a cesspool or septic system needs its own evaluation. Source: www.nyc.gov.

Is Cypress Hills in a flood zone?

Flood zones follow the address, not the town. OpenFEMA holds 6,319 NFIP claim records for Kings County (FIPS 36047). NYC notes FEMA's city flood maps have not been significantly updated since 1983 and insurance rates still rest on the 2007 Effective FIRMs. Look the address up on FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center before you sign. Source: www.fema.gov.

Should I test for radon in Cypress Hills?

Brooklyn is in EPA Zone 3 (low potential) — Zone 3 counties have a predicted average indoor radon screening level below 2 pCi/L; EPA still recommends testing every home. NYSDOH's borough estimate (Feb 2007, 339 homes measured) is 1.3% of living areas and 7% of basements above 4 pCi/L. Radon is a separate, optional test arranged alongside the inspection. Source: www.epa.gov.

Is there a local rule in Brooklyn a buyer should know about?

Co-op and condo units are sold under an offering plan reviewed by the NY Attorney General's Real Estate Finance Bureau under the Martin Act; the AG advises reading the whole plan and consulting an attorney before signing. Source: ag.ny.gov.

What did Lou’s Cypress Hills inspections actually turn up?

Across his reports in Cypress Hills, the summaries listed 23 repair-or-replace items, most of them under the exterior, heating and cooling equipment and the roof, chimney and attic. Every one is in the written report with a photograph; see what a report looks like.

How much does a home inspection in Cypress Hills cost, and how fast is the report?

Lou quotes the actual property, not a flat rate — what drives the price is size, age and what is included. The written report arrives the same day as a rule; a large or complex house can run to the next morning. Call or text 516-330-3870.

Brooklyn, town by town

Every Brooklyn place with a page here, each with the real count from Lou's records. The Brooklyn page covers the county as a whole.

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: Bay Ridge · Williamsburg · Flatbush · all 250 towns.

Buying in Cypress Hills?

His Cypress Hills file goes back to 2017. 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.

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