Home
>
Service area
>
Brooklyn
>
Kensington
Contractor in Kensington, Brooklyn
South Asia Construction Co. is a contractor in Kensington, Brooklyn, working out of 445 E 5th St inside the neighborhood's own ZIP code.
Most contractors quoting Kensington work drive in from somewhere else. We start the day here. That changes the small things that decide whether a job goes well: we know which blocks lose their parking by eight in the morning, which frontages need a permit before anyone lifts a tool, and which side of Church Avenue puts you inside a designated landmark.
This page is about coverage rather than craft. If you want to know how a particular job gets done, the trade pages explain it. If you want to know whether we genuinely work on your block and whether you can check us out before you call, keep reading.
Shop at 445 E 5th St
3 core trades, 4 specialties
Licence checkable before you call
Crew based in 11218
445 E 5th St, Kensington
Assessment visits by appointment
Tell us about any deadline
Covering 11218, 11230, 11219
Plus the CB12 and CB14 edge
Operating since 1999
More than 25 years across Brooklyn
Based in Kensington. Working across Brooklyn since 1999.
More than 25 years of construction work cannot be reduced to a short online project list. The photographs, reviews and project examples shown across our website represent selected work, not a complete archive of every property we have repaired or improved.
More than 25 years in operation
SACC has handled property repairs, exterior improvements and renovation work across Brooklyn through changing building conditions, materials, regulations and customer expectations.
Operating from ZIP code 11218
Our location at 445 E 5th St gives us direct access to Kensington, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Midwood, Flatbush and the surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods.
Experience across building types
Our work has included attached row houses, detached homes, apartment buildings, co-ops, storefronts and mixed-use properties, each with different access, scheduling and construction requirements.
Representative work, not a complete archive. Our service pages include selected project examples and before-and-after photographs where available. They are there to help you judge whether our experience matches your property.
That long experience matters because Kensington's buildings tend to develop recognizable problems, which we inspect before preparing a scope.
What the building stock here tells us before we quote
Each one fails in its own way and on its own schedule. South Asia Construction Co. can usually name the likely scope from the street before opening a ladder, which is why our first visit is short and the number that follows it holds.
The building stock here
The attached rows between East 2nd and East 8th Streets are mostly brick with flat or low-slope roofs and shared party walls. The detached Victorians sit on wider lots with pitched roofs and a lot more exposed timber and painted trim. The Ocean Parkway and Coney Island Avenue frontage is dominated by pre-war six-storey elevator buildings, many of them co-ops, which means a board and a managing agent sit between you and the schedule.
What fails first and why
On the attached rows the flat roof and the parapet go first, because both take the weather while the party walls stay protected. On the Victorians it is painted exterior trim and the porch framing, since wind-driven rain hits the western elevations hardest. On every type the sidewalk flags are the earliest visible failure, usually from root heave off the mature street trees.
Access and staging on these blocks
Alternate-side parking decides the schedule on the residential streets more than the weather does. The attached rows have almost no side access, so material goes in and debris comes out through the front. On the Church Avenue and McDonald Avenue retail strips we work around delivery windows and keep cellar-door access open, because the tenant downstairs still has a business to run.
Knowing what fails is only useful if the same company can actually fix it, so here is the full range.
Trades we cover across Kensington
Each card is one line and a link. The trade page explains the work, the materials and what it costs. Keeping that detail off this page is deliberate, because you should not have to read the same paragraph twice on the same website.
Concrete
Sidewalks, driveways, stoops, patios, slabs and commercial pours across Brooklyn and Queens.
- Concrete services
Roofing
Flat and low-slope roofing on the attached rows and the pre-war buildings that make up most of this neighborhood.
- Roofing services
Painting
Exterior and interior painting, including the trim and porch work the Victorians here need most.
- Painting services
Masonry and brownstone
Repointing, parapet and facade repair on brick and brownstone elevations.
- Masonry
Waterproofing
Below-grade and exterior wall treatment where water is getting in.
- Waterproofing
Renovation and remodeling
Interior and whole-property renovation work on residential buildings.
- Remodeling
Property upgrades
Smaller exterior improvements that do not need a full renovation scope.
- Painting services
Whichever trade you need, the same set of agencies decides what is allowed on a Kensington property.
The four agencies an exterior job can touch
Contractors tend to say "fully licensed and permitted" and leave it there. The useful version names which body does what, so you can tell whether the person quoting you actually knows.
The Home Improvement Contractor licence covers work such as driveways, fences, garages, patios, porches, sidewalks and basements. Requirements change, so confirm the current position with the agency rather than with a contractor's website, including this one.
One of those four exists specifically so you can check a contractor before hiring, which is worth doing on us.
How to check any contractor before you let them in
That licence is public and searchable. You do not have to take anyone's word for it, including ours. South Asia Construction Co. would rather you checked, because the contractors who cause the problems in this neighborhood are usually the ones who cannot be found in that database.
Look up the licence
Search the DCWP licence lookup, reachable through NYC311, using the company name or the licence number. A legitimate home improvement contractor appears with an active status.
Match the name to the paperwork
Check that the licensed name matches the name on the estimate and the name on the insurance certificate. Our licensed name is South Asia Construction Co., spelled exactly that way, with no "n" on the end of Asia.
Ask for the certificate of insurance directly
Request the certificate from the insurer rather than a photocopy from the contractor. We will give you the broker's details so you can do that.
Confirm who pulls the permit
Ask who files with DOB or DOT and whose licence the permit sits under. If nobody can answer that clearly, that is the answer.
Licensing is citywide. The next set of rules applies only to certain streets in this neighborhood.
How to check any contractor before you let them in
Church Avenue cuts straight through Kensington, so the same street carries two different sets of expectations depending on which side of it you are on. The scenic landmark designation applies to a 210 foot right of way made up of a 70 foot central roadway, two 20 foot malls, two 25 foot service roads and two 15 foot exterior sidewalks. If your building fronts Ocean Parkway below Church Avenue, confirm with the Landmarks Preservation Commission and DOB what your intended exterior work requires before you schedule anything.
The eastern edge carries a different line. Immediately across Coney Island Avenue sit several designated historic districts, and exterior work inside one of them needs Landmarks Preservation Commission review before DOB will issue a permit.
Two of those districts were designated in late 2025, so a neighbor who did exterior work three years ago may have faced no review at all. Boundaries are precise and they run mid-block in places. Check your specific address with the Landmarks Preservation Commission rather than assuming from the street name.
Where we stop
We are not a landmarks filing practice. On a designated frontage we will tell you what we can see, then send you to an architect or expediter who handles LPC applications, because getting that wrong costs you more than the work does.
Rules aside, the practical question is how quickly we can get to you and where the truck goes.
How we reach you and where the truck goes
We run north and south on McDonald Avenue alongside the Culver Line cut, or east and west on Church Avenue and Ditmas Avenue. The F and G stops at Fort Hamilton Parkway, Church Avenue, Ditmas Avenue and 18th Avenue are the landmarks we navigate by, and Ocean Parkway is the fastest way across the neighborhood when Coney Island Avenue is backed up. On the residential blocks we stage at the frontage and plan around alternate-side parking. On the retail strips we work around deliveries.
The neighborhood runs north to Caton Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway, west to McDonald Avenue and Dahill Road, south to Foster Avenue, and east to Coney Island Avenue. Most of it sits in Brooklyn Community Board 12, with the eastern edge falling into Community Board 14.
North
West
South
East
Runs through
Retail strips
Transit
Buses
That is our account of working here. The next section is somebody else's.
When a Kensington project involves more than one trade
A property problem does not always stay inside one service category. We review the complete condition first so every stage can be placed in the correct order and the applicable requirements can be confirmed before work begins.
Licensed and regulated work
Where New York City rules require a licensed trade or qualified professional, that requirement is identified and included in the project plan before the relevant work begins.
Permits, filings and approvals
The proposed scope is reviewed for possible DOB, DOT, Landmarks or other approval requirements. Necessary filings, inspections and professional documentation are addressed before they can delay the work.
The correct order of work
Water entry, structural conditions, roof failure and unsafe concrete must be addressed before painting or finish work. We sequence the project around the underlying problem rather than covering it temporarily.
One coordinated project scope
You receive a clear explanation of the work, the order in which it will happen and the requirements applying to each stage. This reduces conflicting schedules and prevents one part of the project from delaying another.
The same coordinated approach is available across the neighborhoods surrounding Kensington.
Neighborhoods next door we also cover
North
Windsor Terrace
North
Park Slope
West
Borough Park
West
Sunset Park
South
Midwood
East
Ditmas Park
East
Prospect Park South
Southeast
Flatbush
Anything left is usually a logistics question, and those are answered below.
Coverage questions we get from this area
Do you cover my block in 11218?
Yes. South Asia Construction Co. covers all of Kensington, from Caton Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway in the north to Foster Avenue in the south, and from McDonald Avenue and Dahill Road east to Coney Island Avenue.
Are you actually based in Kensington or just serving it?
Based here. Our shop is at 445 E 5th St, Brooklyn, NY 11218, which is inside the neighborhood rather than a drive from it.
How do I check that you are licensed?
Search the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection licence lookup through NYC311 for South Asia Construction Co. Home improvement work over $200 in New York City requires that licence, and ours is [LICENCE NUMBER].
Can one company handle concrete and roofing on the same property?
Yes. South Asia Construction Co. can coordinate concrete, roofing, painting and related property work under one project plan. Where a stage requires a licensed trade, permit or professional review, that requirement is confirmed before the work begins.
How fast can you get here for a first visit?
We usually book assessment visits within a few business days. If you are working against a DOT violation deadline or a co-op board date, say so when you call so we can account for it when scheduling.
Do you cover the neighborhoods around Kensington too?
Yes, including Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Sunset Park, Midwood, Ditmas Park, Prospect Park South and Flatbush. See all service areas for the full list across Brooklyn and Queens.
If your question is not here, the fastest route is to give us the address.