A Dutch town that became attached rows
At Kings Highway and East 40th Street stands the Flatlands Reformed Church, built in 1848 and made a city landmark on July 19, 1966. The Landmarks Preservation Commission's designation report, LP-0177, calls it "a Greek Revival church standing at the head of an avenue of Linden trees," built "of clapboard, painted white," with "an ancient cemetery adjacent" behind a wrought-iron fence. It is the clearest reminder that Flatlands was one of the six original Dutch towns of Kings County, a point the commission's LP-1024 report on a nearby Flatbush district confirms under the town's first name, Nieuw Amersfoort.
Almost nothing else from that period is what buyers tour today. The Census Bureau's 2020–2024 American Community Survey, for ZIP Code Tabulation Area 11234 (an area larger than Flatlands alone), shows 33.1 percent of housing units built before 1940, 51.8 percent from 1940 to 1969, and 91.3 percent before 1980 (table B25034). Those year-built figures suggest the farm town filled in with houses over roughly half a century, and those houses are the inspection subject.
What is on the market
Out of 34,719 units in that census area, 30.5 percent are in two-unit buildings, 28.2 percent are attached single-family houses, 16.2 percent are detached, and 12.5 percent are in three- and four-unit buildings. Owners live in 68.3 percent of occupied homes. The NYU Furman Center's Flatlands/Canarsie profile gives a 2024 homeownership rate of 61.2 percent for Brooklyn Community District 18 as a whole, compared with 32.7 percent citywide. Utility gas heats 89 percent of homes and fuel oil just 3 percent, so buried oil tanks are a smaller worry here than in eastern Queens, though a house from the 1920s or 1930s can still have an abandoned one.
The attached and semi-detached one- and two-family house, typically brick, is the same type we inspect in Canarsie and East Flatbush, which both border Flatlands. What follows describes that house type, not particular addresses.
Where an attached two-family usually hides its problems
The roof you cannot see from the sidewalk
Row houses of this era mostly have flat or low-slope roofs behind a parapet. We walk them when it is safe to. Ponding water, blisters, a membrane laid over three older ones, open seams at the parapet flashing, loose coping stones and a drain or scupper shared with the neighbor are the usual finds. Inside, stains on the top-floor ceiling near the front and rear walls point to the same spots.
Party walls and the chimney
The wall you share with the neighbor is also a fire barrier, and it should run unbroken up to the roof deck. In the attic space or cockloft we look for gaps, old joist pockets and openings made for cables. Chimneys on these houses often serve a gas boiler and water heater that replaced older equipment; we check for a liner and for mortar washed out at the top courses.
Garage under the house
Many mid-century Brooklyn rows put a garage at basement level, reached by a driveway that slopes down from the street. In a cloudburst, water follows it down. We look for a trench drain at the foot of the slope and confirm where it empties, check the garage door sill and the wall behind it for water marks, and ask whether the house sewer has a backwater valve. The city's stormwater flood map shows whether your block is expected to collect water in a heavy storm.
The second unit
In a two-family we confirm two electric meters and two gas meters, separate heating controls, and a fire-rated ceiling and door between the units. We compare the layout with the certificate of occupancy on file at the Department of Buildings. A third kitchen at basement level, in a house whose certificate says two families, is an illegal conversion no matter how nicely it is finished. Our multi-family inspection reports each unit separately so you can see what belongs to which apartment.
Flood maps: check the lot, not the neighborhood
Brooklyn Community Board 18 lists its neighborhoods as Bergen Beach, Canarsie, Flatlands, Georgetown, Marine Park, Mill Basin, Mill Island and Paerdegat Basin, running from Nostrand Avenue to Louisiana Avenue and from the Belt Parkway to the Long Island Rail Road. Several of those names are on the water, and flood exposure in this district is decided lot by lot. Search the address at the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, and keep in mind what the city's flood maps page explains: FEMA's Preliminary FIRMs of January 2015 were appealed by the city that June, and in October 2016 FEMA agreed to revise them. The map used for flood insurance today and the map that arrives later may disagree about a given lot.
Gas piping in three- and four-family buildings
Community District 18 is in sub-cycle B for Local Law 152 gas piping inspections, due in 2025 and 2029. One- and two-family houses are exempt. The three- and four-family buildings that make up an eighth of the local stock are not, so ask for the most recent certification.
Nearest stations
The MTA's station dataset lists Flatbush Av–Brooklyn College on the 2 and 5 lines and Kings Hwy on the B and Q; reading the map, those appear to be the closest stations to most of Flatlands. Where a house depends on a car, the garage and driveway described above belong in the inspection.
We are based in East New York, a few miles northeast. Pick English or Bangla for the walkthrough; the written report comes the same day. Use the contact page to send the address.