Skylights are specifically designed to fill your home with sunlight, not water. If installed properly, skylights are beautiful additions to any home—more so if you’re a person who likes to revel in the inherent beauty of a nice, sunny day even when you’re indoors. Still, there would be times when skylights let in things other than sunlight.
There are various reasons why skylights would leak, such as damaged, corroded or improperly installed flashing. In a few instances, however, what you might think of as ‘leaks’ are actually the result of less obvious problems. For example, water can make it through the roofing upslope of the skylight and then leak around the framing. Condensation may also play a part; it can collect and then drip off a skylight’s improperly insulated underside under specific circumstances.
Several ‘symptoms’ point to a possibly leaking skylight, as well as hint at an urgent need for glass repair services. Before calling for companies serving the Vancouver area such as M&M Glass, you need to positively identify a leak yourself first. First, you’ll need to actively look for the most obvious sign of all: water stains around the skylight itself or in the skylight tunnel. If the stains are located near the top of the skylight (the edge nearest to the roof’s peak), it usually points to failing flashing on the roof around the skylight.
When trying to identify leaks, though, you must know how to distinguish a true one and a simple indoor condensate stain (the latter of which originates from indoor moisture condensing on the skylight’s cool surface, then subsequently drips down). You can easily identify a condensation issue by virtue of a stain near the bottom of the skylight—condensation can form on a skylight’s inside surface if the house’s interior is humid enough. If you’re convinced that your flashing is still holding up and there’s a stain, you’re more likely dealing with simple condensate.
A ‘true’ leak is caused by failing flashing around the skylight. This can be fixed by sealing the flashing, which requires quite an amount of work. You’ll need to clear any water or debris which has accumulated between the roofing and flashing, lift roof shingles away from the skylight so you can access the flashing, then manually apply a layer of roofing cement in the gap using a putty knife. If you feel like such a job is too extensive, you’re in luck: you can call on professional glass repair services around Surrey to help you bid that leaky skylight goodbye.
Call us for skylight repair or replace in Surrey, Langley, White Rock, Delta, or all greater Vancouver – and other glass covers like patio covers, glass awnings, and solariums.
Sources:
Leaky Skylights, This Old House
Why Is My Skylight Leaking? News4Jax.com, July 19, 2012
How To Diagnose A Leaky Skylight, WikiHow.com
How To Diagnose & Repair Skylight Leaks, Inspectapedia.com
Leaking Skylight: Why It Happens And What To Do, Networx.com