AZ Skylightguys - Info Pages Content

Is your Skylight Leaking?

Wet drywall and water dripping on your floor is every homeowner's nightmare! You instantly start seeing dollar signs! While some repairs can be expensive, but many repairs we do are very affordable. There are only a few types of leaks related to a skylight: the most obvious a hole in your skylight where you can see dirt or water coming in. We address that on the skylight repair page. The second reason has to do with how the skylight is attached to the roof.

Wet drywall occurs when water finds it's way under the roofing material (shingles, tiles or foam) and seeps through open areas in the plywood base of the roof called the roof deck. Water finds the path of least resistance and will come through "normal" openings (also called roof penetrations) in your roof like roof vents, nail holes, etc when roofing material is compromised. Roofing material can be compromised by damage, age or improper installation of roof penetrations suck as a skylight.

Some things to know about your roof and skylights.

1. A correctly installed skylight is sealed at the roof deck, underneath all the roofing material, then roofing material is applied over the base to assure no water is allowed to reach the deck.
2. All roofing material fails eventually due to age and will require replacement.
3. Skylights are made to breathe. Since there are different materials in contact, such as plastic or glass, aluminum and wood, there are spaces left to allow the materials to expand and contract with changes in temperature.
4. Plastic skylights are made to weep. There are weep holes in the part of the frame the skylight sits on to allow condensation to weep away from the skylight, usually onto the roof. This is normal and essential operation of any skylight. If these holes are blocked water will weep into your home.
   

Problem: Improper repair with roofing tar

On many of our service calls we see somebody has applied roofing tar on or around the skylight due to a leak. This is a sign to us that someone has attemped a quick fix for a leak which never takes care of the problem.

1. Roofing tar is NOT the solution and frequently makes the problem worse!
2. The use of tar VOID manufacturer warranties for your skylight and possibly roof.
3. Tar that is over-applied up onto the skylight itself with the assumption that the skylight is leaking doesn’t allow the skylight to breathe or the materials to expand and contract as they should and causes strain on the skylight. The increased strain will eventually cause breakage and failure of the skylight itself.
4. Tar dries up and cracks in the Arizona sun which then actually channels water into problem areas. Silicone is not recommended either!
   

Problem: Leaks on a flat foam roof

Our number one cause of service calls for leaking skylights is on flat roofs. Periodically foam roofs need to be re-coated to maintain their integrity. Over the years the roof gets thicker and thicker and normal roof penetrations that were correctly installed can start to leak as the height of the roof starts to match the top of a vent or skylight curb. The majority of the leaks are caused by roofers who apply foam up and over the edges of the skylight. Skylights are not watertight for the reasons mentioned above that allow them to breathe; if you submerge a skylight installation under water its going to leak!

Problem: Roof Failure

A leaking roof may present as a problem with the skylight. Water can find its way through any openings in the roof and then track down any opening through the roof. It may not become evident until the drywall starts to stain or sag.

1. Asphalt shingles typically last 15 years and some are supposed to last up to 25; what we find is that in the high temperatures of Phoenix the shingles tend to break down much faster. Shingles become brittle and crack thereby allowing water to come under the shingles. 
2. Tile roofs are also prone to leaks after a period of time due to inadequate underlayment or failure of the underlayment over time. The underlayment installed on many of the tile roofs prior to 2010 was simple tar paper; this paper cannot withstand the high temperature of the roofs here in Arizona and as a result becomes very brittle and cracks. Once the tar paper cracks the watertight integrity of the roof is nonexistent!
3. Foam roofs almost always have low spots which allow standing water to accelerate the breakdown of the foam. Once water seeps into the foam it finds its way to the roof deck and again finds roof penetrations that it comes down through. As I mentioned before, eventually ALL roofing material will fail and need replacement.

Solution:

As Skylight Specialists, we understand all the possible issues with skylights. We are the best around and diagnosing and repairing all skylight issues! Skylights get a bad rap as the cause of all leaks in roofs. As you can see, most of the time it's not the skylight's fault!! If your skylight is not the problem, we can help you find someone to take care of the problem. Contact us with any questions about skylights or to come and look at any problem with your skylight.
 

Traditional Skylight Installation

Daylighting with skylights; it enhances life with our most abundant natural resource — light from above.

Skylights are home transforming products; simply a window in the roof that washes the room below in soft light. Did you know that a 2x4 skylight allows three times more light than windows of the same size and it gets that light into corners and the middle of the room!

You have many options when it comes to skylights; they can be like a picture window and simply brighten up rooms or you could have a “fresh air skylight” which actually opens and allows for ventilation. The Fresh Air Skylight can be manually, electrical or solar operated.

Why daylight? Skylights are the most efficient way to bring daylight into a home:

• Brighten dark rooms
• Balances light in a room
• Penetrate light into a large room
• Produces much less glare than windows
• Actually more energy efficient than windows because less skylight area is needed to produce 
  •      the same amount of light; the more glass area the less energy efficient.

It’s Practical: 

• Where there is light, there is life
• Brighten a dark room
• Add light and privacy to a bathroom
• Provides white healthy daylight versus yellow light bulbs
• Allows for design flexibility by allowing more wall space

It’s Dramatic:

• No single remodeling project can change a room like adding natural light
• A focal point to a room
• Lowest cost home remodel with the most impact
• Make the volume of the room increase and appear larger

It’s Necessary:

• Improves the health of our families
• Children learn faster under daylight
• 20% of the population suffers from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)
• Elderly people need more light to prevent falls
• It offers Privacy (insert picture of guy in bathroom looking through neighbor window)
• Daylight plus privacy, you don’t have to worry about your neighbors seeing right through your window!

Fresh Air Skylight

• Skylights use the chimney effect to efficiently exchange the air in your house
• Provide more and better Fresh Air
• Vent volatile gases/odors in your home
• Rain sensor closes skylight when it starts to rain
• Eligible for a 30% federal and 25% Arizona tax credit on skylight and installation
• You can upgrade from a fixed to an opening skylight.
  

Sun Tube Installations

When light is all you want a sun tunnel solar tube skylight is a great option. A sun tunnel is:

1. Cost effective!
2. Energy efficient - No heat gain; Qualifies for 25% Arizona Tax Credit
3. Has a clean look like a can light in the ceiling - with optional light kit you can even use it like a light at night!
4. It's the quickest, low cost remodeling project you can do to transform your home! 

A Skylight of Many Names:

Whether you call it a tubular skylight, a sun tube, sun tunnel, tube light, or a sky tube, it is a product that transfers natural sunlight from outdoors into usable light to brighten up dark rooms. The technology used to accomplish this is a super reflective silver coated aluminium light pipe and precisely engineered diffusers. The output of a 10" Sun Tunnel skylight is equal to three 100 watt light bulbs! Because of the design a tubular skylight brings in beautiful natural light without transferring heat into your living space. Because of this they qualify for a Tax Credit of 25% from Arizona and are exempt from Sales Tax!

Tubular skylights are referred to by many names - sun tube, sun tunnel, solar tube, tube light, and sky tube - but all tubular skylights are not created equal! Some brands use plastic flashings that degrade quickly in our Arizona heat. Some companies use inferior light pipe that the reflective coating peels off in a couple of years. We have been installing skylights for more than 13 years in Arizona and we stand by the VELUX Sun Tunnel and Natural Light Energy System products we install because we know and trust their quality. We have installed thousands of tubular skylights and truly understand our products, our customers and their needs and our Arizona environment. Because

 of this we are specialists in not only tubular skylights but all types of skylights!

What are the parts of a tubular skylight?

Describing it from the top down, a sun tube consists of:

• Dome
• Flashing
• Light pipe
• Ceiling ring
• Diffuser

Each manufacturer has its own distinct signature features that make each type a little unique. The things that most effect the light you see are the light pipe and the diffuser. Both Velux and Natural Light use high quality light pipe that we have never seen fail. Their diffusers are different, giving the light entering the room slightly different quality.

What can you expect from a tubular skylight installed by The Skylight Guy? 

Excellent performance without worry of leakage or product failure! We take pride in what we do and we want our customers happy so we work hard to earn your business. We are Skylight Specialists and no matter the job, we can get the right product at the right price and perform an excellent installation! 

A word of caution about competitor claims; all of the major manufacturers provide a system that is bright and each claim that theirs is the brightest. The vast majority of the units we install we include filters to tone the light down!  In fact, in all the years that we have installed these tubular skylights we may have had five people out of the thousands that said their system was not bright enough....and we have had hundreds of calls complaining about too bright! 1% better light output is negligible! What is more important is the quality of the individual components and the warranty. If you want the best product please ask to see and feel the components and you be the judge; we won't disappoint you that we can guarantee! 

We will install customer provided tubular skylights but we will only install the brands that we know are of a good quality.