Leaking Skylight Repair
Patricia Whitworth has a few leaking skylights in her Hernando, FL home.
Here's what she sent to me.
I assume since she's so brief she's running around looking for a mop and bucket:
"Skylights leak. How can we permanently remove them? How to cover up hole in inside ceiling?"
Here's my suggestion:
Patricia, are you sure you want to take this radical approach?
What if I told you I've installed hundreds of skylights over the years and NONE of them have leaked, even in fierce wind-driven rainstorms?
I've used Velux Skylights for decades and had them on several houses I've lived in including the one I'm in now.
These skylights have a pre-engineered flashing system that's easy to install. The flashings are foolproof. If you flash the skylight with Grace Ice and Water Shield BEFORE you install the Velux flashing kit, you'll never ever ever have an issue.
If you are bound and determined to remove them, then just take them out and patch the hole. You install roof sheathing to match the existing and lace in shingles or other roofing to match.
Inside you insulate the hole and install and finish drywall or whatever the existing ceiling finish is.
Nothing to it.
Velux Flashings were mentioned in the AsktheBuilder Column Roofing 101. Still the best.
I installed 10 Velux fixed-light skylights on my summer "camp". Every single one of them started to leak 11-13 years after installation. It took me another 2 and one-half years to get a Velux rep out to look at them. In every case, the leak was not around the flashing system but in the glass/frame seal. The technician took the glass out of every single skylight and re-caulked the seal. During our conversations while he was doing this, he indicated that Velux's design and choice of material of this seal was inadequate for the long haul and that they had changed their design in the last decade (unfortunately for me, every one of the skylights was beyond the 10-year Velux warranty period). I'm no longer a fan of Velux, but I have to admit that their flashing design is pretty good. So you can do the best job in the universe on their flashing kit, but watch out for their glass/frame sealing approach.