Skylight Leak Oh My!

Skylights have gotten a bad rap as being a problem spot for leaks. Yesterday, I was commissioned to look at a skylight that was, in fact, leaking. They wanted me to figure out what was wrong and how to fix it.

Here's a before picture where you can see where the water has damaged the drywall. You can also see where the window frame is also rotting from water entry:

I removed some of the damaged drywall and it appeared that the water entry was localized to just the window. Then, up on the roof I got a better idea of how the water was getting in. I inspected the flashing and it actually looked pretty tight. The water seemed to be coming through the window itself.

In this picture you can see the gaps around the window seal which is probably how the water was getting in and rotting the wood frame:

Since the window itself was the problem, the homeowner decided that instead of replacing the window, she would rather have me remove it and just reroof this room which is a sunroom on the back of the home. This was less expensive and quicker since we would have had to special order a replacement window to fit this opening.

This particular skylight was mounted so that it was completely above the rafters and basically sat on top of the sheathing. This allowed me to go ahead and do the framing from inside before removing the window. I could then do the tear-off and new roof the next day. I also wanted to take off a little more drywall to make sure we had removed all of the damaged area.

Here's another picture after the framing was done:

To be continued...

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com