Skylight Repair and Replacement in Kansas City

A wet stain next to a skylight gets blamed on the skylight. Sometimes that's fair. But three different problems can put water on the drywall around the shaft, and each one has a different fix.

Flashing leaks show up while it's raining, often only when the wind pushes rain from one direction. The stain tends to sit at the top corners of the shaft or run down one side. Water is getting past the metal where the roof meets the curb.

A failed glass seal looks different. You'll see fog or haze between the panes, sometimes a white mineral line along the edge. Once that seal goes, the insulated glass can't be fixed in place. The glass or the whole unit has to be replaced.

Condensation is the one that fools people. It drips on cold mornings when it hasn't rained in a week. Warm, damp air from the house hits cold glass, beads up, and runs down into the frame. That's a humidity and insulation problem inside the house. No roofing work will stop it, and we'd rather tell you that than sell you a reflash you don't need.

A curb-mounted skylight sits on a raised wood box built on the deck. A deck-mounted unit fastens straight to the decking with its own frame. Both depend on the same order of parts: membrane turned up the sides, step flashing woven in with each shingle course, a head flashing across the top that diverts water around the unit, and an apron at the bottom that sends it back out over the shingles.

The uphill side gives us the most trouble. Leaves, seed pods and loose granules collect against the top of the curb and hold water there long after a storm passes. On a lower-pitch roof that standing water can work its way up under the shingles above the head flashing.

We also see plenty of skylights where a bead of sealant is doing the job a piece of metal should be doing. Caulk shrinks and cracks after a few summers of sun on a south or west slope. When it lets go, there's nothing behind it.

If the glass is clear, the frame isn't cracked and the curb is solid, reflashing is the right repair. We remove the shingles around the skylight, pull the old metal, run new ice-and-water membrane up the curb, and build new step, head and apron flashing. Shingles that crack on removal get replaced with matching ones where a match is available.

A new unit makes more sense in a few situations. The seal has failed. The curb or frame has rotted. It's an old domed acrylic skylight that has yellowed and gone brittle. Or the roof is coming off anyway and the skylight is already well into its life. Putting a worn skylight back into a brand-new roof means cutting into that new roof later to swap it, and you'd pay for the flashing work twice.

Here's the tradeoff. A new skylight costs more today than a reflash. If yours is only a few years old and the only problem is the flashing, replacing it is money you don't have to spend, and we'll say so.

Every skylight on a roof we replace gets new flashing. We don't slide the old metal back in, for the same reason we don't reuse step flashing along a wall. You'll also get photos of each unit's condition so you can decide whether to change it out while the roof is open.

Some owners take the opportunity to remove a skylight for good. That's a reasonable call if it has leaked more than once or turns a room into an oven every July. Removal means framing in the opening, decking it and roofing over it so it ties into the field. Closing the shaft inside is drywall and paint, not roofing, and the scope will say who's handling it.

Kansas City hail cracks domed acrylic skylights and can break glass ones. It also dents the aluminum cladding and flashing. When a storm claim is open, skylights belong on the inspection report with photos, the same as shingles, vents and gutters. We document what we find. The claim itself is between you and your insurance company. We don't negotiate claims and we don't cover deductibles.

Put a bucket or towel under it and move anything that can't get wet. Please don't climb onto a wet roof to smear caulk around the skylight. It rarely holds, and it makes the real repair messier. Our line is answered live day and night at 816-572-9500, and if water is actively coming in we can tarp the area until the repair is on the schedule.