Skylights bring in a lot of light and warmth into your house. Your home looks bright and lively. However, the most important aspect about skylights is the right installation. The major problem you face because of bad installation is leaks. With time, the leaking increases and causes a number of problems inside the home. Gaps in inadequate sealing of the skylight during installation can allow moisture to seep into the house and makes the interiors humid. You feel uncomfortable inside the house. The excess moisture inside the house can cause mold buildup. If you, a person in your family or guests who come to visit you suffer allergies or respiratory problems, mold infestation caused due to bad installation can worsen the problem. Another problem that you could face is rotting of the wooden elements in your house, thanks to the excess moisture content. The more you delay repair or replacement, higher is the damage caused. The best way to avoid these problems is to hire an efficient skylight contractor. With the installation done meticulously, you can save yourself a lot of trouble and money. Make sure that you check the license, expertise and experience of the contractor before hiring. A good contractor might cost more but can help you save a lot of money in the long run.

Cracks are common in skylights. Well, the incidences of repair are lower of you use shatter resistant or tempered glass. So, if the glass cracks, what do you do? If the crack is severe, you cannot help but replace the skylight. Hiring a professional is recommended for replacing the skylight because the whole set up has to be removed and fitted with the new one. When the skylight cracks, you could end up with water leaking through your roof. So, until the professional comes over to repair it, you need to make a temporary arrangement. The easiest thing that you can do is to cover it up with a plastic sheet from outside. You can use a tarp for cover. Make sure that the edges are secured. Use tape to attach the tarp well. You can patch small cracks by yourself. Caulk is a good material to be used as a sealant. You can also use putty. These materials are easily available in the market. Buy some and get to work. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Every skylight has two layers of glass or plastic in order to ensure insulation. If only one of the layers is cracked, you don’t have to do anything. Such cracks do not leak. You can just let it be until the crack demands repairs. At the slightest sign of leak, seal it.

Skylights need repair. All through the year, skylights are put through a range of climate changes. From hot sun to freezing ice buildup, they have to take it all. So, it is obvious that they develop some problems. Although good installation and use of strong materials ensures prolonged life for the skylight, repairs are warranted once in a while. Here are 4 tips that can simplify the process. The first and the most obvious thing is to make early repairs. This is when the job is the easiest and quickest. You will not have to spend a lot of resources as well. Look out for moisture on the pane, mold growing around it, dampness in your floor carpets and wallpapers, and notice if there is increased humidity in the interiors. If you find these indications, check the skylight and make early repairs. Secondly, remove the shingles to make a thorough examination. It makes the process of repair easier and safer. Thirdly, check the exact place where leaks happen. If the leak occurs at the junction of flashing and skylight, you’ll need to replace the flashing. For best results, use wide flashing. Fourthly, use glass that is shatter resistant or tempered if you want to replace the cracked pane. This is stronger and hence, safer for people living in the house. If the damage is severe, hire a contractor for the job.

If you want a skylight fixed to your roof, you need to give a lot of thought to the contractor who you hire. One of the commonest mistakes that people make is to hire a normal builder to fix a skylight. While the job might be done affordably, you might have to bear a lot of unnecessary expenses later on. These problems, caused due to inefficient installation, can ruin the interiors of your home as well. So, what is the big thing about installing skylights? The thing is, installation of skylights requires multiple skills. Not only should the window be installed into the roof, but also the borders need to be sealed perfectly and the window in the roof needs to be well insulated. This sort of insulation requires special expertise. Also, it is important to use the right materials for installations so that the skylight is not damaged because of minor storms. Use of cheap quality materials can lead to cracks and can cause unnecessary problems. No matter how good the installation and construction, use of poor quality materials reduces the life of the skylight, thereby forcing you to replace it within a few years. An expert installer can analyse the requirements of your home and recommend the best kind of skylight and materials.

One of the most common problems with skylights is that they leak. If they do, the problems that you face are too many to ignore. So, while skylight replacement or repair is one of the first things that you should do, here are some important things that you should know before considering replacement. It is common knowledge that bad weather and ice build are the prime causes for skylight leaking. However, if you find moisture dripping inside the house, it does not necessarily mean that your skylight is leaking. So, do not be in a hurry to replace the skylight until you are sure about the problem. Usually, certain things inside the house can cause condensation to form on the inside of the skylight. At the outset, this condensation gives the impression of a leaky skylight. Electronics such as washing machines, steamers, dryers and hot baths can increase moisture in the interiors and cause condensation to form on the skylight. You can find this very frequently during cold winters. Since ice buildup and bad weather are also the prime reasons for leaky skylights, you might misunderstand the condensation to be a leak. This is why you should never hurry into skylight replacement. However, if leaks are caused due to cracks or damage to the pane of the skylight, you should consider immediate replacement.