How to Check Your Skylights for Leaks Before the Rainy Season
Skylights are well loved for adding extra light to your home without compromising your privacy. However, skylights can also be a common source for leaking roofs and are a bit more complicated to fix than regular windows.
Before the rainy season arrives, you should check your skylights for leaks. This allows for some cushion time so you can get an Orlando skylight repair before the storms appear in the sky. Not sure how to check your skylights for leaks? Read this quick guide below to find out.
Inspecting Skylights for Leaks
Many skylights will collect condensation which can drip down and cause problems. Thankfully, this is a fairly easy fix. Invest in an anti-fogging product and your skylight should be condensation free. Unfortunately, this isn’t the only cause for leaking skylights.
If your skylight can be opened, it’s important that you make sure nothing hinders it when it closes. Even just a twig can prevent the skylight from sealing tightly and this can lead to water being let inside.
You should do a check of your skylight regularly to ensure it’s free of any debris such as sticks, leaves, or dirt.
Over time, the flashing around your skylight will start to wear out. It could even get damaged after so many brutal storms, so it’s always good to check before the rainy season arrives. You can quickly repair damaged flashing with roofing cement, but this is not a good solution for the long-term.
Why Is My Skylight Leaking?
There are a couple of reasons why your skylight may be leaking and not all of them are easy to repair. Normal aging will cause some skylight leaks, but that won’t always be the issue so you may have to look into one of the other possible culprits in order to properly diagnose the problem.
Installation Issues
Unfortunately, it’s entirely possible that your skylight was installed poorly. For homes that get their skylights installed during the summer, it’s especially common to not notice the problem for a few months. If your skylight was installed incorrectly from the start, you’ll have to hire a company to come and correct it for you or contact the company that installed it.
Damaged Flashing
The flashing is the metal part around your skylight that is exposed to the elements 24/7. Over time, the flashing will wear out and corrode which makes it much less effective at keeping water away.
Damaged flashing can be fixed quickly by using roofing cement to seal in around it. However, this is not a great long term solution and can actually lead to further problems.
To properly fix it, you’ll have to remove the shingles around your skylight, replace the flashing, and then install new flashing. Of course, we don’t recommend that you do this yourself as this is really a job that requires the expertise of professionals to carry out.
Conclusion
When you encounter a problem with your skylight, it’s best to call a professional skylight company to repair it. Climbing on your roof and fixing it yourself is dangerous and if you don’t know what you’re doing, you could make the problem worse.
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