Skylights are a beautiful addition to any room of your home and when they’re installed correctly, will serve you with warming, natural light for decades without fail. However, if you’ve been the victim of poor service or a lackluster installation job, your skylight could begin to give you more headaches than pleasure after only a few years of being in place.
One huge problem that you’re likely to encounter is leaking or moisture buildups. Why does a skylight leak and what can be done about it, short of a brand new skylight replacement in Central Florida? Take a look:
Assessing the scope of the problem
During the arid months of our Florida environment, moisture is something that can affect your home in numerous adverse ways. One such way, is rainfall or condensation buildups that occur on and around your skylights. And, because skylights often have very low slopes or none at all, that water is going to have nowhere to go, making a weather tight, moisture tight seal paramount.
Generally, during a quality installation or skylight replacement in Central Florida, your panes will be installed with weather stripping around them, then protected with flashings that deter water from creeping its way inside. This airtight combination should hold steady for years, barring any major damage to it, thus affording you with crisp, natural light and none of the elements that come with the weather.
But, if your weather stripping or flashings have been improperly installed or not secured correctly, they’re liable to begin to lose their resilience, thus leading to small cracks, crevices and openings that water will immediately find. The result is slow trickles of water that begin to show themselves around the edges and corners of your skylight on the interior of your home.
Fixing the problem
Save for a brand new skylight replacement in Central Florida, there are a couple of things that can be done to improve the seal of your skylight if you catch shoddy workmanship problems quickly.
First and foremost, the flashings can be repaired and even upgraded to a more resilient material if they appear to be victimized by the elements. New, properly installed flashings will work wonders when it comes to stemming the flow of water and will likely eliminate the problem altogether.
If the issue runs deeper, right down into the seal of your skylight, you may need to have the existing window refitted and sealed, to alleviate the broken seal that’s causing you trouble. Note, however, that a pane suffering from a broken seal is likely to be damaged if time has passed between the break and your noticing it, so skylight replacement in Central Florida may be in order to remedy the issue fully.
Inspect and address your skylight concerns
When you’re wary of skylight problems, such as leaking and moisture, the very best thing you can do for your home and your own peace of mind is to call a professional to have your skylight inspected and assessed. Not only will you discern the true problem at hand, you’ll also learn more about your options for dealing with it.