Skylight Repair in Farmers Branch
Leak diagnosis, flashing repair, and storm damage assessment on residential skylights
Get a Free Inspection: (214) 649-5984A skylight leak almost never announces itself where the water is getting in. You see a brown ring spreading on the ceiling below it, and the assumption is that the glass is leaking right above the stain. Usually it is not.
Water runs. It gets in around the edge of the skylight, follows the underside of the decking or runs down a rafter, and shows up on your ceiling a few feet from where it entered. So the first job on any skylight leak is finding the actual entry point, not sealing the spot closest to the stain.
We fix skylights as part of our Farmers Branch residential roofing work.
We repair residential skylights in Farmers Branch and across Dallas and the surrounding area. If it turns out the unit itself is finished rather than the flashing around it, we handle skylight installation too, and we will tell you which one you are looking at.
It Is Usually the Flashing, Not the Glass
Flashing is the metal that wraps the base of the skylight and ties it into the shingles around it. It is what actually keeps water out. The glass is just the part you can see from inside.
When flashing fails, it tends to fail slowly. The sealant along the edge dries out and cracks, or the metal lifts a little at a corner, or it was never step flashed correctly when the skylight went in. None of that shows up as a leak right away. It shows up two or three storms later when enough water has found the gap.
Finding the gap is its own job, and we do it with water. We run a hose on the roof in sections, starting low and working up, and watch inside for where it comes through. Doing it a section at a time is what tells you the entry point instead of just confirming that yes, it leaks somewhere.
A lot of the skylights we look at around here went in during the eighties and nineties and were flashed once and never touched again. Decades of our North Texas heat working on that sealant, plus hail seasons in between, and eventually it gives out. That is not a defect, that is just what happens to a seal that has been up there for thirty years.
The glass seal can fail too, and we check it. If the gasket has dried out and cracked, water can get in there. But it is the smaller share of what we find, and it is worth knowing that before somebody quotes you a whole new skylight.
What You Are Probably Seeing From Inside
Most people call us after they notice one of a short list of things:
- A brown ring or water staining on the ceiling or on the drywall shaft around the skylight opening
- Fogging or moisture trapped between the two panes of glass that does not clear
- Flashing you can see is cracked, lifted, or missing a piece
- Daylight or a draft coming in around the edge
- A skylight that will not close or seal the way it used to
Not all of those are the same problem. Fogging between the panes is a failed glass seal, which is a unit issue. Staining on the ceiling is almost always water getting in around the outside. Those two get fixed very differently, which is why the diagnosis matters more than the repair does.
One thing that is not a leak: light condensation on the inside of the glass on a cold morning that clears once the house warms up. That is the same thing your windows do. If it clears, leave it alone.
The thing that does need attention is staining that comes back or spreads wider after each rain. A small gap left through a few more storms soaks the decking underneath, and then you are replacing wood instead of sealing metal. That is the difference between a small repair and a much larger one.
Repair or Replace, and How We Tell
Most of the time this is a repair. The flashing is what failed, the unit is fine, and the fix does not involve touching the glass at all. Whether that flashing gets resealed or pulled and replaced depends on the condition it is in, and we tell you which one you are looking at rather than deciding it from the driveway.
Replacement enters the conversation when the problem is the skylight rather than what surrounds it. A frame that has warped or rotted. A curb underneath that has taken on water. A failed seal between the panes with fogging that never clears. Cracked or spider-webbed glass, which is its own answer.
Age matters too. A skylight past fifteen or twenty years old showing any of the above is usually at the point where another repair is money spent twice, because the next failure is already on its way.
Here is the part I would want to know as a homeowner. A contractor who has not been on your roof cannot tell you which one you have. Anybody quoting a skylight replacement from the driveway is guessing, and the guess happens to be the more expensive job.
Storm Damage, Wear, and Which One Insurance Cares About
Wind and hail come through over a weekend and Monday there is a wet ring on the ceiling. The question everyone asks first is whether this is a claim or whether it is on them.
It comes down to cause. If the glass cracked, the frame took a hit, or the unit got knocked loose, that is storm damage. If the sealant dried out and the flashing lifted over the course of years, that is wear, and wear is generally not covered even when a storm is what finally exposed it.
So we get up there and look at what actually failed. Impact marks, cracked glass, displaced flashing, hail bruising on the surrounding shingles. If it reads as storm damage, we document it with photos while we are on the roof, because that record is what your adjuster works from. The Texas Department of Insurance tells policyholders to photograph the damage, make temporary repairs to prevent it from getting worse, and be there when the adjuster comes out.[1]
We do not file or process the claim for you. That part stays between you and your carrier. What we can give you is a straight read on cause, which is usually the piece missing when somebody first picks up the phone.
If the storm hit more than the skylight, that is worth knowing too, and it is a different conversation than one leaking unit. Storm and wind damage repair covers the wider version of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is my skylight actually leaking from?
Usually the flashing around it rather than the glass. Water gets in at the edge, runs along the decking or down a rafter, and shows up on your ceiling somewhere other than directly below the entry point. That is why the stain position is a poor guide to the source, and why a repair that only seals near the stain tends to leak again.
How do you find where a skylight is leaking?
We run water on the roof in sections with a hose, starting low and working our way up, while someone watches from inside. Testing a section at a time is what isolates the entry point. Soaking the whole skylight at once only tells you it leaks, which you already knew.
Can a skylight leak be repaired, or does the whole thing have to be replaced?
Most are repairs. Flashing failure is the common cause and the unit usually stays where it is. Replacement comes up when the frame or the curb underneath has rotted, when the seal between the panes has failed with fogging that never clears, or when the glass is cracked.
My skylight fogs up in the morning. Is that a leak?
Probably not. Condensation on the inside of the glass that clears as the day warms is the same thing your windows do. Fogging trapped between the two panes that never clears is different, and that one points to a failed seal on the glass unit.
Will my insurance cover a leaking skylight?
It depends on what caused it. Sudden storm damage, cracked glass, or a unit knocked loose by hail or wind is generally the kind of thing a policy responds to. Sealant that dried out and flashing that lifted over years reads as wear, and wear is usually excluded. We give you a straight answer on cause and document it, and your carrier decides from there.
Do you repair skylights on tile and metal roofs, not just shingle?
Yes. The flashing detail is different on each and that changes how the repair goes, so it is worth telling us what kind of roof you have when you call.
Citations & Resources
- Texas Department of Insurance, Help after a storm. https://www.tdi.texas.gov/consumer/storms/recoverytips.html
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