A skylight that drips is usually a flashing problem, sometimes a condensation problem, and only rarely a glass problem. Each one is fixed differently, and the wrong fix leaks again by the next storm. We work out which one you have before anything gets touched.
Leaking right now? Call and say so. Emergency calls are answered 8 am–5 pm weekdays, weekends by arrangement for a fee. An active leak gets a temporary measure first, then a proper repair once the roof is dry enough to do it right.
Call 250-258-8600Where the water shows up around a skylight, and when, tells us most of what we need to know before we get on the roof.
Water running down the drywall on one side of the shaft, usually the uphill corner. The classic sign of a failed head or step flashing, where the roof meets the top or sides of the unit.
A shower does nothing, a sideways storm off the lake puts water on the floor. Pressure is forcing water up under a flashing lap that gravity alone leaves alone. Flashing, not glass.
Beads on the pane, a wet sill, drips off the bottom edge on a clear January morning. That is condensation on the coldest surface in the room, not a roof leak, and it is fixed with airflow, not flashing.
A cloudy patch you cannot wipe off either side. The seal in the glazing unit has failed and let air in. The unit gets replaced; nothing on the roof fixes it.
Older bubble skylights go brittle and yellow in Okanagan sun. Hairline cracks radiating from a corner or a fastener let water straight through, and the dome is usually past resealing.
From the ground or a ladder: a head flashing sitting proud of the shingles, step flashings with a shadow line under them, sealant pulled away from the frame, or rust streaks running down from the corners.
Needles and leaves dam against the top of the curb, hold water against the head flashing and rot the shingles above it. Common under pines, and a leak waiting for the next heavy rain.
Warm glass melts the snow above it, the water refreezes at the cold edge of the unit, and the next melt backs up under the flashing. A different problem again. See ice dam repair.
A skylight is a deliberate opening in the roof with four edges that all have to shed water, and it sits in the sunniest part of the house. The glass and the frame are built for that. The flashing around them is metal and membrane and sealant, and in Kelowna all three get worked hard: hot decks in July, freeze-thaw for weeks in winter, and rain that comes in sideways off the lake.
Step flashings along the sides rely on each piece lapping the next; one lifted by a nail pop or a foot lets water track behind the rest. The head flashing across the top takes the whole slope’s runoff and dams needles against it. Sealant at the frame shrinks and cracks years before the unit wears out. And on older curb-mounted units, the curb itself, a wooden box under the skylight, rots quietly from the top down once the cap sealant goes.
Then there is the one that is not a leak at all. Skylight glass is the coldest surface in a room, so a humid bathroom or kitchen in a cold snap condenses water onto it and runs it down the frame. From inside it looks identical. It is fixed completely differently.
A skylight leak runs straight down the shaft into finished space, so the interior damage starts earlier than with a leak in the attic. And the wood around the opening is exactly the wood that holds the unit up.
Water tracks behind a flashing, follows the curb or the frame down, and shows on the drywall of the shaft. Wipe it, it comes back with the next storm. The flashing is still repairable and the deck around it is dry between rains.
Fix now: a reseal or reflash
The shaft drywall swells and bubbles. On a curb-mounted unit the wooden curb stays wet, and the deck and rafters framing the opening start to take water at the corners.
Fix now: reflash plus a drywall patch
A light well is a warm, damp, enclosed box, which is what mould wants. The curb rots enough that fasteners pull, the unit shifts, and the flashing that was marginal is now open. Insulation around the shaft is saturated.
Fix now: new curb, new unit, remediation
Headers and trimmers around the opening delaminate. Sheathing downhill of the unit is rotten. The shingles below have been sitting on wet deck and lose their hold. Now the job is a section of roof, an opening rebuilt, and a ceiling.
Fix now: structure, deck, often a re-roof
We drew the whole sequence, stage by stage, with the roof section changing as you scroll.
The cost of waitingMost skylight callbacks are a bead of sealant over a flashing that needed replacing. The sequence below is how it gets done once.
First question, every time. Where is the water, and when does it come: in rain, or in cold dry weather? Is the pane wet on the inside face? Is there a bathroom fan or a kitchen under it, and does it vent outside? If it is condensation, we tell you so and what to do about it, and nothing on the roof gets opened up.
On the roof: the head flashing, each step flashing, the sill or apron, the counterflashing or cladding at the frame, the sealant at every joint, the fasteners, and the curb on curb-mounted units. Then the glazing itself for fog between panes, a cracked dome, or a perished gasket. Then the shingles or membrane uphill for anything sending extra water at the unit. A water test isolates the section if nothing obvious shows.
If it is raining into the well, a temporary cover or a properly secured tarp over the unit holds it until the roof is dry enough to reflash. Sealant smeared over wet flashing is not a repair and we do not sell it as one.
A failed perimeter gets a proper reflash: shingles lifted back, the opening wrapped in ice-and-water membrane, a new flashing kit fitted, matched to the manufacturer’s where one exists, and the courses relaid. A rotten curb gets rebuilt or replaced before the flashing goes back on. Where the glazing seal has failed, the dome is crazed, or the flashing kit is no longer made, we replace the unit, because new flashing around a failing skylight is money spent twice. VELUX and Columbia are the brands we install.
Other skylights on the same roof are usually the same age and the same flashing, so we look at them while we are up there and write down what is coming, with photographs. If the deck or the well drywall took water, that is in the report too, so the next thing is planned instead of another emergency.
If the unit is sound and the flashing has failed, a reflash is the repair, and a good one lasts as long as the roof around it.
If it is an old acrylic dome, the glazing seal has gone, the frame is corroded, or the manufacturer no longer makes a flashing kit for it, replacing the unit is usually the better money. And if the roof around the skylight is at the end of its life, the honest answer is to do both at once. New installs and replacements are done by Premium Roofing, same crews and same phone number. How we decide.
We do not quote a roof we have not seen. What moves the number is whether it is a reseal, a full reflash or a new unit, the pitch and access, whether the curb needs rebuilding, and whether water has got into the deck or the well.
What you can count on: the inspection and written quote are free, pricing is flat-rate, and anything that could change the number is named before work starts, not on the invoice. If it turns out to be condensation, you get told that and a plan, not a roofing bill.
Tell us what you are seeing and we will come and find out what is causing it. Estimates are free, written down, and honest about whether the roof is worth repairing.
Free estimates • Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country & Peachland
