Done Right Roofing & Sheet Metal

Customer has made requests in regards to skylight installation practices and issues arisen from installation of Skylight at top of four sided hip jack roof. This style of skylight placement has been discontinued in construction methods as prone to arising issues. Regardless in some instances previous older skylight replacement may be addressed using secondary aftermarket skylight replacements to retro fit into existing drywall chute and curb mount system. All previous skylights once installed from a manufacture vary in construction application to finished product. Each manufacture (Anderson) (Columbia) (Artistic) (Velux) have different installation requirements in consideration of the skylight placement and current chute and structural curb conditions. What varies in the retro fit application practices is all skylight manufacturers’ have updated their entire construction process and skylight models have varied over design revisions. Placing newer designs into older already built systems are challenging in consideration that the old chute was designed, built and specified to the earlier previous existing model. In this report we are discussing those changes between what was initial and what is existing. Over the last 25 years only two manufactures’ where readily available to builders and at the lower end of the cost spectrum in consideration of the home being built. Most common where Columbia Sklights and Anderson Skylights. Both of these manufactures use a inside flange system that locks over the curb system that drywall is butted against with the vapor barrier creating the secondary vapor seal. The primary vapor seal being the Ice and Water seal on the outside of the curb system before counter flashed on the outside. This inside flange is part of the skylight retainer frame and is sometimes either screwed or chute built around this flange to create a tight vapor seal so Thermal Bridging can not occur. Thermal bridging can occur when hot air on the outside frame meets cooler air exchange causing expansion and contraction. If the chute is not adequately built to the new frame specifications this can allow issues to arise. Given the nature of the issues Done Right Roofing focused the service requests on the outside flashing system that was cosmetically placed over the previous existing flashing system of the old curb mount system. With the initial install the nature of the issue arose from wind driven moisture entering the chute. Specifications of the curb mount where down to specification. Master certified service technician reinstalled skylight fastened on to curb with a bead of sealant to prevent any draft and resolution to skylight issue. Advised of skylight chute concerns again in the secondary vapor seal issue was not addressed. New issue arisen over sounds of contraction and expansion. Further communication was established where another service inspection to refasten the outside flashing system to place to resolve the issue. A small length of time transpired where it was noted to move skylight correction in cooler weather. Upon latest inspection the issue of the chute is still not addressed and the issue of the noise is still occurring feel it’s best to try and eliminate the process of correction o ne step at a time to resolve the issue correctly. I believe if the secondary vapor seal is corrected this issue will not arise in the future. It is noted that in accordance Done Right Roofing does not complete the skylight interior finishing only the exterior install of the skylight unit. It remains questionable if the skylight is to be replaced and the sound continues from not addressing the secondary vapor seal then associated costs would have occurred without attempting to try vapor resolve.