Most leaking skylights don't need replacing. The water usually gets in through the flashing, the metal pieces that seal the joint between the skylight and the roof, so the fix is new flashing rather than a new window. We check it from the roof, show you photos of where the water gets in, and give you one written price.
Whether it's the flashing or the unit, the skylight's size and type, and the roof around it. Reflashing is a smaller job than a new skylight, which is why we find the cause first.
Almost every skylight leak we're called to is not the skylight. It's the flashing kit around it, the seal where the curb (the frame the skylight sits on) meets the roof, or the shingles above it sending water sideways. The glass and the frame are usually fine.
That matters because the two fixes cost very different amounts. Replacing a working skylight because the leak was diagnosed from inside the house is money spent on the wrong part.
In order of how often we find them:
A skylight flashing kit is meant to be woven into the shingles as they go on, not laid over them. A crew working fast will reuse the old flashing and run caulk along the edges, which works for a season or two and then doesn't. If your skylight started leaking within a couple of years of a roof replacement, that's the likely cause. If you're getting a new roof, ask whether new skylight flashing kits are included, and get the answer in writing.
There are real cases for replacement. Fog or moisture trapped between the panes means the sealed unit has failed, and that can't be repaired. An old plastic dome that has gone brittle and yellow is at the end of its life. An older unit exposed during a re-roof is worth replacing while the roof is open, because doing it later means opening the roof again. Outside those cases, a flashing leak needs flashing, not a new skylight.
Skylights take hail badly and are often left off claim scopes. Plastic domes crack; glass units can survive the hit while the seal fails, which shows up as fogging months later. If your roof has a hail claim, the skylights belong in the scope with their own photos, because an adjuster works from what's in the report.
The stain on your ceiling is where the water landed, not where it got in: water runs along the roof boards and rafters first, so the real entry point is usually higher up, at a pipe boot, flashing, a valley or a skylight. Look from the attic and the ground, never from a wet or icy roof, and in a Calgary winter rule out melting attic frost first, because it looks exactly like a leak.
Most roof maintenance is looking, and you can do nearly all of it from the ground and the attic: clean eavestroughs in spring and late fall, check the attic for frost after cold snaps and for stains after heavy rain, and trim branches off the roof. In Calgary, add a look after every hail or wind storm, and call a pro for anything that means walking on the roof.
Wind damage shows up as creased, torn, lifted or missing shingles, most often at the eaves, edges and ridges where uplift is strongest. A few missing shingles often means the ones beside them have lost their seal too, so photograph the damage, have the slope checked and read your policy before deciding whether to claim.
Hail leaves a random scatter of hits, often soft bruises that still have granules in them, and it usually dents gutters, vents and other soft metal on the house too. Blisters, even granule loss, scuffs along a walking path and popped nails come from age, manufacturing or installation instead, and that difference decides what your insurance covers.
An ice dam is a ridge of ice along the roof edge that forms when heat leaking into the attic melts the snow and the water refreezes at the cold eaves, then backs up under the shingles. Calgary's chinooks run that melt-and-freeze cycle many times a winter, and the lasting fix is in the attic, with air sealing, insulation and ventilation, not on the roof.
A like-for-like re-roof or re-side usually doesn't need a building permit under Alberta's Permit Regulation, but structural work, new openings or a change of material can. The City of Calgary's own renovation page is worded more broadly, so confirm your specific project with the City before work starts.
Usually because of the flashing around it, not the glass. The flashing or the seal at the curb wears out or was reused during a re-roof, and water gets in at the joint. Condensation on a cold skylight can look like a leak too, and that's a humidity problem rather than a roofing one.
Most can be repaired with new flashing and seals. Replacement makes sense when there's fog between the panes, the plastic dome is cracked or brittle, or the roof is being replaced anyway and the unit is old.
Usually yes. Wind pushes rain up under flashing that handles ordinary rain fine, so leaks that come and go with the wind point at flashing almost every time.
It depends where the water is. Water on the room side of the glass is condensation, a humidity and ventilation problem. Water or fog trapped between the panes means the sealed unit has failed, and the unit needs replacing.
Get a new flashing kit installed with the new roof, always. Reused flashing is where the next leak comes from. If the unit is old, replacing it while the roof is open is far simpler than a separate job later.
Leaking, fogged or ready to replace. Tell us what you're seeing.
