Skylight replacement and repair in Las Vegas

A skylight is a hole deliberately cut in a roof, which makes it one of the most demanding details on any building. In this climate it takes the full solar load on both its glazing and its flashing, every day, for its whole life.

Acrylic and polycarbonate domes in particular yellow, haze, craze and eventually go brittle under sustained ultraviolet exposure. It is common on older valley homes to find skylights that have effectively stopped being transparent and have started being a leak risk.

Signs a skylight needs attention

Most of these are visible from inside, which is fortunate, because nobody should be on the roof looking at them:

• Water staining on the ceiling around the skylight shaft or on the shaft walls
• Condensation or moisture between glazing layers, which means the seal has failed
• A dome that has yellowed, gone cloudy or developed a fine crazed surface
• Visible cracks in the dome or frame
• Draughts, or a noticeable temperature difference right beneath it
• Daylight visible at the edge of the frame from inside the attic
• Substantially more heat gain in that room than the rest of the house through summer

The flashing usually fails before the skylight does

Most skylight leaks are not leaks through the skylight. They are leaks around it, where the flashing kit meets the roof covering and where sealant has been asked to do a job that should have been done by correctly stepped and lapped metal.

This is why a proper skylight replacement includes replacing the flashing kit and reworking the roof covering around the opening, not just swapping the unit. A skylight dropped into old flashing with fresh sealant is a repair with a short and predictable life.

Replacing is often the moment to reconsider the specification

If the roof is being opened anyway, it is worth asking about glazing that manages solar heat gain, because a skylight specified for a mild climate behaves very differently under a July sun here.

It is also the natural moment to ask whether the unit is correctly sized and positioned, whether a tubular daylight device would serve the space better, and whether the shaft is insulated properly, which is frequently the reason a room under a skylight is uncomfortable.

Who actually does the work

An independent roofing contractor, working under their own Nevada licence and insurance, not Best Vegas Roofer. They inspect your roof, quote you directly, and warrant their own work. Roofing in Nevada falls under contractor licence classification C-15, Roofing and Siding, issued by the Nevada State Contractors Board. (Nevada State Contractors Board, License Classifications)

Before work starts, check them yourself. The Nevada State Contractors Board publishes a free public licence search, so you can confirm a contractor is licensed, check the classification they hold and see their licence status before any work starts. (Nevada State Contractors Board, Contractor License Search)