Skylights and flashing
A skylight is a hole in the roof with a window in it, and whether it leaks comes down to the flashing. Boe Roofing installs new skylights, replaces old ones during a reroof, and rebuilds the flashing at skylights, chimneys and walls, the three places most roof leaks come from.
Skylights
A new skylight starts in the attic, where we look at the rafters and the path of light before anyone cuts a hole. Then the curb goes in, wrapped in ice and water membrane, the unit is set, and the roof is flashed around it with the manufacturer's kit and woven back into the shingles. The old acrylic bubble skylights from the 1970s and 1980s go yellow and crack; replacing them during a reroof with a glass unit is the right time, because the flashing is being rebuilt anyway.
In Paradise the town requires a metal mesh over skylights in the fire zone, and we fit it.
Chimney and wall flashing
Flashing is metal, in two parts: step flashing that goes under each course of shingles against the chimney or wall, and counter flashing that is let into the mortar joint or behind the siding and laps over the step. When it is done right it needs no sealant. When a chimney has been leaking for years, what we usually find is a bead of caulk over rusted step flashing, or counter flashing that was face-nailed and caulked instead of let into the brick.
Behind a wide chimney on the uphill side, water and needles pile up. A cricket, a small peaked saddle built behind the chimney, moves the water around it and is required by code on chimneys over thirty inches wide.
Common questions
Usually the flashing has failed, not the skylight. On an older acrylic unit the seal between the dome and the frame can also go. We check both; a reflash is cheaper than a new unit and often all it needs.
Yes, on most composition roofs. The shingles around the opening come up, the curb and flashing go in, and the shingles are rewoven. On tile it is more work but still a day.
Wind pushes rain up under counter flashing that is lapped too short, or through mortar joints that have opened. The fix is new counter flashing let properly into the joint, and sometimes a cricket behind the chimney.
Get a bid: skylights and flashing
Say what the roof is doing, what kind of roof it is if you know, and which town you are in. We call back to talk it through and set a time to look at it. If water is coming in right now, skip the form and call.