Skylight Venting
I’ve noticed that the skylight in our bathroom is vented, allowing water to blow in on a windy/rainy day. It splatters on the inside glass cover on the skylight. What is the venting for anyway? Can I seal up the venting so water doesn’t leak into my house?
I’ve noticed that the skylight in our bathroom is vented, allowing water to blow in on a windy/rainy day. It splatters on the inside glass cover on the skylight.
What is the venting for anyway? Can I seal up the venting so water doesn’t leak into my house?
I have the same thing and when we’ve had the driving rain with heavy winds it’s happened to us as well.
I don’t worry about the one in the bathroom because any water that does come in lands on a tiled floor. It’s only ever been an occasional drip or two. We don’t want to close it off in any way because you do need a means for moisture/steam to escape so as to avoid mold situations like Steve mentioned. When winter comes we keep the bathroom door shut so the heat stays in the home. Yes, it gets a little chillier in there sometimes but there’s a radiator in there too so it’s not too noticeable a difference from the rest of the house.
The one above the stairs we did something similar to what Dave mentioned when winter came. In the summer we removed it though because it’s at the highest point in the ceiling and it provides a way for the rising heat to escape. It lowers the amount you spend on A/C.
Don’t cover the bathroom vent. Do as CMU states and have the shroud re-tooled.
It sounds like you have a doghouse vent on the skylight, which is pretty common in old houses with flat roofs. I have two of them here. On the “roof” of that skylight you’ll see slit vents which are protected by metal flaps, or shrouds. Over time those flaps can bend, even break, allowing water to enter the vent. One fix is to braze larger flaps over the vents, also making sure that water pouring down the “roof” doesn’t get into the vent.
You should also caulk around the glass because that’s another entry point for water. I’m not a roofing expert but I believe you want to use a tar caulk on the outside, not something silicon based. You can pick up tubes of that in the roofing section at Lowes/HD.
I was on my roof last week fixing a fan vent (contractor installed a pitched roof vent on a flat roof, which was a source of leaks) and noticed that both of my old skylights are in pretty bad shape. I’ll probably replace them next year with new ones.
I have two skylights in my master bath. One is a much newer one with no side vents and the other is as you describe..a glas top or “hat” and the sides are open, like shutters. As Bob Marvin said, I really only got some water blowing in during a heavy rainstorm but I was more concerned about the heat loss. I went up on the roof and wrapped the vented sides with stiff foam insulation and taped all the corners and edges with the aluminum duct tape. You can’t see any of that from inside. This has pretty much eliminated the problems but I’m still concerned about further heat loss. What I will probably do is put a square piece of plexiglass in there to fit the top of the shaft and it can be held in with four wood strips to make a decent looking edge. This will allow the light in and prevent a bit more of the heat from rising.
Since you can’t cover up the venting, you’ll have to construct something that makes it harder for the rain to get in. If it’s a typical box with the skylight on top, adding a sort of wood “awning” on all four sides (like awnings over windows) might do it. It’ll have to be sturdy since snow will load it down. You might even be able to get away with extending each top slat outward a foot or so.
I think there was some misunderstanding – I’m talking about the openings on the vertical surface of the skylight box which protrudes above the roof surface, not a roof vent. As far as I know, there are no roof vents on the top of my roof.
HI. OP here.
I’m new to this homeownership thing.
What do you mean by a shroud?
Is this something I can do myself (I’m pretty handy) or do I need to hire a professional?
You need the venting to exhaust warm air which would otherwise condense on the walls of the airshaft and create a mold/dry rot situation. This is especially important in a bathroom.
You may need a better shroud over your vent though.
I think the vents in the skylight housing are to ventilate the cock loft–the space between the ceiling and roof. I guess you could seal the vents from the outside.
In my house the two skylight vents (over the top floor bathroom and stairwell) only leak in a literal blizzard, with very heavy snow and high wind. It’s only happened a handful of times in the 34 years I’ve lived there. Snow blows in, melts on the leaded glass inside skylight and a little water drips through. Water coming through in a rainstorm–even a heavy rain–is a different matter altogether.