Skylights

Question:

My husband and I have a cozy, rustic style bedroom. The roof slopes severely and gets quite low in places...

We want to put a skylight in. How diffiult is that to do on our own? Wse wold prefer to purchase and install if we can without putting our room out of comission for an extended period of time....

HELP!! Need to now what we can do...certainly if it would b e more cost efficient, we could hire someone to do the installation.

Any help is MUCH appreciated!!

 

They aren't "extremely" hard to do, but since I know nothing about your experience , whether you can do it or not is hard to say

I've put in two in one day, so that is quite possible if you know what you're doing.

Two pcs of advice:

Get one that will fit between rafters IF your's on 24" centers.

Get ONLY a VELUX brand.....they truely have the flashing system figured out and are leakproof if you install them correctly.

 

We have never done a thing like this...

Is it hard to learn???

 

Well.......again, that's hard to say......I hate to tell you it's a pie job and you get a big hole cut in your roof and then find out how hard it is to make a good crust

IF you have a "regular" shingled roof, and IF you have rafters that are 24"oc and you pick a skylite model that will fit in between them and so on, it's not tooooooo bad to do one.....

But if you have metal or tile roofing, and you want a bigger skylite that involes cutting out one or more rafters with building headers for their support, plus add to that the fact you're going to be working on what I suspect is a fairly steep roof pitch, AND this would be your first time doing anything like this, ..........Then my advice would be leave it to someone with some fair degree of experience....

You're in an area that requires a decent understanding of several skills.....carpentry, roofing, probably drywall finish for the inside, etc.......plus you're gonna have to have the tools to take it on, so the bottom line is , I'd probably go with a pro, and try to watch and maybe help as much as they will let you with learning as your goal......If you would approach me with the attitude "I don't know much about this and would REALLY like to learn if you don't mind me watching/helping" then I'd be glad to show you as I install it......however I hate having a homeowner looking over my shoulder like they think if they don't watch my every move, I'll make a mistake.....I call 'em the "hawkeyes"........because believe me.....if I want to make a shortcut or screw you in a critcal area, I can do it WHILE you "hawkeye" me and you'll probably never know it , so DON'T stand there like a dadgum grim faced supervisor !!

Approach it from a "I'd like to learn" version, and I'll bend over backwards to show ya things......I think most people in the trades are that way......it's WHY I take the time to write something like this at 5 am before I head out to work when dawn cracks

 

Thank you!

I will let the husband read this, and that way we can make an informed decision..

Thanks again!