How Often Should You Replace Skylight Weather Stripping?
With summer now upon us, most of us will be enjoying the warm sunshine, short nights, and long days. those dark and gloomy winter days will feel like distant memories. Rest assured, though, they’re coming, and when you factor in poor weather and daylight savings, you’ll be looking for as many ways of bringing natural light into your home as possible. This is where skylights pay for themselves.
Skylights come in a variety of styles and designs, but at their core, they’re basically just windows attached to the roof or ceiling. Some open and provide ventilation, whereas others are there to offer fantastic views of the sky and to let more sunlight and warmth into your home. No matter the style or design, one thing that is for certain, is the fact that they’re going to need plenty of maintenance.
As skylights are constantly exposed to the elements, weather stripping is very important. Once that goes, you’re in for a world of problems. But what exactly is weather stripping, what does it do, and how often should it be replaced? Keep reading for the answers.
What is Skylight Weather Stripping?
Before we can start talking maintenance, we first need to understand exactly what skylight weather stripping is, and what purpose it serves.
As many of you are already aware, skylight weather stripping is a protective, durable, flexible seal or gasket that is put in place to help ensure that your skylight is watertight and weatherproof. The gasket forms a seal between the inside and outside frame of the skylight.
Basically, without getting too technical, weather stripping is designed to prevent your skylight and the surrounding areas from leaking, and/or allowing air in or out, unless of course, the skylight is open.
These seals are constantly exposed to the elements, which means rain, sleet, snow, ice, wind, hail, sunshine, and more besides (depending upon where you live, of course). Because the weather can be so harsh, it’s important to ensure that they’re durable and hardy, and that they last a long time. Once your weather stripping fails, rain will begin seeping into your home, as well as cool air, and the problem will only get worse the longer you leave it.
Signs Your Skylight Weather Stripping Needs Replacing
Now that we know what skylight weather stripping is, and why it’s so important, it’s vital that we know what to look out for when it comes to degradation. Once your weather stripping begins to fail, it will fail quickly and the problem will quickly get worse.
To help you know what to look for, here are a few warning signs that your skylight weather stripping may need replacing.
Fogging or Condensation on the Glass
Skylights are essentially windows in the ceiling. The job of a window is to let light in, and let you see outside. If your glass is becoming foggy, or damp with condensation droplets, it could be down to your weather stripping.
Condensation or fogginess suggests that the seal has been compromised and is no longer airtight. If it is no longer airtight it’s likely letting water in, and allowing warm air to meet cooler air, which would explain the fogginess.
Leaks or Unexplained Wet Patches
Probably one of the most obvious signs of damaged weather stripping, and one which homeowners likely do not want to find, is water getting into the home via the ceiling.
If you can visibly see water leaking into your home when it rains, or if you’re finding unexplained damp patches or puddles on the floor after it rains, it’s likely that your weather stripping has failed and is therefore allowing water into your home.
Discoloration
If you can visibly see water leaking into your home via your skylight, this means that the leak is pretty bad. In the event of a small leak, however, you may not be able to see the water yourself.
If the weather stripping is only just beginning to perish, it will only let a small amount of water in. While it may not be enough to cause drips, it will be enough to damage the paintwork on your roof or ceiling.
If you can spot any discoloration on your ceiling around your skylight, perhaps in the form of brown stains or watermarks, a leaking skylight is the likely culprit.
Whistling or Drafts
The next time it’s windy, see if you can hear a whistling sound, or feel a draft blowing in through your skylight. If you can, that means that the seal isn’t airtight, and that your weather stripping will therefore need replacing as quickly as possible.
If you can feel air getting in, that means that there is also air getting out. Not only will you be letting colder air into your home, but warm air inside will be escaping outside, so you’ll be wasting energy and heating your home will cost you more in energy bills.
How Often Should You Replace Skylight Weather Stripping?
Okay, so we know what skylight weather stripping does, and we know what we need to look out for if we’re concerned it may soon need replacing. What we don’t yet know, is when to replace our skylight weather stripping.
So, how often should you replace your skylight weather stripping? Well, that depends on a whole host of different variables. Some people for example, may just be unlucky and have a faulty skylight, or an incorrectly installed skylight from the get-go. This could mean that the weather stripping would need replacing very early on.
For general wear and tear however, things are different. How long your skylight weather stripping remains in good condition depends on a number of different factors, including the climate, weather conditions, and how often it is maintained and looked after.
Skylights located in places with extreme weather, I.E heatwaves in the summer, frequent rain and windstorms, and snow, ice, and freezing temperatures in the winter, are more likely to perish faster than skylights located in places with quieter, calmer climates.
As a very rough guide, though, experts recommend replacing your skylight weather stripping every 5 – 10 years. The more you maintain your skylights, the longer the weather stripping will last and the better condition the skylights themselves will be in.
