Author Topic: Anyone with experience getting skylights while re-roofing?  (Read 4197 times)

ysette9

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Anyone with experience getting skylights while re-roofing?
« on: April 17, 2017, 10:56:43 AM »
We will need to put a new roof on the house we should be closing on in the next month. I would like to add a couple of skylights, preferably those that can open and close, at the same time as doing the roof. I am under the impression that it should be cheaper/easier to install them while a new roof is going on anyway and that the installation should be of higher quality than punching a hole in an existing roof and then patching it up.

Does anyone have a guesstimate on how much additional it may cost to install skylights while a roof is going on? Can anyone point me to info on cost differences between skylights that open and those that don't? I'm thinking the mechanized kind with a controller installed on the wall under the skylight.

Spork

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Re: Anyone with experience getting skylights while re-roofing?
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2017, 11:12:53 AM »
I have had them *replaced* while getting a new roof, but not installed from scratch.  (The same hail that damaged the roof also cracked the sky light.)  Damned if I remember the cost... and it was over 10 years ago.  And ours did not open.

I will mention: you probably want some amount of tint to it.  I would have said we didn't have any.  But dear jebus, when they pulled the old one out it was like we moved to the surface of the sun.  It was REALLY bright without it.

neo von retorch

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Re: Anyone with experience getting skylights while re-roofing?
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2017, 11:19:53 AM »
Some reference - bought a house last year, and the skylight needed replaced. The light itself was ~$1300! The work to do it was ~$500. I'd expect to still pay close to $1500 to have it installed alongside a roof.

When my roof was replaced at my old house, they suggested replacing the skylights, rather than patching, but I disagreed. I don't remember the cost they quoted me, but I think it was at least $900.

ysette9

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Re: Anyone with experience getting skylights while re-roofing?
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2017, 11:22:33 AM »
Quote
you probably want some amount of tint to it.  I would have said we didn't have any.  But dear jebus, when they pulled the old one out it was like we moved to the surface of the sun.  It was REALLY bright without it

hah! You bring up a good point about tinting - I expect having 100% UV protection is really important for the contents of the house under the skylight.

RedmondStash

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Re: Anyone with experience getting skylights while re-roofing?
« Reply #4 on: April 17, 2017, 07:27:45 PM »
We had three awesome skylights installed from scratch, though not while reroofing; I'm not sure how much of a difference the reroofing makes in terms of cost control.

Ours open and close electronically with a remote, and they even have sunshades that open and close with the remote. They are boss! One of the best investments we've made. So much more light, and a way to drain heat from the house in the summertime. Our living room & kitchen were really dim before, and now they're bright and pleasant.

Ours are not tinted; we didn't want anything interfering with them brightening the formerly dim rooms. But in the Pacific Northwest, intense sunlight is rarely an issue. When it is, we just close the skylight shades; they're translucent, so we still get a good amount of light.

They cost a bit over $3k each to install, maybe $10k total. We had them done maybe 4-5 years ago.

Goldielocks

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Re: Anyone with experience getting skylights while re-roofing?
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2017, 10:34:23 AM »
The costs for the skylight include refinishing the ceiling area under it, and installation of wiring.  That does add up.

We did ours while putting on a new roof (and redoing all the drywall inside the home), so it was a minimal labour add to install them -- easier than the windows on the side of the house, IMO.   We wired it ourselves, and the ceiling quote was not increased because of skylights (they quoted whole home before knowing about skylights and did not increase the quote).

I have a motorized one, but had to create a sunshade for summer time heat build up.  We do use the bug screen all summer, too.

Oh -- the skylights we choose fit inside the existing roof trusses, and we deleted one skylight that would not fit due to unusual bracing in the roof.

ysette9

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Re: Anyone with experience getting skylights while re-roofing?
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2017, 11:15:45 AM »
Left unstated until now is that I would only consider dual-pane skylights to decrease the amount of heating during the day. I expect that to cost more.

We have a really cheap plastic skylight in the kitchen of our current rental house. The light is lovely but it heats up like crazy.

yodella

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Re: Anyone with experience getting skylights while re-roofing?
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2017, 12:14:49 PM »
We also decided to add skylights while having a new roof installed. The roofing company charged us $200 installation each (we did two). The skylights themselves were around $500-600 each, but are not the kind that opens.

This was two summers ago and we have yet to renovate the two bathrooms where the skylights were installed. This means that from inside the house you have no idea they exist, and as it stands now we basically paid ~$1400 to add daylight to the attic :) Hoping to complete one of them this summer.

ysette9

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Re: Anyone with experience getting skylights while re-roofing?
« Reply #8 on: April 19, 2017, 01:34:15 PM »
Quote
The roofing company charged us $200 installation each (we did two). The skylights themselves were around $500-600 each, but are not the kind that opens

That seems very affordable for the installation. Fingers crossed I'll get quotes in that range as well.

Dicey

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Re: Anyone with experience getting skylights while re-roofing?
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2017, 04:13:19 AM »
We also decided to add skylights while having a new roof installed. The roofing company charged us $200 installation each (we did two). The skylights themselves were around $500-600 each, but are not the kind that opens.

This was two summers ago and we have yet to renovate the two bathrooms where the skylights were installed. This means that from inside the house you have no idea they exist, and as it stands now we basically paid ~$1400 to add daylight to the attic :) Hoping to complete one of them this summer.
Wow! That's good planning!

bacchi

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Re: Anyone with experience getting skylights while re-roofing?
« Reply #10 on: April 22, 2017, 03:20:51 PM »
Solar tube? More DIY and less cost. I'm always surprised when I go into a bathroom with tubes. The light is incredible.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!