Very Unusual Situation

Guy calls me this morning wanting 3 skylights replaced. Sounds like a fairly normal request right?

Well this is what I saw upon arrival.

So we go up on the Um, roof and this is what i see.

He tells me they have lived there 18 years and caught 3 people trespassing and this is their tombs. :laugh:

All 3 skylights are condensating. He said they didn't start that until they were about 10 yrs. old.

Does anyone have any kind of experience with this type of "roof" and/or issue?

Nice view from the top too!

My wife & I had an Earth Home for a couple of years. 3,000 sq. ft. inside, 3' dirt on the roof. Fairly constant temps, no tornado worries. Eerily quiet and dank.

As far as I know, they quit making the vented skylight woody. They refer to their opening units as the vented models.

Around here, no one cares if the skylight is vented in high humidity areas.

It's been a long time since I've used one, but Velux used to make a skylight with a built-in vent that could be opened as needed. It looked just like the opening skylight, but had the vent where the opening hardware was. See if you can still special-order one.

Roto's in my limited experience with the, seemed to excellent skylights. The only equals to to Velux.

I too had to look for some a couple of yrs. ago and could not find any.

PS: He said that deer stand over them and look down into the house. :dry:

And that sometimes the deer are running and they will run across the roof part and then jump down into the front yard. :cheer:

OSHA would want a crane parked in the driveway with the hook placed right above the skylights and a safety harness attatched to it just in case the roof caves in! :dry:

We did a couple. They weren't condensing at the lid, they were leaking at the ceiling level. The hardest part was digging down four feet to fix the hot roof at the base of the wells. They got new skylights while they were at it. You have to make sure there is enough pitch on the lids to satisfy the manuf, whoever you pick. Actually the hardest part was getting the kettle back down the steep gravelly road. The site was in the far distant back country and we had an F-350 gas-powered stick shift with two-wheel drive. Didn't charge enough on that one, but it hasn't leaked since, it was a one-time experience, and we got it done. When that roof got to the back wall, under the sod, it dove down to a point below the slab (upon which was sitting a block wall, which was also leaking three feet above floor level. The membrane followed it down more or less, and the pipe installed as a french drain to relieve the water pressure was half-filled with dirt and crushed flat. Somebody had installed the weenie pipe you buy in the big coils and they certainly paid for the false economy later. I heard later that one got settled on the courthouse steps. Glad I missed out on the feast; as usual, everyone involved in the deal got a little piece of the pie to eat. Including the aggrieved party. Apparently it's always best to take some extra care going in and avoid the pie-eating contest altogether. :woohoo:

The existing skylights are Roto-Frank brand and that's what he wanted to go back with.

It turns out they are a UK based business who has the skylights made in Germany! lol

And they sold their US division to Insula-Dome in 2005 who went out of business in 2011.

The size is a bit odd. 21 1/4 x 46 1/2. That's the frame.

I told him Velux was the best brand these days but he is very particular.

He asked me if I could guarantee that the new ones won't condensate and I had to say no I can't.

I put a price on it and he says they will think about it. Some hack will probably go over there, promise the moon and give a no-profit price.

If OSHA was doing their jobs, all of our buildings would be underground.

Probably the seals are broken. Replace them and use the Velux windows. they are the best and will last the longest.