Renovating your living space and thinking about a roof replacement? Excited to be building a new roof for your new property? Worried that your existing skylight installation might need repairs?
With ample natural light, amazing energy efficiency, great ventilation, flexibility in both shape and design, and ease of installation, skylights are the premier choice for both renovation projects and new construction projects, but many property owners wonder “How long do skylights last? How do I properly maintain them?”
This article will go over everything you need to know about skylights: Lifespan, proper installation, maintenance, and more. Read on and find out how to properly care for your property’s skylight windows!
Table of Contents
How Long Do Skylights Last? Why Does It Matter?
Skylights are one of the most durable types of windows, and with proper maintenance, their average lifespan is well over 50 years – Alongside the excellent natural light they provide, their aesthetic appeal, and their energy-efficient construction, they’ve been one of the most popular types of windows throughout Britain’s history. This is precisely why many of the UK’s most famous period properties feature skylights.
However, without proper maintenance and care, skylights can be fragile, lasting only ten years, sometimes even less. While this might not seem like a big deal, there are many significant disadvantages to not properly maintaining a window:
- Replacing windows is costly: Buying cheaper windows or slacking on proper maintenance might seem harmless at first. As the skylights deteriorate, however, and the only solution is to replace them entirely, frames and all, property owners will quickly realise it is an immensely expensive endeavour. “Prevention is better than cure” – this saying couldn’t be more true for window maintenance and upkeep.
- Impacts quality of life: Whether the windows start to have a yellow tint, are hard to operate, or the myriad of other issues that come with lack of proper maintenance, it will impact the residents’ quality of life. From reduced natural lighting to inconsistent ventilation and draughts, the residents of the property will slowly experience many inconveniences.
- Lowers the property’s aesthetic appeal: As centre-pieces of the design, most properties are defined by their windows, their location and their style. From splintered frames to washed-out paint, unmaintained windows are a blemish on a property’s overall looks and greatly reduce its appeal.
- Leads to long-lasting damages to your property’s structural integrity: Unmaintained windows will, sooner or later, introduce draughts and leaks to your property. This isn’t only an inconvenience to the residents of the property, but it also allows humidity and water to seep through the cracks into the roof causing, sometimes permanent, structural damage to the property.
- Substantially reduces property value: Naturally, if the property’s windows being in a bad condition leading to structural damage to the property, reduced curb appeal, costly repairs, and lower quality of life, this reflects on the property’s value on the market, substantially so.
- Damages the Property’s Energy Efficiency: If the skylight structure has been damaged, and draught and leakage have been introduced to your property, this greatly reduces its energy efficiency. From making heating less effective during
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Important Factors That Impact the Durability of a Skylight
Understanding which key factors impact the durability of your property’s skylights is one of the very first steps in ensuring you understand how to increase its longevity and properly maintain it. There are a few factors that are key to ensuring your skylights last, and in this section, we’ll go over them:
- Low-quality Windows
Suppose your existing skylight suffers from splintering, leaks, or other issues well before its natural lifespan is over. In that case, the primary reason will almost always be the quality of the skylight itself.
While a typical skylight can easily last decades, lower-quality frames and window panes might be cheaper up-front, but they require more maintenance down the road, and they can be a nightmare to properly maintain. They are more susceptible to leaks, cracks, splinters, and a host of other issues.
Making sure you buy your new skylight from a reliable supplier such as Sunlux is one of the first steps you can take to ensure your skylight windows remain functional, stylish, and immaculate for decades to come!
- Poor installation
After the quality of the skylight itself, proper installation is one of the key determining factors of the longevity and durability of a skylight.
Poor installations introduce draughts and leaks that allow humidity and rainwater to seep through the installation, which not only slowly degrades the skylight itself but can also harm the structure of the roof. This, at a minimum, introduces wear and tear, and in worst-case scenarios, it necessitates roof replacement, which is incredibly expensive.
- Lack of Maintenance
Persistent lack of maintenance is the “death nail” for skylights’ durability and longevity. Most issues that arise could be realistically handled and fixed with regular inspections, but if homeowners neglect the skylights’ maintenance, small cracks will fester and let humidity and water through causing further damages, until the point where the skylight gets irreparably damaged.
Tips to Increase the Longevity of Skylights
Properly maintaining your skylights isn’t just a great way to increase its overall lifespan, but it is a way to improve energy efficiency, maintain the windows’ aesthetic appeal, and ensure your living space always enjoys ample natural light and fresh air. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of actionable and practical tips homeowners can use to maintain their skylights!
Properly Maintain the Skylight Regularly
Having a consistent schedule introduces a rhythm to window maintenance and allows property owners to properly take care of their skylights. Here, there are three specific tasks you need to pay attention to:
- Wash the Skylight Windows at Least Once or Twice a Year: Dust, spider cobwebs, and grime settle on skylights with time, to ensure this doesn’t cause damage and the windows keep their aesthetic appeal, skylights need to be washed once or twice a year. Easy roof access is key here since the windows need to be properly washed from both the inside and the outside.
- Thoroughly Inspect Your Home’s Skylight Windows at Least Once a Year: Building the habit of habitually inspecting the windows, especially externally facing ones like skylights, is a very valuable skill for property owners. Once a year, you should comb through the property’s windows and make sure they are
- Be On the Lookout for Signs of Wear and Tear: Beyond periodic inspections and washing, it is a good idea to always be on the lookout for signs of wear and tear. Have you been observing condensation regularly? Are there signs of leaks? These are good indicators that a skylight replacement might be due.
Upgrade and Replace
While upgrading appliances and replacing parts of a vehicle are commonplace occurrences for most property owners, what’s much less known is that the property itself, its windows, and doors can regularly be enhanced, upgraded or replaced.
From installing a sealant to integrating the windows into your smart home system, there are many upgrades you can make to your skylight installation that will not only increase its longevity and allow it to withstand extreme weather but will also improve your quality of life and introduce material, practical benefits.
Pay Attention to Weather Conditions
Extreme weather conditions are one of the very few things that can cause lasting and significant damage to your skylights. A typical skylight can easily withstand rain and snow, but hails and storms often break window panes, cause leaks, and result in other damages to a property’s structure.
It is important homeowners pay attention to rapid weather changes and prepare accordingly. This could be as simple as ensuring all the skylights are properly sealed up to taking drastic measures such as covering the window panes with hurricane film and installing storm shutters!
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Skylight Installation FAQ
How Often Should You Replace Your Skylights?
On average, you usually need to replace your skylight windows once every ten to thirty years, but this isn’t a definitive answer that applies to every property. Rather, the property owner must check on the conditions of the skylights from time to time to ascertain their condition and find out whether they need to be replaced or not!
Do Skylights Wear Out?
Yes, like any other object on your property, windows also wear out, though the process isn’t as fast and as drastic as it is with furniture pieces. It starts with the frames slowly getting muted in colour and then the window panes start to yellow out. The frame becomes more fragile with time, so cracks and splinters might show up, which then introduces draughts and leaks, further hastening the process.
What Are Signs a Skylight Needs to Be Replaced?
Picking up on signs your skylights need replacement can be difficult, especially for newer property owners. Thankfully, there are some easy signs you can spot if you know what you are looking for:
- Visible signs of damage on the pane or the frame.
- Signs of draughts or condensation.
- Leaks during high humidity and rainy weather.
- Cranking noises and unwieldy operation.
- Yellow tint impacting the amount of natural light the interior receives.
- Inadequate ventilation and access to fresh air.
If you notice any of these signs, it is time to take a closer look at the state of your property’s existing skylights and potentially arrange for their replacement.
