Glass Skylights
Glass skylights are what most people picture when they think of a skylight. A clear pane of glass in the ceiling, letting daylight into a room that has no other way of getting it.
In Tucson the choice between glass and acrylic matters more than it does almost anywhere else, because our sun is harder on materials than the sun in most of the country. Glass costs more up front. It also stays clear for a lot longer.
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Glass Skylights Versus Acrylic In Arizona Sun
Both materials have a place, and we install both. The honest version of the comparison looks like this.
Acrylic costs less, weighs less, takes an impact without breaking, and can be formed into domes and custom shapes. That last point matters on older Tucson homes with openings that no standard unit fits. What acrylic does not do well is age under Arizona UV. Twenty years in this sun and a clear dome has usually gone yellow, cloudy or brittle.
Glass does not yellow. It stays optically clear, so what you see through it in year twenty looks like what you saw in year one. It also comes in coatings acrylic cannot match, which is where the heat conversation starts.
Low E Glass And Heat
The most common worry we hear in Tucson is that a skylight will cook the room underneath it.
That was a fair concern with old clear single pane units. It is much less of one now. Low emissivity glass carries a coating that lets visible light through while reflecting a large share of the heat and UV back out. You get the daylight without the same heat load, and the furniture and flooring underneath fade a lot slower.
On a west facing room or a space that already runs hot in July, this is usually the difference between a skylight you love and a skylight you end up covering up.
Types Of Glass Used In Skylights
- Tempered. Heat treated so it is far harder to break, and when it does break it crumbles rather than forming shards. Standard on the outer pane.
- Laminated. Two panes bonded to a plastic interlayer. If it breaks, the interlayer holds the pieces in place rather than letting them fall into the room. Common on the inner pane for that reason.
- Low emissivity. A coating that reflects heat and UV while passing visible light. The one we recommend most often in Tucson.
- Tinted. Cuts glare and brightness. Useful in rooms that already get a lot of light, or where you want less contrast.
- Clear. The cheapest option and the brightest. Fine in a shaded location or a north facing room, harder to defend on a Tucson roof that bakes all afternoon.
Most residential glass skylights we install use a tempered outer pane and a laminated inner pane, with a low E coating. That combination handles the sun, the debris, and the safety question at once.
Replacing Acrylic With Glass
A lot of our glass work is not a new opening. It is a homeowner with two or three yellowed acrylic domes from the eighties or nineties who wants the room to feel bright again.
That upgrade is straightforward in most cases, and it is a good time to do it because the roof is already open. The curb often needs work, since a curb built for a dome is not always sized for a glass unit, and the flashing gets redone either way.
If the roof itself is due for replacement or recoat in the next few years, tell us. Doing both at the same time saves opening the same hole twice.
Fixed, Venting And Solar Powered
Fixed units do one job, which is light. They have no moving parts and nothing to fail mechanically.
Venting units open, which lets hot air out at the highest point in the room. In a kitchen or a bathroom that is a real advantage in summer. Solar powered versions open on a remote and close automatically when they sense rain, with no wiring run to them.
Which one makes sense depends on the room and what you want out of it. We walk through that on site rather than guessing from a phone call.
What Installation Involves
The unit is the easy part. The part that determines whether it leaks in ten years is everything around it.
The opening has to be cut and framed without compromising the structure. The curb has to sit high enough above the roof surface that water goes around it instead of pooling against it, which matters a great deal on flat and low slope Tucson roofs. Then the flashing has to tie into the roof properly for whatever material that roof is, tile, shingle or foam.
That is where over 30 years of roofing experience earns its keep. Nearly every leaking skylight we get called out to is not a failed skylight. It is a failed detail around one.
Talk To Us About Glass Skylights
Whether you are adding daylight to a dark room, replacing units that have gone cloudy, or dealing with one that leaks, tell us what you are working with and we will tell you what makes sense.
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