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OP - you say you're not seeing them in new house plans. We built 10 years ago (so, new-ish home plans) - and our builder offered them (in certain rooms) as upgrade/options on pretty much any of their floor plans.
We discussed it, we had skylights in our previous home, both in bathrooms - we had one minor leak (after a very high wind storm) that was quickly fixed - we both liked the natural light they let in (you didn't need to turn on lights in those bathrooms during the day) - but decided that the rooms they were offering skylights in (cathedral ceiling-ed sunroom) was silly as the room is already windows on 3 sides.
Since we have a 2 story home, there's really no option for skylights for any of the other public rooms, and while it'd be nice in a bedroom, it seems silly given that generally we're only in bedrooms at night. There is an upstairs bath (exterior wall, no windows) that is dark, and when everything else we want to spend money on is done, we might some day add a skylight or solar tube to that bathroom. I know it would make a huge difference in light/feeling. But not important enough at this point to spend the $.
Anyway, just saying that 10 years ago (in the Midwest, national builder) skylights were definitely an option. They're just not generally a standard feature.
The only place I've had them was on my 50'x100' hangar years ago. It had a metal roof, and the fiberglass "skylights" simply replaced a few of the steel panels on the roof. There were 8, maybe 12, each 2'x8' iirc. I loved 'em for letting in light. I spent a fair amount of time in the hangar working on the plane, and in the daytime I didn't need the lights at all.
Then we had a big hail storm one year (baseball sized hail) that busted out several of them. Luckily no hail came through and damaged any planes. Insurance replaced them with the same kind. I really liked them.
But I'm a home inspector, and I've seen way too many leaky skylights in homes to get too excited about them. They're nice, but they can be oh so troublesome.
But I'm a home inspector, and I've seen way too many leaky skylights in homes to get too excited about them. They're nice, but they can be oh so troublesome.
Have you seen more leaky skylights than you have leaky roofs? I have seen dozens of leaky roofs, but only one leaky skylight. Maybe I just have a very limited sampling. IF you are a busy home inspector you have probably seen hundreds of homes.
Our neighborhood is 29 years old. I think most of the houses originally had sky lights, and most of them have chosen to roof them over.
What I don’t like about them is the inability to control the sun or moonlight and it bothers me to look up and see dirt or debris on them.
I have a lot of clients who like them when we look at houses, but when we re-roofed our house this summer, we took ours out. They're hot in summer, and suck the heat out in winter.
I understand ours were older and more efficient designs exist, but in the end, it's still an unnecessary hole in the roof, and they're noisy. We get enough rain in Washington... I don't want to hear it, all winter.
Once, a long time ago, we were thinking of having one put in when we were getting a new roof. The roofer pointed out the reasons why we shouldn't. We trusted him, so we didn't. I'm glad we didn't.
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