Adding a skylight to upstairs rowhome hallway - any downsides?

[Anonymous]

Undergoing a big renovation to our rowhome and thinking about adding a skylight to our upstairs hallway over the stairwell while we are at it. Stairwell is currently dark without natural light. We have skylights in other areas of house (bathroom and bedroom). I know they can leak. Other than that, is there anything I should worry about with adding a skylight over the stairwell that I'm not thinking about?

[Anonymous]

I’d be concerned about the 2nd floor getting extra warm in summer months. Even with AC my second level gets really hot but maybe it’s my system. Doing a major reno myself and am considering a change to mini-splits for this very reason.

[Anonymous]

We did this in our prior house. It let in a lot of light and really improved things. Only downside was it was pretty loud when it rained hard and we could hear it in the bedrooms. If still do it again.

[Anonymous]

We had one and yes, it helped with light. Just know going in that they can be prone to leakage (particularly b/c of the flat rowhouse roof), so choose your installer carefully.

[Anonymous]

I've been thinking of doing something similar, but would probably do a solar tube rather than a skylight. Cheaper, less likely to leak, less hassle with my HOA, and will still get some light coming down the stairwell. But we haven't done it yet, so no idea about whether it will bring in as much light as I hope that it will.

[Anonymous]

We just added two skylights as part of a renovation. Love them! One thing to be aware of, depending on how your roof is framed, that may restrict the size. Ours were supposed to be bigger but something about the trusses meant that they could only be 16" wide. Still worth it. BTW there's an alternative called "Sun Tunnels" that are cheaper and easier to work around - they give you the light but not actual visual of the sky itself.

[Anonymous]

Make sure you can actually have one that close to the party wall, per code. I wanted to install one but learned I could not because there was no parapet wall up on the roof between my house and my neighbors. Code said I couldn’t have a “hole” (skylight) in my roof that close to the other house due to fire concerns.

[Anonymous]

I had to get a custom shade made for ours because it made the area too hot in the summer.

[Anonymous]

We have one in a bungalow that is our second home on the Northern Neck. It was put in by the prior owner.

We love it. We have been very fortunate that it has not leaked or caused any problems. It is really nice if you have blinds installed in it. There has been only 1 or 2 times over the past 15 years that we've closed the blinds in it but on those days we really wanted it. One of those days was right after the derecho and it was killer hot (like 104+ if I remember correctly).

Ours has a bubble or rounded shape. It has been very sturdy. We are on the water and the house has gone through several hurricanes. We've had other damage but the skylight has come through like a champ. It was the only hesitation we had about buying the house LOL and it is the one thing that hasn't had any problems, knock on wood!

Based on our current experience we would definitely do a skylight or even a sun tunnel in other houses if we wanted additional light!

[Anonymous]

I’m guessing your real house has a low slope roof.

Get a Velux FCM series (lots of different sizes) insulated glass skylight and have it mounted on a 22° sloped curb, that will likely reduce some of the noise during heavy rain. The low E glass well also block most of the heat coming through from the sun. These units are available with a solar powered blind that can be opened or closed with the touch of a button. These are extremely reliable units and I have installed a few thousand of them without issue.

[Anonymous]

Just did this. It’s great!

[Anonymous]

Very risky, leaks, noise, structural weakening. Just improve your lighting, put sconces, nicer ceiling lighting and move on.

[Anonymous]

Cleaning is a pain

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cleaning is a pain

I love our hallway skylight. We barely use the hall lights during the spring/summer and there is something more relaxing about natural light.

BUT a bird recently pooped on our skylight and I dont know how to clean it. Recent rain didnt work. Only complaint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been thinking of doing something similar, but would probably do a solar tube rather than a skylight. Cheaper, less likely to leak, less hassle with my HOA, and will still get some light coming down the stairwell. But we haven't done it yet, so no idea about whether it will bring in as much light as I hope that it will.

We have solar tubes in our hallway and bathrooms. They bring in a lot of light and haven't required any maintenance in the 5 years we've been here.