A Skylight Is A Hole In A Moving Roof
A skylight frames a rigid opening in a roof that never stops moving. The joint you can see is not the only joint that leaks.
On metal roofs in Dubai, skylights are cut into the sheet plane and framed against a material that grows and shrinks several centimetres over a hot day. Year after year, the silicon, butyl and painted seals builders use on new sheds break away from the frame corners. Rain then pools on the frame lip before entering on the downhill edge of the frame — exactly the side most quick repairs miss.
That is why an honest skylight repair has three parts: treating all four sides of the skylight perimeter (not two), matching the frame movement with flexible membranes instead of hard sealants, and checking the fastener rows and lap joints on the surrounding roof so the next bay corner does not become the next call-out. This is the same protocol used on our metal roof waterproofing projects across Dubai industrial zones.
How We Repair A Leaking Skylight
- Survey the unit and its roof contextSkylight type, frame age, sheet age; surrounding lap lines and screw rows photographed for the warranty file.
- Remove failed seals to substrateOld silicon/butyl peeled to clean metal; frame corrosion treated, brackets torqued.
- Seal all four perimeter sidesBonded EPDM on the frame-metal interface, extending onto the sheet so movement is absorbed by the rubber, not the sealant bead.
- Replace brittle panels where neededRotated, discoloured or cracked panels swapped; fixings holes re-established with washered screws.
- Surrounding baysBack-out screws on the adjacent sheet fields sealed before they develop into the next leak point.
- Water verification & warrantyControlled hose test on the repaired cluster; treated units documented under a 5-year warranty for the scope.
Skylight Repair FAQs
In most cases only the two longer sides were resealed, or a liquid sealant was smeared over the frame. A skylight has four perimeter joints — and the downhill (front) side takes concentrated water flow in rain. Sheet movement also works on the frame continuously. We seal all four sides with cured EPDM bonded by German adhesive so the whole perimeter moves as one unit.
Yes. Fibreglass-reinforced and polycarbonate panels that have gone brittle or yellowed are sourced and replaced as part of the leak repair — reusing a cracked panel under any membrane guarantees a repeat leak, so the replacement is either quoteable or explicitly excluded and flagged to the client.
Not necessarily. Skylight failure can be an isolated detail problem. However, if a skylight has opened, its neighbours and the surrounding screw fields are usually at the same age and movement — the survey includes a joint-by-joint check of the surrounding bays so you can decide between a detail repair and a wider upgrade with actual data.
A typical industrial skylight repair (frame sealing, fastener treatment, panel replacement where needed) is done within one working visit per cluster of skylights; large warehouses with dozens of units take 1–3 days in total. Villa-scale skylight repairs are half-day jobs.
The seal is watertight as soon as the adhesive has set — usually within hours, subject to adhesive guidance. We validate with a controlled water/hose test where access permits before leaving site.
Yes — barrel-vault polycarbonate runs, RV-framed acrylic domes and industrial fibre-cement ridge lights, plus wall-side clerestory strips. Glass roof units on villas are treated with uncured EPDM; see the glass roof case study for how that system behaves on transparent surfaces.
Have A Leaking Skylight?
Repair with EPDM, not another bead of silicone — quote with photos and panel prices upfront.
