sky-lights

[neil galloway]

very difficult to take top off sky-light. anyone have ideas if there is product i can paint to outside to reduce heat coming into the house?

[neil galloway]

anybody?

[bitingmidge]

Neil,

It sometimes takes more than ten minutes to get a response!

Just painting a skylight will reduce the amount of sunlight, therefore heat coming through, but after a few coats it won't be a skylight anymore.

The caravan guys sell a paint which has insulating qualities, or you could think about a reflective film.

cheers,

P

[David L]

Painting it out sounds a bit drastic as Midge said, have you concidered putting a temporary cover over the bottom so it can be removed when the weather cools down

[Groggy]

very difficult to take top off sky-light. anyone have ideas if there is product i can paint to outside to reduce heat coming into the house?

When it is really hot we put a piece of cardboard over the lens in the ceiling to keep the light and heat out.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

It depends on what type of skylight you're taking about.

Architecturally designed skylights built as part of the house can be nightmares it they're not specifically designed for the application/locale. [shudder]

For "add-on" skylights where the light is bounced down a reflective duct through the ceiling cavity, then you're better served by installing a removable transparent cover (for cleaning access) flush to the ceiling end and venting the duct outside or into the ceiling cavity.

If the ceiling cavity is over a metre or so at that point you can, at times, get away with using a fly-screen or similar instead of plexi or glass for the bottom cover. This only applies if the added vents to the duct can exhaust the hot air quicker than it'll "fill" the cavity, so the mesh is simply to stop vagrant draughts pulling hot air out of the duct.