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turner66's avatar
turner66
Explorer
Nov 25, 2013

Skylight and Dicor?

I had an odd thing happen today... Went to my RV (at storage lot) to do some prep for the Thanksgiving trip, and I had a puddle of water on my kitchen island countertop. Water was dripping from the skylight trim on the inside.

So up on the roof I go and intially couldn't find any obvious cracks. Upon closer inspection, it looked like there was a crack around the perimeter of the skylight at the point where the Dicor sealant overlapped the flange. Sure enough, upon pushing back the Dicor a little, it looks like the Dicor actually disolved the skylight clear plastic (or whatever it is). I checked the one over my shower, and it isn't like this. I'm going to order a new skylight, but as a temporary fix I cleaned the old Dicor and flange with acetone and laid on another bead of Dicor all the way around.

I don't recall seeing that these 2 materials are incompatible.
Anybody else ever see this?
Should I use something else?
  • my outback had dicor on the skylights, no problems after 3 years. then I cracked the skylight by accidentally stepping on it. My Bad. used Dicor on the new skylight and haven't seen any problem so far.

    Dicor has Naptha in it to soften the EPDM roof material and form a good bond. Naptha shouldn't be a problem with most plastics. What may have happened is that the skylight flange was screwed down to tight and stress cracked from thermal cycling starting at the screw holes. That's a big problem with the skylight plastic.

    BTW acetone will haze, crack and damage some plastics. It can happen instantly, or it can take weeks/months before it cracks. It will solvent weld some plastics, not real good, MEK makes a better solvent weld. But still Acetone is not a good solvent to use around plastic unless you know what kind of plastic it is and if acetone will damage it.
  • I finally fixed my leaky skylight by a generous coating of Heng's roof seal. Caulk didn't do it, Eternabond didn't either.
  • I would clean it good and put eternabond tape around the skylight and be done with it likely forever. Google eternabond and the proper methods for application.
  • Hi
    I had a crack around the edge of my skylight a few years ago. I had Dicor all around the edge and then after I found the crack I used Eternabond all around on top of the Dicor and up to the part of the skylight where it started to rise. Has never leaked again.
    Good luck and if the crack isn't very big you may seal it with eternabond and not need a new skylight.
    Busyguy

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