Leaky Skylight
We have two skylights in the trailer, one over the galley and one over the shower. When I was up on the roof re-sealing this spring, I saw that the bath skylight had a small crack toward the bottom, so I put a 2" long piece of Eternabond on it and called it good. Here's the inside view of the crack in the outside dome. The EB tape worked good, it's dry as a bone!
We have had some rain lately so I was out in the trailer last night giving it a once-over and discovered that the flange on the inner skylight had black spots under it. So I removed the inner skylight and discovered two more cracks that must have happened fairly recently.
You can also see from this pic how the skylight was installed. The rubber roof membrane was cut in an X and them brought down into the opening to cover the framing. Good idea. What wasn't a good idea was cutting triangles of rubber to cover the bare corners and not sealing them from the top. I had already removed them when I took this pic.
Here is the offending crack with evidence on it:
So water dripping through the crack would run along the underside of the exterior dome until it dripped somewhere and was trapped by the interior dome. This must have just started because water had wicked into the ceiling panels from the edges about 3/4" in, and the framing around the opening is still mostly dry with no evidence of rot yet...just some surface mold.
I used the screws and some screwdrivers to bring the ceiling panels away from the framing, and put in a small electric heater to help things dry out.
It rained all night, and fortunately the leaky skylight was over the shower. This shower pan was bone dry when I was working there last night, look how much water came through the skylight:
Fortunately with the inside dome off, water will drip straight down off the outer dome, so it can stay like this a while without causing further damage. I am glad that I saw this when I did...based on the amount of water coming in, the roof would have been shot by the spring. The shower is in the back corner of the trailer with the ladder attached to the outside back wall. So when you climb the ladder, the first place you step on the roof is right next to the bath skylight....
I ordered replacement outer domes and will wait for some decent weather to replace them.
We have had some rain lately so I was out in the trailer last night giving it a once-over and discovered that the flange on the inner skylight had black spots under it. So I removed the inner skylight and discovered two more cracks that must have happened fairly recently.
You can also see from this pic how the skylight was installed. The rubber roof membrane was cut in an X and them brought down into the opening to cover the framing. Good idea. What wasn't a good idea was cutting triangles of rubber to cover the bare corners and not sealing them from the top. I had already removed them when I took this pic.
Here is the offending crack with evidence on it:
So water dripping through the crack would run along the underside of the exterior dome until it dripped somewhere and was trapped by the interior dome. This must have just started because water had wicked into the ceiling panels from the edges about 3/4" in, and the framing around the opening is still mostly dry with no evidence of rot yet...just some surface mold.
I used the screws and some screwdrivers to bring the ceiling panels away from the framing, and put in a small electric heater to help things dry out.
It rained all night, and fortunately the leaky skylight was over the shower. This shower pan was bone dry when I was working there last night, look how much water came through the skylight:
Fortunately with the inside dome off, water will drip straight down off the outer dome, so it can stay like this a while without causing further damage. I am glad that I saw this when I did...based on the amount of water coming in, the roof would have been shot by the spring. The shower is in the back corner of the trailer with the ladder attached to the outside back wall. So when you climb the ladder, the first place you step on the roof is right next to the bath skylight....
I ordered replacement outer domes and will wait for some decent weather to replace them.
