Skylight Replacement in New Jersey

When a Skylight Should Be Replaced Instead of Repaired

Replacement is the right call when the failure is inside the unit rather than around it. A blown seal, a cracked pane, a corroded frame, or a clouded acrylic dome cannot be restored — the part that failed is the unit itself, and a new one goes in. Repair applies when the glass and frame are sound and the water is coming from flashing, sealant, or a hardware part.

These are the conditions that put a skylight past repair:

• Moisture or haze between the panes, which means the insulating seal has opened
• A crack, chip, or star fracture in the glass
• An acrylic dome that has yellowed, clouded, or gone brittle
• Rust, rot, or deformation in the frame or sash
• A leak that comes back at the same spot after two or more repairs
• A unit old enough that the manufacturer no longer supplies parts for it

If the unit is sound and water is getting in around it, skylight repair is the shorter job and the cheaper one.

How Long a Skylight Lasts

Sealed glass units fail from the edge inward. Every freeze-thaw cycle and every humid summer works the seal between the panes, and once it opens, moisture gets in and stays. Acrylic domes go the same way through UV exposure: the surface clouds, then turns brittle enough to crack under hail or a dropped branch.

A skylight that is 15+ years old is usually close to that point. Putting a repair into it buys a season or two rather than a decade, and the second visit lands on a roof that has already been opened once.

What a Skylight Replacement Includes

A replacement covers three things: the unit, the opening it sits in, and the waterproofing between them. Scope depends on what the failing unit did to the deck around it before anyone opened the roof.

Full Unit Replacement

Full replacement takes out the old skylight, the flashing kit, and the courses of roofing material around it, then sets a new unit in the same opening. Most residential openings accept a like-for-like unit with no framing changes. Moving to a larger size or a different mount means cutting rafters and setting a new header, which makes the job skylight installation rather than a swap.

Glass-Only Replacement

Skylight glass replacement swaps the sealed glass unit while the frame, curb, and flashing stay in place. It works when the frame is straight, free of corrosion, and still supported by the manufacturer for that model. We read the model plate at the assessment before quoting glass alone.

On a frame with rot or rust at the corners, new glass does not close the path the water is taking, and the full unit goes in instead.

Curb and Flashing Rebuild

The curb is the raised frame a skylight sits on, and it is where replacement projects find damage that was invisible from the ceiling. We set curb height to at least four inches above the finished roof surface, which keeps standing water and sliding snow below the seal line.

Rotted sheathing around the opening is cut back to solid framing and replaced before the new curb goes on. Step flashing, head flashing, and counterflashing are all replaced with the unit. Reusing old flashing is what brings crews back the following spring.

Types of Replacement Skylights We Install

The replacement type is chosen from the room below, not from the roof above. Ventilation need, ceiling height, and the size of the existing opening decide which unit fits.

Fixed Skylights

Fixed skylights are sealed units that do not open. They go into living rooms, stairwells, and vaulted ceilings where the purpose is daylight. Fixed units have the fewest moving parts and the fewest leak paths, and they hold up longest in the same roof.

Venting Skylights

Venting skylights open by crank or by motor and pull humid air out of the room below. Bathrooms and kitchens are the usual placements, where the exhaust matters as much as the light. Electric models close on their own when a rain sensor gets wet.

Tubular Skylights

Tubular skylights bring daylight down a reflective shaft from a small roof dome, which lets them serve hallways, closets, and laundry rooms without a structural opening in the ceiling. Replacement here usually means the dome and the diffuser — acrylic clouds with age, and the room goes dim long before anything leaks.

Replacement Skylight Brands We Install

We replace with VELUX, Fakro, and Wasco units. The brand is set by what the roof and the opening need: mount type, available sizes, glazing options, and whether a flashing kit exists for your roof material.

VELUX and Fakro cover residential work in both deck-mounted and curb-mounted formats, with Low-E, laminated, and impact-rated glazing. Wasco covers the commercial side, including curb-mounted units and acrylic domes for low-slope roofs.

Replacing a VELUX skylight with another VELUX unit keeps the existing flashing profile and shortens the job. Crossing brands means a new flashing kit, and on deck-mounted units, new courses of roofing material around the opening.

Our Roof Skylight Replacement Process

Roof skylight replacement runs in one day on most residential units. The sequence below is what happens on site, in order.

Assessment and Removal

We measure the unit, read the model plate, and check the deck around the opening from inside and outside before quoting. On the day of work, roofing material comes off in courses around the skylight, the flashing is lifted, and the old unit comes out in one piece. Pulling a unit before stripping the courses tears the shingles that have to seal back down over the new flashing.

Deck Repair and Curb Work

With the opening exposed, we check the sheathing and framing for rot, delamination, and sag at the header. Water that has been getting past a failed seal for a season or two shows up here, not on the ceiling.

Damaged sheathing is cut back to sound framing and replaced. Curb-mounted units get a curb built to at least four inches above the finished roof surface. Deck-mounted units get the deck flattened and cleaned to the tolerance the manufacturer sets for the flashing kit.

Installation and Weatherproofing

The new unit is set, fastened, and flashed with the kit made for it: underlayment at the sill, step flashing up both sides, head flashing and counterflashing at the top. Roofing material is woven back in over the flashing so water runs across it instead of into it. We water-test the unit before the crew leaves and walk the interior finish with you.

Permit requirements vary by municipality. We confirm what your township or borough asks for before the crew is scheduled.

Replacing Skylights During a Roof Replacement

A skylight older than the roof going over it should be replaced with the roof. The flashing that seals a skylight is woven into the roofing material around it, so a new roof over an old unit means either reusing flashing that has already run its life or opening the same area twice.

Doing both at once removes the second setup: one crew, one delivery, one round of tear-off around the opening. If a roof replacement is already on your calendar and the skylight is 15+ years old, replacing it inside that project costs less than replacing it two years later through a new roof.

What Determines the Cost of Skylight Replacement

Skylight replacement cost is set on site, by the condition of the opening more than by the unit. These are the factors that move an estimate, ordered by how much they move it.

1. Condition of the deck sheathing and framing around the opening
2. Whether a new curb is built, and whether the mount type changes
3. Unit type and operation — fixed, manual venting, electric venting, tubular
4. Glazing package: Low-E, laminated, or impact-rated
5. Unit size, and whether the opening is reframed to take it
6. Roof material, pitch, height, and access for the crew
7. Interior finish — the light shaft, drywall, and paint below the unit
8. Number of units replaced on the same visit

Ranked against each other and nothing else: tubular units sit at the bottom, fixed units next, manual venting above them, electric venting with a rain sensor at the top. Glass-only replacement on a sound frame is the least expensive path of all. Reframing an opening to a larger size adds more than any glazing upgrade.

A written estimate from us separates the unit, the flashing kit and roofing material, labor, deck repair where the opening needs it, and interior finish. Deck repair is the line nobody can price from the ground, which is why the free on-site assessment comes first. Average figures published nationally rarely match a South Jersey estimate, because they assume an opening with no rot behind it.

Combining the replacement with a roof replacement, or replacing two or more units on one visit, spreads setup and tear-off across the whole job instead of across one opening. 0% financing for 24 months is available, which splits a project that turns up deck repair across two years.

Commercial Skylight Replacement

Commercial skylight replacement differs from residential work in mount type and in scheduling. Most commercial units are curb-mounted acrylic domes or glass units on low-slope roofs, and most buildings stay occupied while the work happens.

We replace domes and curb-mounted units on offices, retail buildings, and multi-unit residential buildings across South Jersey. On a low-slope roof the curb and the membrane termination carry the water, so the scope covers curb condition, membrane flashing at the curb, and counterflashing at the top edge — not the dome alone.

Work is staged around occupancy. Every opening is closed and watertight the same day it is opened, and the roof area is cleared before the crew leaves. Where a dome is intact and the leak is at the curb, the fix is a flashing repair rather than a replacement, and we say which one it is at the assessment.

Skylight Replacement in New Jersey

We replace skylights across Burlington, Camden, Mercer, and Ocean counties.

Most of the work sits in Camden and Burlington: Cherry Hill Township, Pennsauken Township, Mount Laurel Township, Moorestown Township, the boroughs of Haddonfield, Haddon Heights, Collingswood, Barrington, and Pine Hill, and Marlton in Evesham Township.

South Jersey roofs work skylight seals from both directions. A January day that runs above 40°F at noon and below freezing by midnight moves the seal edge twice in twelve hours, and those freeze-thaw cycles repeat from December into March. Ice dams at the eaves push meltwater back up under flashing that has lost its grip. Humid summers load the same seal from the other side.

Nor’easters and coastal storm systems drive rain sideways into head flashing instead of down across it, which is when a unit that only dripped in a summer thunderstorm starts running. Skylights near the Shore in Ocean County take salt air on top of that, and it shortens the life of aluminum cladding and fasteners.

Get a Free Skylight Replacement Estimate

An estimate starts with an on-site assessment: we read the model plate, check the deck around the opening, look at the ceiling below, and put the scope in writing before anything is ordered. The assessment is free and the estimate is written.

American Quality Remodeling has worked on South Jersey exteriors since 2005 and is licensed and insured in New Jersey. Our work carries a workmanship warranty separate from the manufacturer’s coverage on the unit itself.

Call (609) 595-4900, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.