Decoration Skylights Interior

Skylights Kitchen

Skylights offer a number of benefits in that they can provide more lighting for your home, improve the ventilation, they look great if installed correctly, and they can help increase the value of the home. When choosing the right type of skylight, keep in mind that they should take up a minimum of 10% of the rooms total square footage. However, before you start cutting holes, you want to check with your local building code to ensure you choose the right type of skylight to coordinate with ventilation and natural light requirements.

Prior to starting the process of installing your new skylight, you want to have the actual skylight with you along with the instructions from the manufacturer. This will provide you with the rough dimensions and specific steps for installation. To get started, the opening will need to be located and marked. With a saber or drywall saw, you will start by cutting out a two-foot square test hole in the ceiling where you want the center of the skylight to go.

Next, look around the ceiling and roof framing to determine the best place for the opening location and consider plumbing and electrical installations. Now you want to position and then mark the opening, which will help minimize the amount of framing and joists needing to be cut. Using the saw, you will cut the opening along the guideline. Remove the ceiling material and then install your temporary bracing. Then, you want to cut through the ceiling joists and framing according to the skylight opening.

Roof Window

To frame the opening, you will double the last uncut joist on either side of the ceiling opening and then install double headers going across the opening with the ends to the cut joists sitting perpendicular. Using lumber that is the same depth as the ceiling framing, you will nail the trimmer joists to the frame the same as the opening for the light shaft. With 12d nails, go through the metal framing ties to connect the joists securely. The next step involves locating and marking the roof opening. To do this, hang a plumb bob at the bottom edge of the roof rafters, going down to each corner of the opening in the ceiling. These corner locations will be transferred vertically to the rafters, taking these points to the underside of the roof, as a way of locating the rough opening that will be cut through the roof. Next, drive a pilot nail through the roof at each of the corners at your proposed opening. Keep in mind that you want the corners to fall within the skylight curb framing.