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In my experience of home built skylights in damp, rainy environs is the waterproofing and flashing of opening. A full flashed curb ( metal flashing min 6 inches under roofing felt, all the way up curb) is crucial, with roofing paper and flashing lapped and glued with roofing adhesive. The wider the flashing lap on roofing side the better. Lay bottom first on top of roofing paper, then up sides like roofing,keeping in mind laps and seams are top over bottom, or downslope.finish with top curb lap over on sides, under paper on bottom.
The edging of your panel should have a flashing covering the edge of plastic/glass to curb interface, as no matter what you use to bond the panel to the curb, water will find a way in. Recommend roofing metal edging, 1x1 1/2 with drip edge. Put drip edge side along roof flashing. Put bead of butyl or silicone along curb flashing, thin bead along masked off vision panel, glue and screw thru with pan head screws,
Pre drill plastic and location mark flashing to avoid cracking of plastic panel. Easy way to mark is cut flashing, layout screw pattern, start screw with scrap wood backer to make small hole. Full drill thru OK . Continue with screw to finish flashing. Dry lay flashing on top of panel and using it as a drill guide, drill thru flashing and plastic using drill bit diameter of outside edge of screw thread. When done, glue and set flashing with screws.
This ( if my hands have told my brain what to write correctly) will hopefully create a rainproof porthole to observe the galaxies from the comfort of a warm bed, without sleeping with buckets to catch the drip of a leak. Good luck!
Community begins with Aloha
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Tink's directions are excellent, and if you do undertake the project, follow them closely, and your chances of success are good. At the same time, I would advise you to think a long time before deciding to go ahead. I constructed a sun room in Oklahoma on my house in a lean-to fashion, 12 feet out by 24 long. It was a success, as I had researched and, like you, had asked advice of people who were the experts. I used a polycarbonate honeycomb guaranteed for ten years of sun. Made my joints as I was instructed by the owner of a large glass company. It looked spectacular. It was a show piece. For awhile. Then my silicone sealant decided the polycarbonate expanded and contracted too much with temperature variations, admittedly much larger variations than in Puna (-7 to +114 possible). I was determined, and reconstructed the seams endlessly. I had the luxury of a concrete floor under the roof, so all was not a total ruin with leakage. Finally the polycarbonate, which was in the $1,800 range, gave out. I replaced it with corrugated lapped material like metal roofing, with no sealant. It worked. Sort'a. I used gasketed screws only at the high places for hold downs, remembering that wind lift is as real as wind loading. One edge flapped in the wind along one side of the house, so I devised an outrigger support from stainless steel rod.
So why am I telling you this? In all, I learned a great deal. I have enjoyed the sunshine. In 50 degree weather, I had 85 degrees in my room, could actually use part of the day's sun warming to heat the house. BUT. I would never recommend a person do the same as I did. I made drawings and blueprints of every detail of my room before I started, it was that well planned. But that project seemed almost to have a mind of its own. At the least opportune times it would decide to go sour. It was no one thing, it was a whole variety of them.
Make sure before you start on cutting into your roof that you have done your home work and know you want to take the risks and have minimized them. I was in on the skylight making for the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, we supplied the verticle gas ovens for softening the plexiglass before forming. They were double. Should hail crack the outer piece, the inner one was hopefully intact long enough to still turn water until it could be replaced.
I like your idea, we have THE spot on earth to view the heavens, just be careful in your planning, keep asking questions and question the answers. Good luck.
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Since we never get really cold here this is probably one of the best places to put in a skylight. That said I have developed the philosophy over the years that a roof should be a roof and nothing else. I read something by a roofer who said that when he saw dormers on a house he figured that the designer screwed up and had to compromise to get more head room in the attic. Want a second floor? OK, build it then put a roof over it. I can only imagine what the same guy would say about a window in the roof. I don't know how good the stars would look through plate glass and anything else such as polycarbonate would not look nearly as good or would deteriorate over time. Even keeping glass clean would be a chore I suspect that the novelty would wear off soon and then you would be left with all the negatives. I would try to keep any skylights up near the roof ridge to minimize the water load that you have to combat.
I remember reading about geodesic domes and all the problems with building them. One of the problems was that most of the windows would be essentially skylights and therefore much more expensive and prone to leaks. Apparently skylight = PITA.
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Waiting for the transparent aluminum myself...
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Computer. Hello computer? Ah a keyboard, how quaint.
Agree with the PITA statement - all the clear roofing options I've encountered this side really show the scuz, mold, and moss that is ubiquitous but often not apparent on a metal roof panel (until you get close up when cleaning gutters).
A roof with a view would be nice for those times / areas when it's plenty clear but too buggy to stargaze. If you tackle it, be interested to hear how it turns out.
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Instead use outside wall second story large picture window in an atrium area this gives some great night sky viewing. The bed setup in an outside wall corner made of picture windows. Or a half a hexagonal setup with three picture windows set at 60 degrees from
each other up on a second floor. An architect buddy in Seattle used a Frank Loyd Wright style cantilevered corner in his house to get the window corner as close as possible because of no longer needIng the corner structural support corner mullion. You will get prime big night sky viewing and not have the headaches and limitations of a roof solution.
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Love that you got the reference Ironyak!
