Skylight Installation by a San Antonio Roofing Contractor
A skylight is a hole in your roof. How it's flashed decides whether it stays dry.
Why a roofer should install your skylight
The glass almost never fails. The roof around it does.
Most people who need a skylight search for a roofing contractor, not a window company. That instinct is right. A skylight isn't a window. It's an opening cut through the one surface on your house built to shed water.
A window installer sets the unit and seals around it. A roofer builds the roof around the unit so water runs over it. That second approach is what keeps a skylight dry for decades.
In the field, the glass is rarely what fails. The flashing kit fails. Or the sealant on a site-built curb gives out. Or the shingles above the unit were laid in the wrong order. Flashing kits are made for one model and one roof pitch. You can't swap them between units. Step flashing and a tube of caulk aren't a substitute.
We install new skylights, replace old units in the same opening, and add tubular skylights. We work on commercial buildings too. Jose Puente, a civil engineer, founded Atrium Roofing here in San Antonio. Every skylight we set follows the same flashing rules as the rest of our roofs.
If your skylight is leaking right now, start with our skylight repair page. This page covers new and replacement units.
Skylight types that fit San Antonio homes
Four types cover almost every roof in town. The right one depends on your pitch, your attic, and what you want the light to do.
- Deck-mounted
- It sits low against the roof with a flashing kit built for that model. On enough pitch, it keeps water out better than any other type. It's the modern default on a shingle roof.
- Curb-mounted
- It sits on a raised wood curb above the deck. You'll see it on low-slope roofs and older homes. It's easier to fit into an existing opening. But it only works if the curb is square and flashed right. A badly built curb leaks for good.
- Tubular (sun tunnels)
- A small dome on the roof feeds a mirrored tube down to a ceiling lens. It lights hallways, closets, and inside bathrooms with no framing changes. It lets in far less heat and has far fewer leak paths than a full skylight.
- Acrylic domes
- These were standard on San Antonio homes built in the 1980s and 1990s. Sun breaks down acrylic. The domes yellow, then craze, then crack. Most from that era are at or past the end of their life, even if they aren't leaking yet. We replace them with glass units.
Heat, light, and a Texas summer
An old acrylic dome on a west- or south-facing slope can make a room hot all summer. A current unit is a different product. Laminated low-E glass blocks a large share of the sun's heat and still lets the light in. Some models add a factory blind.
The shaft matters too. Attics here can pass 160 degrees in summer. A shaft that runs through that heat without insulation turns into a heater for the room below. It also collects moisture. We insulate and air-seal every shaft we build.
San Antonio's energy code is the 2021 IECC. It limits how much heat skylight glass can let in, and replacement units have to meet it. The U.S. Department of Energy has a plain guide to choosing skylights for your climate if you'd like to read up first.
Replace your skylights when you replace your roof
If your roof is within about five years of its end, replace the skylight at the same time. It's close to a rule, not an upsell.
Here's why. A flashing kit is used up by its first install. It was never made to be lifted and set back down. So a new roof around an old skylight means reusing flashing that wasn't built for it. The other choice is a patched-together detail. Both leak sooner or later.
Doing both together means we open the roof once. You get one opening, one flashing detail, and one date on the whole assembly. See how we plan every opening on a roof replacement.
How we install a skylight
Good skylight installation takes six steps, in order. Skip one and the skylight becomes a leak.
- 1. Check the pitch against the maker's minimum.Every unit has a lowest roof slope it's rated for. Below it, water stands at the head of the unit and the warranty is void. We check before anything is ordered.
- 2. Use the factory flashing kit for that model.Kits match the unit, the roofing material, and the pitch. Generic step flashing and sealant don't count.
- 3. Wrap the opening in ice-and-water membrane.A self-sticking membrane lines the full edge of the deck opening. The backup layer goes in before the unit does.
- 4. Lay the shingles in the right order.Head flashing tucks under the rows above. Side flashing laps with each row up the slope. The apron sheds onto the rows below. Water runs over every joint, never into one.
- 5. Insulate and seal the shaft.An open shaft through a hot attic traps moisture, and homeowners read that as a leak. Insulation and an air seal at the ceiling stop it.
- 6. Keep the attic vents working.A shaft can block a rafter bay and cut off airflow from soffit to ridge. We check the path and add baffles where the shaft pinches it.
One rule sits behind all six. Sealant backs up flashing. It never replaces it. Caulk lasts a handful of Texas summers. Good flashing lasts as long as the roof.
What skylight installation costs in San Antonio
There are three tiers, roughly.
- Tubular skylight. This is the lowest cost. It's typically high hundreds to around two thousand dollars, based on tube length and roof access.
- Replacing a skylight in the same opening. This is mid-range. It's generally low-to-mid thousands per unit, including the factory flashing kit and shingle work.
- Cutting a new opening. This costs the most. It adds framing, a shaft, drywall, and paint. It commonly lands in the mid-to-upper thousands per unit.
Pitch, roof height, and the interior finish move the price of skylight installation in all three. Financing is available, with 0% APR up to 12 months and monthly payment options, subject to credit approval.
Skylights and hail
Glass skylights can perform well in hail, though no unit is hail-proof. Tempered and laminated units often outlast the shingles around them. VELUX backs the standard glass on its No Leak Skylights with a 10-year warranty against cracking or breaking from hail.
Acrylic domes are the weak spot. Old acrylic turns brittle and cracks at impacts a glass unit shrugs off. Converse took large hail on September 11, 2026. After a storm like that, check the skylights along with the rest of the roof. Our hail damage page explains how damage gets checked.
Skylight FAQs
Let's take a look at your skylights.
Call (210) 807-6767 or book a free inspection. We'll check the unit, the flashing, and the roof around it, and tell you what it needs.
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