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A skylight leak on a Melbourne roof is usually a failed soaker or flashing, a tired kerb, or condensation that was never a leak. Roof Revival Melbourne repairs the roof interface. We do not publish an install guide, and we will not sell a new unit when the glass is sound and the metal is the problem.
A skylight leak on a Melbourne roof is usually a failed soaker or flashing, a tired kerb, or condensation that was never a leak. Roof Revival Melbourne repairs the roof interface. We do not publish an install guide, and we will not sell a new unit when the glass is sound and the metal is the problem.
The money page is skylight flashing repairs Melbourne. Most “leaking skylights” we open are the roof around the unit, not a dead pane. Flashing-only and a new unit are different quotes. We split them on the page so you can see which one you are buying.
Owners say “the skylight leaks” for three different events. The first is rain past the soaker or the apron, usually in wind, with a stain that grows on the reveal or the ceiling beside the light. The second is a poor flashing or a kerb that sits too low, so water washes over the uphill side or ponds in the back gutter and finds a screw. The third is condensation: cold glass, moist room air, droplets on the inside face on a winter morning, and dry sarking above. The first two are roof work. The third is often glass temperature and room moisture. Treating all three as “buy a new skylight” is how a sound unit gets thrown out and the drip stays.
Roof Revival Melbourne starts by asking when it wets. During or just after rain, especially a sideways Melbourne change: interface. On still cold mornings, with the ceiling dry an hour later and no tide mark in the plaster: condensation, until the roof space says otherwise. A water test on the flashing, when we need one, is a controlled check of the junction. It is not a hose tutorial for the owner, and it is not proof until we have looked at the metal.
On tile, a soaker is the metal that steps up the side of the unit, under the tiles, so water running down the side is carried back onto the tile below. If the soaker is short, torn, folded the wrong way, or missing because a later tile was dropped in over the top, wind-driven rain runs sideways into the opening. You often see the stain on one side of the light, not in the middle of the glass. The pane can be perfect.
A previous “seal” along the tile edge is a clue, not a fix. The bead cracks, the tile still moves, and the soaker underneath was never there. We strip that cover so we can see the step. We do not publish how to cut or weave a soaker. That is the repair, done on the roof, with the tiles dressed back afterwards. A soaker fault on an otherwise sound concrete or terracotta field in Glen Waverley or a newer tiled roof in the west is a flashing job. It does not become a re-roof because the light is the thing you notice from the kitchen.
The uphill side needs a back gutter — a tray that catches water coming down the pitch and sends it around the unit. If that tray is flat, undersized, full of granule and leaf cemented in place, or pierced by a fixing, water ponds and then overflows into the opening. That can look like “the skylight fills up” in a heavy cell and stay quiet in drizzle. The downhill apron has to land on the tile or sheet below, with enough cover that wind cannot drive rain back under the lip. A short apron passes a gentle shower and fails the first southerly.
The kerb is the upstand the unit sits on. Too low, and water that should go around the light washes over the frame. Rotten timber, a crushed metal upstand, or a retrofit unit sat on an old kerb that was never raised: the glass can be new and the leak is still the kerb. Tile-set and metal-set are different dresses. A tile soaker does not belong on a Colorbond lap, and a metal apron kit forced under tiles without soakers is a common second-owner leak. We name the roof type in the scope. We do not use one detail for both.
Sealant as the waterproofing is the same failure we refuse on chimneys. It cooks. It is not a soaker and it is not an apron. If the only thing keeping the unit dry is a bead, the unit is not dry. The flashing repairs page is the wider trade; this article is the skylight case of it.
Melbourne winters put cold glass in warm rooms. Bathrooms, laundries, and open-plan kitchens throw moisture at a skylight. Droplets form on the inside, run to the frame, and drip on the sill. Owners wipe it and call it a leak because water is water. The test that matters is correlation. Condensation shows up on cold clear nights and still mornings. It does not require rain. The sarking above stays dry. The stain, if there is one, is a tide on the inside reveal, not a brown track from the roof space.
A failed seal between two panes, or a unit that has lost its gas, can drip inside as well. That is a glazing fault. It is still not a soaker. Roof Revival Melbourne will say “this is condensation” or “this is the pane” when that is what we find, including when it means we are not the next invoice. Ventilation of the room, a different glass spec, or a replacement unit are different conversations from reflashing. We explain the split. We do not sell a roof repair to solve a cold pane.
There is a third lookalike: moist air in a tight roof space condensing on the underside of sarking and dripping near the light. That can wet the reveal in winter without a hole in the flashing. We look for it when the metal is sound and the drip ignores the rain. Calling that a skylight leak leads to a new unit in the same wet roof space.
We are not going to tell you how to frame an opening, what pitch a kit needs, or how to dress tiles back on a Saturday. A skylight is a hole in the waterproof plane. The hole is safe only when the flashing, the kerb and the covering agree. Publishing the steps would read like permission. It is not. If a unit was added years ago without a proper back gutter, the repair is to rebuild that interface, not to hand you a sequence.
New installs are a different booking from a leak call. If you want a light where there is no light, say that. If you have a drip, we inspect the one you have. Mixing “while you are up there, add two more” into a leak quote is how the waterproofing gets rushed. We will talk about it as its own scope.
Flashing rebuild, kerb check, and a straight call on the unit. If the glass is crazed, the frame is soft, or the brand is obsolete and parts are gone, replacement is the honest line — we fit it or we coordinate the brand you want, and the flashing is still done properly around the new unit. If the glass is sound, you should not be paying for glass. One skylight is not a whole-roof price. A second light is a second line. Two-storey access and tile type change the labour, not the diagnosis.
A wash is not this service. Leaves on the glass and grit in a tray can be noted. They do not replace a torn soaker, and Roof Revival Melbourne will not headline a flush as the skylight repair. If the rest of the roof is a separate restore conversation, we say that after the interface is understood, not before.
Send suburb, storeys, tile or metal, and two photos — the light from outside if you can see it safely from the ground, and the drip inside. Call 0426 516 883 or email info@roofrevivalmelbourne.com.au. We still get on the roof before the number is final.
Send suburb, storeys and two roof photos. Roof Revival Melbourne — 0426 516 883 · info@roofrevivalmelbourne.com.au
