Tubular Skylight Location Tip

Tubular skylights are a fast and easy way to bring natural lighting into the home and are fairly easy to install.

As a contractor, I have installed hundreds of these types of skylights, and as long as you follow some basic instructions, within a couple of hours the room below a tubular skylight will be illuminated by sunlight and never need electrical lighting on a clear day.

The comments I would get many times are from the customers are, ”Oh my, I can’t believe the spider webs I never saw before,” or, “I keep trying to flip off the light switch every time I walk into this room."

Finding the right place 

Finding the right location for the skylight can be tricky because your choice for the perfect location in the ceiling may not be the right place in the attic. There can be ductwork, rafters, plumbing and wires that may restrict the location you want to install your skylight. A trick I use is to poke a clothes hanger wire a few inches long carefully into the ceiling, like a bugs antenna carefully sensing anything in the way. If you feel something like a pipe, back off. Leave it there, then a trip up into the attic to find that wire and see if anything is in the way. Little damage to the ceiling is made and can be easily repaired if this turns out to be a bad location.

Doing this you can save yourself damage to the ceiling and or damage to any plumbing, ductwork or wires in the attic.

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