My process with the skylight is a story of impatience and frustration.
Initially, I was going to install two skylights. One over the sleeping loft and one over the main room. I ordered a Velux air venting 24”x38” skylight for the Main Room. As I was learning where to put the rough opening, the instruction stated that 12” clearance should be maintained from both the peak and bottom. It was impossible to maintain their clearance requirements so I opted to not install a skylight over the main area. I also research a bunch of tiny house skylights and noticed that almost none of them had the clearance requirements met. Maybe the 12” distance doesn’t really matter in most circumstances. I was able to sell it on craigslist for about 60% of the value I paid. Loss number one in the skylight adventures.
The loft skylight was a different story. After realizing that I didn’t meet the clearance requirements on the main room area, I knew I needed a smaller skylight. The other factor in deciding a size and manufacture was the egress opening code requirement for the RVIA certification that I’m trying to satisfy. The size of an RV egress window needs to be 17”x24” minimum and it needed to open the entire way with 20 pounds of force or less. The sliding windows in my loft just missed the requirement and would have same me a lot of time if they were just a little bit larger.
My corresponded with the 3rd party RVIA certification agency, PWA (Pacific West Associates), was poor during the time I was figuring out this skylight. They told me that they would source out a manufacture that met their needs but didn’t get back to me. I decided to buy another Velux window that was smaller than my first purchase but large enough to meet the egress size requirement. A few weeks later, my window arrive and I was excited to finally install it and finish my roof. When I took it out, I soon discovered that the air venting model that I purchased didn’t open fully and I wouldn’t be about to use it as an egress window. Again, I was able to sell it for about 60% if the paid value. Loss number two.
I finally got back in touch with PWA and they recommended the skylight company Fakro. I was able to find the perfect size egress skylight, 26”x30”. This was considered a special order and I needed to wait two months for it to arrive. I was finally able to install it in mid-December, about 5 months after the time I wished to install initially it. The directions that came with for the skylight and flashing resembled Ikea furniture instructions. I believe Fakro is a European company. The instructions had no words, only cartoon pictures that I found extremely hard to follow. Even the videos that they produced on Youtube didn’t have any words or dialog, only about 6 minutes of video footage with what some funky music over top of it. It took me an entire weekend to install the skylight, flash it, and complete the section of roof. Probably three hours of work became over 15. Then again, that’s that way construction has gone when doing something for the 1st time.
Despite all the hardships and loosing out about $800 on the wrong orders, I'm extremely happy with the results. The interior pops with all the day light the floods through the skylight. It's gone through about 3 big rains with no signs of leaking. Some say it's not that a window won't leak, it's only a matter of time of when it does. This will be well worth the the cost and time if many years go by being leak free.
Initially, I was going to install two skylights. One over the sleeping loft and one over the main room. I ordered a Velux air venting 24”x38” skylight for the Main Room. As I was learning where to put the rough opening, the instruction stated that 12” clearance should be maintained from both the peak and bottom. It was impossible to maintain their clearance requirements so I opted to not install a skylight over the main area. I also research a bunch of tiny house skylights and noticed that almost none of them had the clearance requirements met. Maybe the 12” distance doesn’t really matter in most circumstances. I was able to sell it on craigslist for about 60% of the value I paid. Loss number one in the skylight adventures.
The loft skylight was a different story. After realizing that I didn’t meet the clearance requirements on the main room area, I knew I needed a smaller skylight. The other factor in deciding a size and manufacture was the egress opening code requirement for the RVIA certification that I’m trying to satisfy. The size of an RV egress window needs to be 17”x24” minimum and it needed to open the entire way with 20 pounds of force or less. The sliding windows in my loft just missed the requirement and would have same me a lot of time if they were just a little bit larger.
My corresponded with the 3rd party RVIA certification agency, PWA (Pacific West Associates), was poor during the time I was figuring out this skylight. They told me that they would source out a manufacture that met their needs but didn’t get back to me. I decided to buy another Velux window that was smaller than my first purchase but large enough to meet the egress size requirement. A few weeks later, my window arrive and I was excited to finally install it and finish my roof. When I took it out, I soon discovered that the air venting model that I purchased didn’t open fully and I wouldn’t be about to use it as an egress window. Again, I was able to sell it for about 60% if the paid value. Loss number two.
I finally got back in touch with PWA and they recommended the skylight company Fakro. I was able to find the perfect size egress skylight, 26”x30”. This was considered a special order and I needed to wait two months for it to arrive. I was finally able to install it in mid-December, about 5 months after the time I wished to install initially it. The directions that came with for the skylight and flashing resembled Ikea furniture instructions. I believe Fakro is a European company. The instructions had no words, only cartoon pictures that I found extremely hard to follow. Even the videos that they produced on Youtube didn’t have any words or dialog, only about 6 minutes of video footage with what some funky music over top of it. It took me an entire weekend to install the skylight, flash it, and complete the section of roof. Probably three hours of work became over 15. Then again, that’s that way construction has gone when doing something for the 1st time.
Despite all the hardships and loosing out about $800 on the wrong orders, I'm extremely happy with the results. The interior pops with all the day light the floods through the skylight. It's gone through about 3 big rains with no signs of leaking. Some say it's not that a window won't leak, it's only a matter of time of when it does. This will be well worth the the cost and time if many years go by being leak free.