Install Your Own Skylight Window

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If you're wondering how to accomplish all this without destroying the interior finish of a cathedral ceiling, your fears are well founded.
If you're wondering how to accomplish all this without destroying the interior finish of a cathedral ceiling, your fears are well founded.
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Diagram: Roof mount with splayed well; well framing.
Diagram: Roof mount with splayed well; well framing.
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Diagram: Ceiling mount; roof installation.
Diagram: Ceiling mount; roof installation.

If the article in the last issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS didn’t convince you that a skylight window is a great choice for a low-cost remodeling project (see MOTHER NO. 103, pages 38 to 40, January/February 1987), perhaps this follow-up will. Why? Because we’ll show you how to save up to half the cost of the job by doing the installation yourself. (See the skylight diagrams in the image gallery.)

Install Your Own Skylight Window

If you’ve never tackled anything like this before, it’ll offer a mildly challenging, but very rewarding, learning experience. And even if you’ve done a fair amount of home carpentry, installing a skylight window will present an opportunity to hone your skills on a fresh technique. Either way, you’ll have something worthwhile to show for your effort.

Plan Not, Pain Later

Let’s assume you have a pretty good idea of where you want to put your skylight window and you’re ready to price the model you have in mind. Don’t run out the door and plunk your money down. Instead, climb into the attic with a tape measure and find out exactly what will fit in the area that’s captured your imagination. Naturally, if your installation is to be in a cathedral ceiling-one in which the roof and interior ceiling sandwich the structural rafters-your job will be somewhat easier because you won’t need to build a well to penetrate an attic space.

  • Published on Mar 1, 1987
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