Skylight leaking

Looks like we installed the skylight wrong. A piece of blue seal is suppose to over the self flashing. Do you think should take out and do again or just fill with roofing repair tar?

Roofing cement dries out and shrinks when exposed to UV and will only be a temporary fix. It will leak again if you don't pull it out and install it properly.

Ya i'm working with a roofer guy and he is really pissed off that i am making him redue it. He says the ice and water shield should be enough. But obviously it is not!

Proper flashing on a skylight consists of step flashing along each side under each course if shingles and a top and bottom "pan" flashing. Ice and water shield is not a proper material for exposed flashing.

Jungle said:

He says the ice and water shield should be enough.

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Have some of his money held in an escrow account in the case of him being wrong.

My more-or-less properly installed DIY skylights leaked twice since 1994. Both times I went crazy with caulking and it worked.

I left the lightwell off for six months to avoid having to redo the drywall while waiting for a wind-driven rain to find the first leak problem.

Well he fixed it, took him 4 hours for the 2 skylights and chimney. I think at some point he murmur it was the right way to do and how he had told me to put the blue skin on but i did not listen. Ah ha... But i we called 4 hours plus yesterday was 13 hours, it was a long day but we replace about 1/2 the roof. He's not a bad guy really. I think he likes cash money something about an ex-wife. You should see his property, on a lake in an Indian reserve and flood zone.

Proofs in the pudding. Get a hose and run water on and around the skylight and water test it before he's off the job and paid in full.

That is how i figured it out because the guy kept saying it couldn't leak. By going up by levels with the garden hose up the roof. Even a small bit of rain creates a trough around a skylight or chimney.

Tear it out and do it again. Roofing cement works long enough for the roofer to change his phone number. The flashing on the face has to be lapped over and the sides need to be step-flashed. Some skylights come with the flashing already cut in 1" pieces to make step flashing easier. Some people think ice and water shield will solve all problems but it does not. The only place you want roofing cement is for the piece of flashing on the top and still it should not be exposed because roofing cement is not good for long in the UV rays.

Yup got him to do it again. Cost me another 6 hours. It was his fault because he brags to me how many skylights he's installed (commercial.) I said lets read the instructions, he was just baa i know everything about skylight we can use blue skin but the water shield is just as good and cheaper. Then i tell him ', make the opening 46.5" like it says on the instructions, then he says no it has to be 48" That was the real reason it leaked. The worse part was listening to complain for 6 hours.

It's fixed now, i hope for good, with blue seal and the primer. Primer was important i think. No way it's leaking, except the idiot fired some roofing nails into the flashing it think. How else would you attach the shingles to the edge? He used a tube of tar on each skylight too. He loves that stuff.

It is self flashing skylight. I think that's what threw him off, he's never seen one before. Blue sealed right over it. Curb mount might have been better, not sure. If i'd know the guy was a metal flashing expert i would have got him to do that.

The other thing i've done is filled all the gaps and edges -thick with silicone from the inside. As well i've added foam board to the interior. It has stopped the tar voc's entering the house.