Our House—Putting a Window in the Ceiling

In the last post I told about our adding a pantry onto the house.  Once we had it done it became obvious that moving the window 6’ farther out left the bathroom quite dark, unless a light or lights were turned on.  My son, Darryl, had installed a couple of skylights in their mobile home and I decided that might be a good idea to bring more light into our bathroom.

The skylight we purchased was designed to be installed on a roof with a bit more slope than ours and one with shingles, not a metal roof.  So, we had to be a bit creative in our installation.  It is not installed according to the instructions included with the skylight.  Thankfully we do not have building permits and building codes to deal with here.

As the pictures below will show, I mounted the skylight onto a piece of plywood quite a bit larger than the hole that had to be put into the roof.  Aluminum flashing was put all the way around and attached to the metal with short sheet metal screws.  Everything was caulked and all the edges were covered with roofing tar.

I spent yesterday and today getting it all installed.  These last two days have been the first nice warm and sunny days we have had since I got the skylight.   As can be seen I still have to do some sanding on the drywall and moulding and do the final painting.


A view of the roof before I began to cut a hole in it.There is no turning back now—the hole is cut through the roof.      
The plywood with the skylight attached is screwed down on top of the metal roof. 

All of the flashing has been installed and everything has been caulked and tarred.

Now it is time to cut a hole in the ceiling of the bathroom. 
We have a hole and it was right below the hole in the roof! 
Drywall has been installed from the ceiling to the roof creating a well for the light to come down through.
Moulding has been put around the opening, screw holes have had drywall compound put onto them and cracks have been caulked.  Everything needs to dry and then be sanded and painted. 
Looking up through the well you can see limbs of the nearby tree.