If your Aurora roof is due for replacement and your skylights are more than ten years old, plan on replacing them together. The flashing, the labor, the insurance scope, and the simple math of service life all point the same direction, and doing it in the other order costs real money.
Replace Skylights During the Re-Roof, Not After
A skylight is only as good as its flashing, and flashing is only as good as its tie-in to the underlayment around it. During a re-roof, the deck around each skylight is stripped bare, so a new unit's flashing kit gets woven directly into fresh underlayment and ice barrier, exactly the way the kits are designed to work. That is the whole game.
Swap the skylight two years after the roof instead, and the installer has to cut back your new shingles, disturb underlayment that was lying flat, and marry new flashing into a finished field. It can be done well. It is simply more labor, more risk, and a second round of staging and cleanup you already paid for once. Because so much of the work overlaps what the crew is already doing during roof replacement, the incremental cost of new skylights mid-project is commonly far below the standalone price of the same swap later.
Hail and Skylights: What Aurora Insurance Scopes Often Include
Skylights take hail differently depending on what they are made of. Older acrylic domes get brittle with UV exposure and crack outright in storms that barely mark the shingles. Modern glass units hold up far better; tempered and laminated glass takes serious impact, and some units are tested to impact standards comparable in spirit to the Class 4 rating used for shingles. That is one reason we suggest glass over acrylic on every re-roof.
When hail does hit, adjusters routinely include skylights in the scope: cracked domes, broken seals, dented cladding, and damaged flashing are all commonly covered line items on Aurora hail claims. After a swath like the June 1, 2026 storm, reported at up to 1.75 inch hail near Aurora, cracked domes were among the most frequent items we photographed. If a claim is in motion, make sure every skylight gets looked at before the scope is settled; the whole process is covered on our storm damage and insurance claims page.
The Skylight Age Math on a 30-Year Aurora Roof
Skylight seals and gaskets are commonly good for something like 20 years. Architectural shingle roofs are sold on 30-year expectations. Keep a 15-year-old skylight during a re-roof and you have scheduled a leak for the middle of your new roof's life, at the exact spot where fixing it means cutting into a roof you just paid for. That age math is the quiet argument that settles most skylight decisions: if the unit will not outlive the roof going on around it, replace it now, while the flashing integration rides on labor you are already buying.
Skylight Condensation vs Leak: Telling the Difference
Not every wet skylight is a leaking skylight, and the distinction changes the fix entirely.
- Condensation. Water beads on the inside of the glass on cold mornings, drips from the bottom edge, and gets worse with humidifiers, showers, or a kitchen below. The skylight is fine; the indoor humidity and airflow are not.
- Fogging between panes. A permanent haze inside the glass means the insulated seal has failed. It will not drip water, but the unit is done and should go with the next roof.
- A true leak. Staining or drips that follow rain and snowmelt, discolored drywall at the skylight's corners, or a stain wandering down the shaft point to flashing or curb failure, and that needs eyes on the roof.
A documented inspection sorts one from the other in a single visit, usually with attic-side photos that settle the question.
Curb Mount vs Deck Mount Skylights in Plain Terms
A curb mount skylight sits on a raised wooden box, and the unit caps it like a lid on a shoebox. It is the standard on older homes and shallower roofs, and a replacement unit can often reuse a sound existing curb. A deck mount skylight fastens directly to the roof deck and sits lower, so snow and water shed past it instead of around a box, with an engineered flashing kit that laps into the underlayment in layers. On steeper Aurora roofs, deck mount is usually the cleaner install, but the right answer follows the roof's pitch and the framing already in place, and a re-roof is the one time changing between the two styles is straightforward.
Planning a replacement and not sure whether the skylights should stay or go? Schedule a free documented inspection and we will photograph every unit, check the seals and flashing, and price the swap alongside the re-roof so you can see the overlap for yourself. What the visit covers is on our roof inspection page.
Skylight and Roof Replacement FAQs for Aurora
- Should I replace skylights when replacing my roof? Usually yes, if the units are roughly ten years old or more. New flashing kits integrate directly into fresh underlayment during the tear-off, and the labor overlaps work the crew is already doing, so the added cost is commonly far below a standalone swap later. A skylight that will not outlive the new roof is a scheduled mid-life leak.
- Does insurance cover hail-damaged skylights in Aurora? Often, yes. Cracked domes, broken seals, and damaged flashing are commonly included line items on hail claim scopes, since older acrylic domes crack in storms that barely mark shingles. Make sure the adjuster inspects every skylight before the scope is finalized, and document the damage with photos. Storm damage runs through insurance, not through any roof warranty.
- How can I tell if my skylight is leaking or just condensation? Condensation beads on the inside of the glass on cold mornings and worsens with indoor humidity; the unit itself is fine. Fog trapped between panes means a failed seal. True leaks follow rain and snowmelt and stain the drywall at the corners or down the shaft. An attic-side look with photos usually settles the question in one visit.
More Aurora Roofing Guides
- Solar Panels and Roof Replacement
- Hail Damage Below Your Deductible
- The Adjuster Inspection, Explained
We inspect, photograph and give it to you straight. (720) 729-9514 or book online.
