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Nearly everyone likes skylights. They let in light and warmth, provide a convenient place to hang indoor plants, and simply brighten up an entire room. Properly installed, roof skylights can add a touch of class to even a rather drab kitchen, bathroom or other room in your house. However, old and leaking, or incorrectly installed roof skylights are a never-ending nightmare that will have you swearing never to have another skylight in your house.

Skylights come in many shapes and sizes, and may be traditional glass or the lighter weight vinyl skylight with plastic glazing. They can be flat or domed, and you can combine multiple skylights for a lighting effect that will reduce your utility bill. Even if you have an attic, you can still have skylights in the form of tubular skylights, which use long metal tubes-also called “sun tunnels” to reflect the light down into your room.

When you purchase a skylight, it will usually come with everything needed to install it except the tools and the carpenter. The smaller skylights, especially the tubular skylights, look deceptively easy to install, but we do not recommend installing them yourself. You might pay a professional a few hundred dollars to do it right, but cutting a hole in your roof is not something for an amateur to do. If you accidentally cut in just slightly the wrong place, cut the hole the wrong size, seal the flashing incorrectly, or damage any of your roof tiles in the process, you will wish you had never thought about skylights. In addition, if a skylight leaks, you cannot only end up replacing your roof, but also the ceiling beneath it along with the insulation or anything else that the water was able to reach. Correctly installed, however, a skylight will be as stable and dependable as the rest of your roof, and you will enjoy the ambiance for many years.

The following tips will help you find the right skylight and the right contractor to put them in your home.

Consider the design and location of your home. If you are in a southern climate, you probably will not want skylights on the south side of the house unless you also install some sort of reflective blinds. Otherwise, you will have both light and heat, driving your air conditioning bill up during the summer. In colder climates with more moderate summers, the blinds are and option.

Ask the contractor for references. How many other skylights has he installed? Try to contact people who have used his services and look at their skylights. If you cannot arrange an opportunity to inspect installed skylights in other homes, at least get some reactions from other customers. Would they use that contractor again?

What warranty is offered? If there is any problem with the skylight once it has been installed, will the contractor return to fix it? For how long? What is the warranty on the skylight itself if it happens to be defective? (Although it can happen, a leaking skylight is seldom the result of defective material. Ninety percent of the time, a leaking skylight is the result of improper installation or of taking shortcuts in an attempt to save time and money.)

If you already have a skylight and just need to replace it-and there is no need to replace the roof itself-the task will be simpler and less expensive. If you are installing a new skylight, it will obviously cost more. However, save up the money and have it done correctly the first time. You will never regret erring on the side of caution.

By letting natural light stream in, skylights fill rooms with warmth and a feeling of spaciousness. By reducing the need for electric lighting and adding winter warmth, they help trim energy bills. Moreover, clear ones give you a window to the starry night sky.

A skylight is like a window in the roof, but its frame is designed and flashed to withstand the rigors of rainfall that a roof receives. As shown here, a skylight’s flashing works in concert with the roofing material to usher away rain and snow.

Newer skylights are virtually leak-free, thanks to rugged construction and easy-to-install, integral flashings. They are also equipped with channels that carry away condensation.

Though some frames are solid wood or aluminum, most new skylights are made of a combination of metal, vinyl and wood. The exterior frames tend to be aluminum cladding with a durable finish–the part you see inside is often made of solid wood, plywood or white vinyl.

Some skylights are glazed with acrylic or polycarbonate, others with glass. Plastic ones are lightweight, economical choices often put where a skylight could be easily broken. Because they are molded, they come only in standard sizes and shapes: flat rectangles, bubbles, domes, pyramids, ridge-shaped, dormer models, and so forth.

Many people prefer Glass because it does not scratch as readily as plastic does and because it is available in nearly limitless sizes and types. You can get single, double or triple glazing with energy-saving low-E glass or argon-gas-filled panes. For use where the sun may damage carpets and furniture with ultra-violet (UV) rays, you can get bronze-tinted or other UV-blocking glass.

Other options for eliminating or reducing the sun when it is not wanted include built-in blinds, horizontal curtains or shades and UV-blocking insect screens. Cross-section view of a glass skylight shows key parts and how the flashing provides continuous drainage down the roof. A skylight’s shaft governs how light is delivered to the room below. If all four sides are flared, light spreads over a wide area. A shaft with perpendicular sides focuses the light straight below. If the shaft is flared on only one or two sides, it sprays more light in the flared direction.

If you are interested in getting skylights in your home, the best place to look is on Repairfinders.com. On this site, many contractors in your area are willing to assist you with this. Remember not only does having a skylight help the environment, but it also save you money, gives you beautiful natural light, makes rooms look larger, and adds to the quality of your property.