Commercial Skylight Repair
Commercial skylight leak repair, curb flashing reconstruction, and glazing replacement for Charlotte commercial buildings - office buildings, warehouse daylighting systems, and retail atriums across Mecklenburg County.
Commercial Roofers Charlotte
Commercial Skylight Repair
Commercial skylight leak repair, curb flashing reconstruction, and glazing replacement for Charlotte commercial buildings - office buildings, warehouse daylighting systems, and retail atriums across Mecklenburg County.
Commercial Skylight Repair work starts with a documented roof walk and ends with a scope owners can use.
A leaking skylight is almost never a glazing problem. It is a curb flashing problem - and a curb flashing problem that is fixed with caulk rather than a reconstructed flashing assembly will come back before the next Charlotte thunderstorm season ends.
Commercial skylights in Charlotte's building stock serve two distinct functions: daylighting in warehouse and distribution facilities where overhead glazing is the primary natural light source, and architectural daylighting in the office building atriums, retail lobbies, and mixed-use common areas that have become standard in the South End and Uptown Charlotte development wave. Each type has its own failure pattern and its own repair approach.
The warehouse daylighting systems - the continuous barrel skylights and individual unit skylights that run across the roof fields of the Steele Creek corridor and Westinghouse Boulevard distribution buildings - are typically polycarbonate or fiberglass glazing in factory-built curb frames. These systems are exposed to Charlotte's full UV load, hail frequency, and summer heat cycle. The glazing chalks and loses transmittance over 15 to 20 years; the curb seals dry out and crack; the frame-to-roof connection corrodes on metal deck buildings. Leaks in these systems are usually at the curb-to-membrane interface, not at the glazing panel joints.
The architectural skylight systems in Uptown Charlotte office buildings, the South End mixed-use towers, and the Ballantyne corporate campuses are structural aluminum or steel framing systems with thermal-break glazing. These systems are installed by specialty glazing contractors, but their roof interface - the curb flashing and the roofing membrane at the skylight perimeter - is a roofing scope. Leaks at these systems often appear inside the building at the ceiling plane around the skylight, and they are almost always at the curb flashing or the counter-flashing at the skylight frame, not at the glass or the gaskets.
Owners get a written scope that separates urgent water-control work from longer-term capital planning, so the roof decision is not made from guesswork.
The closeout package keeps the next decision clear with before photos, after photos, material notes, warranty coordination, and recommended maintenance timing.
For occupied buildings, staging, access, odor control, and tenant communication are part of the roof plan before crews arrive.
For portfolio owners, the goal is consistent documentation across properties, not a one-off opinion that cannot be compared later.
The first visit produces a practical roof record: current conditions, visible failure points, drainage notes, access concerns, and the repair or replacement path that fits the building.
How Commercial Skylight Leaks Actually Happen
Curb flashing failure - the primary source: The curb flashing - the roofing membrane that runs up the vertical face of the skylight curb and is lapped under the skylight frame - is the highest-stress roofing detail at any skylight location. It is subject to thermal cycling stress from both directions: the roof membrane below and the skylight frame above are two different materials with different thermal expansion rates, and they move independently. Over time, the flashing lap at the top of the curb either lifts from the frame or tears at the top termination. When it lifts, water tracks down the curb face behind the flashing and enters the building at the curb base. The entry point appears at the skylight frame, but the water path started at the top of the curb.
Counter-flashing failure at the skylight frame: Most commercial skylight installations include a counter-flashing - metal flashing that is mechanically attached to the skylight frame and laps down over the curb flashing - as the second line of defense. When the counter-flashing pulls away from the frame, corrodes at the fastener points, or develops a gap at the lap with the curb flashing, the two-line defense becomes a single-line defense. In Charlotte's summer thunderstorm season, a single-line-of-defense skylight detail eventually fails under the wind-driven rain load.
Glazing seal failure: True glazing seal failure - water entering through the glazing panel joints or through a failed gasket at the glass edge - is less common than curb and counter-flashing failure, but it happens on older polycarbonate systems where the panel seals have dried out. In Charlotte's high-UV and high-temperature summer environment, polycarbonate glazing seals have a useful life of 15 to 20 years. After that, the seals are brittle and provide minimal water resistance. Glazing seal failure presents as water that appears to come from the center of the skylight frame rather than the perimeter.
Impact damage from hail or debris: Charlotte's hail frequency and the occasional severe thunderstorm with debris impact can crack polycarbonate glazing or break tempered glass panels in architectural skylights. Cracked polycarbonate is a functional failure - it provides a direct water entry path and typically leaks in every subsequent rain event. We assess impact damage to determine whether repair in place is viable or whether glazing replacement is required.
Our Skylight Repair Scope
Full curb flashing reconstruction: When a curb flashing has failed, we do not patch it in place. We remove the existing curb flashing back to the surrounding field membrane, assess the curb substrate condition, install new curb flashing with appropriate movement accommodation at the top termination, and re-lap the field membrane. For TPO-flanked curbs, we heat-weld the curb flashing to the field membrane and fold the top termination under the counter-flashing with a reglet detail. For EPDM, we use compatible splice adhesive and double-coverage tape at the curb to field seam.
Counter-flashing replacement: We replace counter-flashings that have lost mechanical attachment or developed gaps at the lap. New counter-flashings are hemmed at the bottom to create a positive drip edge over the curb flashing, attached through the skylight frame at appropriate intervals with stainless fasteners and sealed with compatible joint sealer, and lapped a minimum of 4 inches over the top of the curb flashing. Where the skylight frame design does not accommodate a standard counter-flashing attachment, we develop a site-specific detail with the manufacturer's technical support.
Polycarbonate and fiberglass panel repair or replacement: For warehouse daylighting systems with cracked or heavily chalked polycarbonate panels, we assess whether individual panel replacement or full system replacement is more cost-effective over the next 5-year horizon. Individual panel replacement is cost-effective when the curb system is sound and the other panels are in acceptable condition. Full system replacement is the right call when the curb system is corroded, when more than 40 percent of panels are damaged or beyond useful transmittance life, or when the building is upgrading to a higher-performance daylighting system.
Temporary weatherization during repair sequencing: For large warehouse skylight systems that cannot be fully repaired in a single mobilization, we provide temporary weatherization on panels awaiting permanent repair - typically a temporary flashing patch or a polycarbonate cover panel that keeps the building dry while permanent repair is sequenced. This matters for the active distribution operations in the Steele Creek corridor, where a leaking skylight above a racking zone cannot simply be left unaddressed while the full repair scope is planned.
Skylight Assessment for Charlotte Building Owners
Pre-purchase assessment of skylight systems: Skylights are consistently underrepresented in general commercial property inspections. A general inspector notes their presence and visible condition; a roofing contractor inspects the curb flashing, the counter-flashing, the glazing condition, and the frame-to-roof attachment. For the large warehouse buildings in the Steele Creek and Westinghouse Boulevard corridors - where dozens of barrel skylights may be present - a systematic skylight condition assessment before purchase reveals the replacement liability that a general inspection misses.
Capital planning for warehouse daylighting systems: Warehouse daylighting systems in Charlotte's distribution building stock - typically 20 to 35 years old in the established logistics corridors - are approaching end of glazing life. Planning the replacement on a building-wide basis rather than panel-by-panel allows the owner to schedule around the building's distribution operations, coordinate with roofing membrane replacement if a recover or replacement is approaching, and evaluate whether upgrading to a higher-performance daylighting system (improved thermal performance, higher transmittance, improved impact resistance for hail) is justified on a lifecycle cost basis.
The skylight on my Charlotte commercial building has been recaulked twice and still leaks. What is the problem?
Almost certainly the curb flashing rather than the glazing seal. Caulk applied to the joint between the skylight frame and the roof surface addresses the exterior-facing gap but does not address the curb flashing failure behind the frame. Water gets behind the caulk at any imperfection, tracks down the curb face, and appears inside the building at the same location as before. A permanent repair requires removing the curb flashing assembly and rebuilding it - not adding another layer of caulk over the existing failure.
Does a leaking skylight in my Charlotte building require emergency response?
If the skylight is actively dripping onto building contents, electrical equipment, or occupied space, yes. We provide emergency weatherization - temporary flashing or panel cover - within 24 to 48 hours for buildings in the Charlotte metro. Permanent repair is then scheduled as the second phase. If the skylight is leaking but the water is contained in a catch drain or is reaching unoccupied space, we can schedule a repair inspection on the standard queue.
My Charlotte warehouse has 40 skylights. Do all of them need to be replaced at the same time?
Not necessarily, but the answer requires a systematic condition assessment. We inspect all 40, document condition by panel and curb, and produce a report that identifies which panels are functionally failed, which are approaching end of useful life within 2 to 3 years, and which have remaining useful life. That assessment drives a sequenced replacement plan rather than a single-event capital outlay. In the Steele Creek and Westinghouse Boulevard corridors, we have managed warehouse skylight replacement programs across large inventories on phased schedules tied to roof replacement timing.
Skylight leaking at your Charlotte commercial building?
Our project managers inspect the curb flashing, counter-flashing, and glazing condition, identify the actual entry point, and write a permanent repair scope - no more temporary caulk over a flashing failure that will leak again next season.
Request a Written Scope