An operable skylight that will not move is one of the most common calls we take, and most of the time the motor is fine. The unit has lost power, lost its pairing with the remote, or has been told to stay shut by its own rain sensor. Those three account for the large majority of them, and two of the three can be sorted out without anybody going on the roof.
Before you call anyone, check one thing. Stand under the skylight and press the open button on the remote. If you hear a faint click or a short buzz from the unit and nothing moves, it has power and the problem is mechanical. If there is no sound at all, it is power or pairing. That single detail changes what we bring with us.
There are three kinds of operable skylight in New York homes and they fail in completely different ways. A manual venting unit is opened with a crank handle or a long pole hooked into the sash. There is no electronics in it at all. If that one has gone stiff or will not latch, the problem is a gearbox, a hinge or paint, and no amount of battery changing will help.
A hardwired electric unit runs off house power through a control unit, usually sitting in a closet, an attic or above the ceiling near the skylight. It needs a live circuit to do anything.
A solar unit has a small photovoltaic panel on the outside of the frame, a rechargeable battery inside the sash and a motor driven off that battery. Nothing is wired to the house. These are the most common operable units we see going up in Brooklyn and Queens, because they need no electrician, and they are also the ones that generate most of these calls.
You can usually tell from inside. If there is a wall switch wired into the plaster, it is hardwired. If the only control is a handheld pad and there is a slim dark panel visible on the top edge of the frame when you look up at it, it is solar. If there is a crank or a pole hook, it is manual.
The battery inside a solar skylight is a consumable. It is charged by a panel the size of a paperback, it cycles every time the unit moves, and it wears out the way any rechargeable battery wears out. We replace far more of these than we replace motors.
The symptom is rarely a clean stop. It fades. The skylight gets slower, then it opens part way and stops, then it only works on bright afternoons, then it does nothing. People live with the slow phase for a year and only call when it dies completely, and by then they have usually decided the motor has burned out.
Before you assume the battery, look at what the panel is seeing. The panel has to get direct sun to keep up. A tree that has grown, a new parapet wall, scaffolding on the building next door, a layer of city soot, leaves or snow sitting on the frame, or a neighbor who has built up a storey will all starve it. We have been to units that were fine as soon as the panel was cleaned off. If you cannot see the top of the frame from a window, do not climb up to look. That is what the visit is for.
The battery is a replaceable part on most units of the last fifteen years or so, and replacing it is a far smaller job than replacing the skylight.
Solar and electric venting skylights have a rain sensor on the outside of the frame. When it gets wet it closes the skylight on its own, and while it is still wet it will refuse to open again no matter what you press. That is the single most common reason a skylight is reported as broken on the day after a storm.
If your skylight closed itself while you were out and now will not open, wait until the sensor has dried properly and try again. In humid New York weather that can take most of a day. A sensor that is dirty, or that has leaf litter or a nest sitting on it, stays wet much longer than it should and can hold the unit shut for days at a time.
There is also the opposite complaint, which is the skylight closing on a clear day. A sensor with a film of grime on it holds moisture, and dew in the morning is enough to trip it. If that is happening every morning, the sensor wants cleaning, not replacing.
This is worth understanding before you spend money. We have been called out to units that were working perfectly and had simply been rained on.
Modern skylight controls are two way radio, not line of sight infrared like a television remote. The control pad and the skylight hold a registration for each other, and that registration can be lost. The usual triggers are a long power cut on a hardwired system, a flat battery in the control pad left flat for weeks, the control unit being swapped, or a skylight battery that went completely dead and came back.
The giveaway is that the unit shows no sign of life at all. No click, no hum, no movement, on any button. If a second control exists, a wall switch or a second handheld, try that one. If the second control works, the problem is the first control. If neither works, it is pairing or power.
Start with fresh batteries in the control pad itself, because that is free and it fixes a fair number of them. Re registering the control to the skylight is a documented procedure, but the exact sequence depends on which generation of control system you have, and there are several in service in New York going back twenty years. Guessing the sequence off a video for the wrong generation is how people end up unregistering a unit that was only half broken. The product code on the data plate inside the frame is what tells us which procedure applies, so photograph that and send it in.
If you can hear the motor working and the sash moves a little and stops, or it judders, you are looking at something physical rather than electrical. The chain or the arm is being asked to push against something.
The ordinary causes are a blind or a pleated shade fitted inside the opening and fouling the sash, debris sitting in the drainage channel around the frame, a hinge that has seized, or sealant and roof coating applied over the top of the sash by somebody working on the roof. That last one is more common than it should be. A roofer recoats a flat roof, runs the coating up and over the edge of the skylight to be safe, and glues the moving part to the fixed part. It comes free, but it has to be cut properly and not levered.
An operable unit that has been painted shut or coated shut and then forced is how a working motor gets destroyed, so if it is fighting something, stop pressing the button.
A hardwired unit has a control unit and a transformer somewhere, and in a lot of New York apartments and brownstones nobody who lives there now knows where it was put. It is usually in the ceiling void near the skylight, in a hall closet, or in the attic.
The first thing to rule out is the circuit. A tripped breaker or a GFCI that popped in a hall is enough to kill it, and we have found the answer in a panel more than once. If the circuit is live and the control unit shows no indicator light, the transformer or the control unit has failed, and both are serviceable parts.
In a co-op or a condo, the skylight is very often over a common element even when it is inside your apartment, and the roof side of the work needs the board involved before anyone goes up. Our co-op and condo boards page sets out what the managing agent is going to ask for.
A battery, a rain sensor, a control pad, a wall switch, a transformer and a control unit are all parts, and all of them are worth replacing on a unit whose frame and glass are sound. These are repairs, not replacements, and that is almost always the right answer on a unit under fifteen years old that is not leaking.
The picture changes when the control generation has been discontinued and no longer talks to anything current, when the glass has already fogged, or when the frame or the flashing has gone. At that point you are spending real money on an assembly that is near the end anyway. A full unit replacement on a sound existing curb starts at $2,079 installed, which is the unit plus our standard replacement labor of $1,600, and a solar venting skylight starts at $1,909 for the unit with the rain sensor, shade and remote included.
What we will not do is sell you a new skylight because the battery in the old one is tired. If the fix is a part, we will tell you it is a part.
We come and look and there is no charge for looking. The person who comes is the person who tells you what it is, and we do not send a salesman out ahead of a tradesman.
We work out which system it is, read the data plate, test the control, check the panel and the sensor, and look at whether the sash is moving freely before anything else. Most of that is done from inside the room on a ladder. We only get on the roof when the answer is up there.
Being VELUX trained and approved matters here more than it does on a fixed unit, because the controls, the registration procedures and the spare parts are specific to the generation of the system and we have the current ones. If your unit is not a VELUX, say so when you call and we will tell you honestly whether we can get parts for it before we come. More on the other failure modes is on our skylight repair page, and if water is also coming in, start at skylight leak repair instead.
Most often the internal battery has reached the end of its life, or the solar panel on the frame has been shaded or covered and has not been charging it. The clue is whether it faded over months or stopped dead. A slow fade points at the battery or the panel. A sudden total silence with no click at all points at pairing. Either way the battery is a replaceable part and the motor is usually fine.
The rain sensor on the outside of the frame got wet and closed it, and it will keep refusing to open until that sensor dries out. In humid weather that can take most of a day. If it is happening on dry mornings too, the sensor has a film of grime holding dew on it and wants cleaning rather than replacing.
Put fresh batteries in the control pad first, because that fixes a reasonable number of them for nothing. If there is a second control in the house, try it. If the second one works the fault is in the first control. If neither does anything and the unit makes no sound at all, the control has lost its registration with the skylight, which is a procedure to put right rather than a new part.
On most units of the last fifteen years or so the battery is a serviceable part and swapping it is a small job compared with replacing the skylight. The product code on the data plate inside the frame tells us which battery it takes and whether it is still available. Photograph that plate from inside on a ladder and send it to us rather than going up on the roof.
It needs dealing with before the next heavy rain, but it is usually mechanical rather than electrical. A shade or blind fouling the sash, debris in the drainage channel round the frame, a seized hinge, or roof coating run over the edge of the sash by somebody working on the roof will all stop it seating. Do not keep pressing the button against it, because that is how a healthy motor gets wrecked.
If the glass is clear, the frame is sound and it is not leaking, repair it. Batteries, rain sensors, control pads, transformers and control units are all parts. Replacement makes sense when the glass has already fogged, the flashing or curb has gone, or the control generation is discontinued and cannot talk to anything current. A full unit replacement on a sound curb starts at $2,079 installed.
Often yes, but tell us the make when you call. We are VELUX trained and approved and we carry the current control parts and registration procedures for those, so a VELUX is usually sorted on the first visit. For other makes the question is whether the parts are still produced, and we would rather check that before we come out than after.