Leak repair and roof replacement on a ranch with skylights

The problem

The owner called about a stain on the ceiling beside a skylight. On the inspection in March 2025 we went inside first and then up on the roof. Inside, the water mark sat right at the edge of the skylight well. Outside, the flashing around the skylights had corroded, and the old gray shingles were worn thin and loose in spots.

A skylight leak is rarely the glass. It's almost always the flashing around the curb, where the shingles meet the frame. Once that metal rusts through, every rain finds the gap. On this roof the shingles were near the end anyway, so patching the flashing would have meant tearing into a roof that needed replacing within a few years.

What we did

We stripped the old shingles. With the roof open, the wood around the skylight openings showed the water staining you'd expect from a slow leak that had been going for a while. That's the part a ceiling patch never reaches. Underlayment went down over the deck before any shingles did.

The skylight units were replaced and flashed with metal step flashing, one piece per course of shingles, so water running down the slope gets kicked out onto the shingle below instead of in around the skylight curb. The pipe vents got boots, and the whole roof went back on in dark gray architectural shingles. The second day's photos walk every skylight and vent.

If you have a ceiling stain near a skylight, don't wait for it to spread. Book a free roof inspection or call (865) 830-8126.

Materials

• Architectural shingles in dark gray
• Underlayment over the roof deck
• Skylights reset with metal step flashing
• Pipe boots at the vents

Timeline

The inspection photos are from March 10, 2025. The crew photos run across two days, April 10 and April 11, 2025: tear-off and skylight work fill the first day's photos, and the finished shingles, flashing and final walk fill the second. That's two days on site for a full roof with several skylights.

The result

The roof reads as one even dark gray from the street, with the skylights and the chimney chase sitting cleanly in it. Each skylight has flashing you can see stepping up its sides, which is what keeps that ceiling dry. The job is complete and closed.

More on roof repair, skylight repair and roof replacement.

Crestone Roofing job in Colorado, photographed by our crew.