Help Your Clients Prevent a Skylight Leak With These Maintenance Tips

Installing a residential skylight is a common job that carries high warranty risks due to the potential for damage, neglect or simply ending up with a leaky skylight a few months later. If you'd like to get ahead of these potential headaches, ask your crew leads or office support staff to provide customers with a maintenance checklist.

Here are some common maintenance techniques to teach your clients, along with who should perform them, how to make your warranty calls go smoother and how to prepare for future work.

Empower clients to know when to call

When sharing maintenance tips, be clear which responsibilities lie with the homeowner and which events should generate a warranty or service call. For example, give homeowners the responsibility of inspecting roofs and skylights from the ground after an impact from a tree limb or hail, but encourage them to call you to repair a cracked frame.

On the contrary, you could also encourage clients to call you after all events, large or small, with the hope that these calls will strengthen the client-contractor relationship and result in more work down the line.

The most important reminder you can give your customers, however, is to be mindful of safety. Remind homeowners never to walk on a roof or skylight, and to call a contractor immediately if a broken skylight (including broken glass) endangers their home or the people living in it.

The eyeball test

The most basic maintenance tip that you can give your clients is to simply look up from time to time. If they see discoloration around the window, a crack in the glass or if the skylight is leaking, they should contact you. Remind your clients that most problems can be resolved with minimal expense if they are reported early.

Testing vented skylights

If a skylight is vented, it should be opened and tested occasionally. This applies to both hand-crank and automated units. Opening and closing a window is a simple test that takes little time but can quickly expose a potential issue: If the skylight operates slowly or with difficulty, it's an indication that it needs additional cleaning or repair. Some vented skylights also come with an air filter, which will need to be cleaned as directed by the manufacturer.

Inspecting the roof and cleaning skylights

An inspection is a task that many residential customers would rather skip or hire out. However, whether they're going to be on the roof themselves or not, be sure to provide cleaning instructions at installation, especially if the manufacturer requires specific cleaning products. Give your clients proper instructions in writing to avoid an uncomfortable conversation explaining why their damaged or discolored skylight isn't covered under the warranty.

The benefit of a reminder

Besides considering what skylight advice you're giving out, think about the way you're delivering these tips. A verbal rundown after installation is better than nothing, but a written record provides something you can refer back to and makes the maintenance easier for the client to remember. If that written reminder checklist has your company's logo and contact information on it, then you're more likely to be the one who gets the call for their next project.

Preventive maintenance can help your customers avoid an expensive and disruptive replacement in the future. No matter which approach you use, remember that the goal is to reduce your warranty calls while staying top of mind the next time clients need work completed.

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