FAKRO  Columbia   Suntek   

Welcome to Metro Skylite‘s review of skylight brands. We make it our business to bring to our customer the very best skylights available on the world market today.

We have experimented with many types and brands of skylights over the last twenty years and the following are the skylights we think are worth mentioning.

Velux Skylights

Fakro Skylights

Fakro skylights are made in Poland and, in our opinion, are the best skylights available on the Canadian and US market today. The wooden frame of the skylight is thicker than a comparable skylight creating a wider bridge between the inside and outside of the home. This contributes to greater thermal efficiency in this area. Because of the thicker frame and adequate condensation channel running down the sides of the frame and along the bottom, condensation is a far lesser concern with this make of skylight.

Columbia Skylights

These skylights are made in British Columbia, Canada. They come in two different varieties, self flashing and curb mounted. We do not recommend the use of self flashing skylights because of the difficulty associated with providing a permanent waterproofing system around these units. The fact that they sit directly on the roof also makes them more likely to experience problems with ice dams in the winter months. Builders commonly use this type of skylight because of the low price and quick and easy installation procedure.

Columbia also has a curb mounted skylight, in both energy efficient glass and plastic domes. We do not recommend the use of plastic dome style skylights over heated areas because they are thermally inferior to glass skylights, they fade over time and the seal between the double layers of plastic usually fails in a short period of time.

Plastic is not as strong as tempered glass so we don't like to see these skylights in areas where falling ice or snow could be a safety concern. Hail storms can also damage plastic dome style skylights.

Columbia`s curb mounted glass skylight is a decent skylight. It has a warm PVC frame that is welded at the corners. The PVC frame also houses an adequate continuous condensation gutter. The exterior retaining bracket is made from extruded aluminium (repainted brown) and the exterior fasteners are stainless steel (no rusting).

There is no gasket attached to the skylight so we recommend that if you use this skylight you should install a closed cell foam weather strip prior to fastening it to the roof curb. This skylight is generally fastened from the interior so we also recommend stainless steel screws to avoid rust marks from interior humidity.

Suntek Skylights   (curb mounted glass only)

These skylights are made in Florida and are meant to withstand the hurricanes that visit that area. They have a warm PVC frame that is welded at the corners and a continuous condensation gutter. The lens glass can be a combination of tempered/tempered or tempered/laminated. Both have Low-E heat reflective coating and argon gas filling.