Skylight in a bath is a great idea. Just keep in mind that there will be condensation on the glass. The sides of our skylight were finished in wood which began to show some moisture damage after a while.

We had one in our master shower when we moved in, and while I can't say for sure how old it was (I'd guess 20 years?), it looked pretty good and was a very pleasant way to get light into the space.

We've got two skylights in our bath now; we're keeping one (over the vanity) and closing one up and moving it to the bedroom, probably (the one that was over the shower). In talking to skylight salesfolk/roofers, I was uniformly told that skylights directly over showers are invitations to mold and mildew growth, since the steam goes straight up, lands on whatever is the edging for the skylight, and soaks in. That was our experience. It's nice to look up at the sky while showering but not that nice.

No prollem!! :-)

Hey Bill, thanks for the pics, that looks very cool. That's pretty much the exact same application as ours, but what I notice is that the tile goes up into the skylight well, which we hadn't really planned. Our spec calls for "tile to the ceiling" which I'm guessing doesn't include the well.

The skylight itself will be a velux, aluminum, so I'm not worried about the skylight itself, but I do have big mold/mildew concerns so I made sure it's vented (plus we have a fan next to it).

So am I getting the message that the tile in the well is a major requirement?

Nope-- just the way it was done on this one.

I would think the tile in the well would be a darned good idea, because it'll help with the mould situation, not to mention looking nice. Bill, that's a nice tile job but somebody needs to get that label off the skylight glass ;-)

For us the problem wasn't the well, but specifically the surface perpendicular to the well and parallel to the window/roof plane. Water collected up there and soaked in. We're going to finish that differently in the one we're getting replaced that's over the vanity, but even so, directly above a shower, the steam would tend to go directly up rather than over into a fan. At least there would be *some* steam going up there, so it's something to consider and plan for down the road.

Well, we've jumped in now, both feet. We've approved the change order to pay for the skylight itself, and our GC is installing. I hope it's a good decision and we're not getting ourselves into a mess sometime down the road. I figured that since it's operable, and there's a fan next to it, we should get pretty good ventilation and dry out the space. Anyway, that's my theory!

Thanks for all the help on this.

It will be fine, at least for many years, caligirl :) And who knows, the dope who did all the bad remodels in this house may have been the one who installed this one, and maybe that's why it had the results it did.

A question: are you getting a manually operable or an electrically operable one? I ask because I made what I now realize is a mistake by getting just the manually operable ones before learning on the HD forum that there is such a thing as a moisture-sensitive activator (I'm not using the right words) that will close the skylight automatically if it starts to rain. I'm kind of quaking in my boots right now because one of the skylights I'm asking to go in my DD's bedroom, a girl who can barely be bothered to turn her bedside light off before she goes to sleep at night, much less be responsible about closing a skylight when she's leaving a room in case it might rain...

Thanks flyleft. Speaking of dope, the reason I'm getting this installed at just the cost of the skylight itself is because my dope GC installed the skylight we had on the plans (that is over the vanity) as a fixed skylight even though we talked about the fact that operable is the only way to go in a bathroom. Anyway, the compromise was that he'd put in a SECOND skylight and put it over the shower, moving some plumbing and stuff to make it happen, and I'd pay for the skylight. If I went with an electrically operable one I'd have to pay to add the wiring and I just wasn't willing to go that far, we're so broke as it is. I agree though, those are the best which is why we've done one of those over the stairway. LIke you said, it's cool because when it rains it will shut automatically. I'm figuring the one in the shower will never be more than a few inches open, and if it rains, well, it's going into the shower!

Thanks again.