@jkent9024 wow thank you! I don't want to do it and then not notice a difference. This is awesome news. If you have any pics I'd love to see!!!

Skylights in the living room itself will provide far more light than skylights in a north-facing patio overhang.

I think it might depend on how big the skylights are. You could build a planter against the windows and leave a space over it to let light in. I have very long overhangs on my home and this lets in an incredible amount of light.

@jkent9024 - I would love to see your photos too! My home (built in 2004 with 5 yr old metal roof) has deep front and back porches with 10’ ceilings. Our living and dining rooms are so dark and depressing to me; we need lights on all the time. DH won’t go for skylights over the internal house for fear of leaking, but I’m trying to convince him to agree to skylights on the rear (west) porch overhang(s).

@scout wow that's amazing! We we need the covered overhang we have plus it's all screened in with a pool so no planters so close to the house like that here with the heavy rain we get. I do love the light you have though, i'll see how big we can go with the skylights!

@RappArchitecture that's obvious.

@spagano I think you posted your comment on the wrong post.

We're still a few months from being finished, so I don't have any good photos yet. But this gives you an idea of placement. You can see the 2 skylights in the covered patio in the recessed section--that will be our living room (patio doors not installed yet). They don't seem very big, but did make a difference as soon as their holes were cut into the roof. Obviously, time of day makes a difference--this photo was taken late in the afternoon and the high gable from the eat in porch is already blocking the sun. Mid morning to early afternoon when the sun is more directly overhead, the patio is very bright.

@itsourcasa Have you considered Solatubes for house? Still need a hole in roof but much smaller one. The amount of light they bring in is incredible. My home is west facing but most windows are north & east facing. Add in one story, wide eves, tinted windows & it’s so dark that lights were needed to be on no matter time of day. Very depressing for me who loves natural light! We now have 5 Solatubes - they look like a glass dome on roof. We have one in kitchen, two in great room, one in windowless laundry, & one in windowless stairwell. None of ours are visible from the street view of front of our home. The one in windowless stairwell up to bonus room was installed where the ceiling light was & it has an LED light in it so does double duty. A larger one placed over the kitchen sink looks like a larger canned / pot light in kitchen & the actual pot lights have LED daylight color lights so even when the pot lights are on, the color of them is the same as light coming from Solatube. They have different types of glass covers so there are choices in how diffused the light is. These were a game changer in our enjoyment of our new home!

@spagano no not me, thanks it's an ongoing remodel.

@jkent9024 awesome thank you we want two spaced just like that and we have two fan/lights on either end. Our roofer uses maxim brand, do you know what you will have?

@KW PNW Z8 yes but actually am not a fan of solatubes so we aren't considering them.

@itsourcasa They are Velux, just the basic fixed skylights. We'll have one ceiling fan between them, with canned lights and in-ceiling speakers in the perimeter areas.

My understanding is there are rules about glass and storms in FLA so what does the builder say.Other than that IMO if not a huge expense well worth the money . Where I live I do all glass roofs for overhangs as large as yours.

@KW PNW Z8 I would love to see photos if you have time to share. I have a couple of interior rooms I would like to brighten up. Thanks!

@itsourcasa - apologies in advance for posting pics on your post since you’ve said you’re not interested in Solatubes but @Karen did ask so nicely! Karen, it’s a gray, low overhead & very wet showery day again here in PNW - another pineapple express that won’t move on. So, these pics were just taken in low outside light conditions - but, they should show that even in this dreary weather, my interior is brighter than it would be with lights off. Per our forecast I’d have to wait until next Tuesday for a sunny day to show you how really bright & cheery the natural light is.

Kitchen with pot lights off then on. The windows you see on right are north facing & there are east facing windows not shown also on right. We changed pot lights to LED daylight color to match natural light

Great Room 2 solatubes with diffuser covers & more ”formal” looking than kitchen fixture - also east facing windows.. At end of short hall on right is windowless laundry room

laundry room lights off then on. This is smaller tube & same size as the one in our stairwell to upstairs bonus room. That one also has a LED light in it for night use

@KW - Thank you:)

KW, thanks for sharing real world pictures of what solatubes look like in the room. Your pictures helped to confirm that it's not what I'm looking for, but I'm glad that you like it. The lighting seems to look more like having a bright light on in the room, without having to use a bulb. But it just doesn't seem to have the same dispersed lighting effect as a skylight.

@T T correct - they don’t bring in as much light as a skylight because 1) they’re much smaller & 2) they’re not a direct opening & view to the sky. On the flip side, since they’re not like a window in the ceiling, there are no issues with direct sunlight fading floors & whatever else the sun or strong light hits. The bubble on roof does need to have strong light hitting it since the light sent ”down the tube” is all reflected. Ours are new enough they have tubing that’s the higher, more reflective material than the originals. Before install, even on a bright day, I couldn’t work in my kitchen without turning on the cans at minimum. Now I can & it's nice to walk into kitchen early morning between dawn & sun up & not be in the dark! So, they're a great deal for someone who doesn't want skylights but wants more daylight. A compromise!

If you want the light in the living room, the skylights need to go over it, not the porch. You also need to get the skylights with the hardwired electric blinds for light control. Not after market battery operated blinds.

@Karen

Thought I’d show the difference in light for an earlier time in a slightly less gray day - not sunny but not actively raining - we had 1.64” yesterday!

Thank you for posting photos , @KW. My parents had a Solatube in two interior bathrooms, and they were great.

Modern, properly installed skylights do not leak. We had a Velux in our family room in our old house where we lived for 16 years and it never leaked. DH installed it to replace an old, plastic one. While we do not have quite the extremes of weather you get in FL, we were hit with Hurricane Sandy and get tropical storms with high winds and heavy rains at least once a year as we're 70 miles from the coast. In fact we're lucky if it's only once a year. :-) There are probably special codes for skylights in FL, so if you follow them and have a professional roofer, I don't know why you couldn't have a skylight. Do any of your neighbors have one?

Agree with above about skylights. A properly installed skylight will never leak. But it will ALWAYS make a dark room much brighter.