Skylight Installation
	Mark Builds Skylight In New Bedroom 2010
	One of my favorite things in life is to watch the stars drift by as a fall asleep. My new bedroom is tiny, and I wanted to open it up and bring in the light, thus I began...
1. First I made the frame (called a curb, as in curb-mount skylight.) The skylight aluminum frame contains a rubber gasket which matches this frame and seals out water and sound.
2. I used strong ties to affix the frame to the roof.
3. The curb is ready. Tangent: This photo shows the line where I have refinished part of the cedar deck.
4. Next, I drew a rectangle on the ceiling to match the interior of the curb, as specified by the instructions. I measured these things three or four times each before picking up the saw!
5. An interesting trick which occurred to me while I was planning this was to build a vertical tunnel with tarp to catch the sawdust spraying out of the saw and drop it straight down on the floor...
6. This plan worked quite well. I placed another tarp on the floor to catch the falling debris. The tarp is affixed to the ceiling with push-pins leaving a wide margin for the saw to travel around the cut lines.
7. Portrait of the saw operator: Before...
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9. ...and after!
10. The next step is to drill small holes at each corner of the rectangular cut through the roof layer. Then draw the rooftop rectangle in preparation for the second cut.
11. The vertical tarp tunnel was especially helpful here, because the roof layer contains tar, rocks, fiberglass, and aluminum fiber, in addition to the sawdust from the redwood layer.
12. I then applied a smooth, level layer of wet patch roof cement about twice the thickness of the curb, to glue the frame to the roof and seal the connection.
13. I also used slices of of the cut-away piece of roofing to make reinforced sides around the curb.
14. To increase the seal, I sprayed a light coat of polyurethane on the frame top. Now the frame is ready to receive the glass fixture.
15. And there it is. After the cement dries, I will paint on a later of aluminum fiber to match the rest of the roof.
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17. Fortunately I had some of the knotty pine wood from the ceiling which i finished two years ago, and I used this to build the interior frame for the skylight.
18. Now I can watch the ravens in the locust tree during the day, and Alioth and Alkaid during the night!
19. Here now is a tour of my new little bedroom...
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25. A new rug which I like very much. Thanks for watching my skylight slide show!
	Thou Standest In The Rising Sun...