The leak at the skylight is usually not the skylight

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Skylights earn their reputation as leakers in a place that rains half the year, but most of the time the unit is innocent. The metal flashing kit around the curb, the seals, and the shingles upslope of it are what actually fail. Seven months of water running at every joint finds the weak one eventually.

How do you tell what failed?

Water inside the light shaft or staining the drywall ring around it is the usual sign. A roofer reads it by where the water shows: flashing failure wets the downhill side first, a failed unit seal fogs or drips from the frame itself, and a cracked dome is obvious from the ladder. Condensation inside a double-pane unit means the seal is gone; that is a replacement, not a repair.

Repair or replace?

Flashing kits and seals are repairable on a sound unit. Fogged glass, cracked acrylic domes, and twenty-year-old units are not worth reflashing; the new unit goes in with new flashing and the problem ends. If a reroof is on the schedule anyway, skylight swaps belong in the same job, because every skylight gets reflashed when the field around it opens up.

What about moss around the curb?

Moss colonies love the uphill side of a skylight curb, where needles collect and the dam holds water against the flashing. Clearing it and keeping it clear is part of why Portland skylights last or do not. When a leak shows up at a skylight, the moss picture on the whole slope is worth asking about in the same call.

What does the roofer need from you?

Which room it drips into, whether the glass is fogged or just the frame weeps, and roughly how old the unit is if you know. Photos from inside help; nobody needs you on a ladder.