Technique for cutting skylight caulking?
geoffhazel
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
Situation: customer has a skylight, 2’x 4′, fixed, on a 2×4 curb. It’s been caulked to the wood, and screwed on the flanges. There’s about an inch of space from the wood/skylight joint to the glass. The skylight has a white plastic flange that’s the part that’s glued to the wood. The screws on the outside are easy, but the caulk is a head scratcher.
I need to remove the skylight without hurting it. I wonder what the best way to cut through that caulk is? It was squashed flat upon installation, there’s not much gap to try to pull a knife or some other cutting tool in. If it was all wood, I’d be thinking Sawzall but it ain’t.
Ideas? Please?
Replies
It sounds like a disposable unit to me anyway, so don't expect too much.
Most caulks are thermoplastic. You can use a heat gun and slide in a flexable putty knife
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Plastic flange and UV on a skylight.... Consider it history...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming....
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I didn't do a great job of describing the skylight. It's a metal frame, double layer glass skylight, with a plastic flange INSIDE the frame. It's worth saving, it just needs to be re-installed with more slope.
Is the plastic frame you are trying to save or having trouble getting the sky light off of the roof? The sky light self curbed?Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming.... WOW!!! What a Ride!
Still, the only skylights I have seen that meet that description and mount in sealant on a job made curb, are of lower quality and are far less likely to survive the work.. If it isn't leaking, and you only want a cosmetic change, I wouldn't touch it, myself.
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One of the gizmos you use to install windshields? Made to cut the sealant around the old windshield. Has a right-angle blade on a substantial handle and a second handle with a rope so you can really pull on it. Handle may be long enough to get down to the flange. Or, make something like that with a dowel and a blade.
what the piffmiester said.......heat gun will melt it nicely
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