Once you’ve taken a skylight out of a ceiling, you will be left with a large, open hole – and that might leave you wondering what’s next. Let’s find out what to do with ceiling after removing skylights!
There are a few things that you can do with the ceiling once you have taken the skylights out. The simplest solution involves using a piece of wood to cover the hole up, but this doesn’t insulate the space well. Instead, you might want to install some drywall, turn it into a storage space, or add lights.
In this article, we’re going to explore all the different options and look at what you might want to do to fill in the gap. We’ll look at ideas for making a storage space, a simple cover-up solution, and more.
What Are The Options For Repairing The Hole After Removing A Skylight?
If you want to take out your skylights, you may already be aware that you are going to be left with a sizable hole afterward. Some homes are built with large areas dedicated to the skylights, while others simply have a little recess around them – but either way, you’ll need to fill this in and cover it up to make the removal job complete. Your options include:
- Patching over the hole with wood and then painting it to match your ceiling
- Adding drywall and then decorating it to match your ceiling
- Turning it into a storage space
- Adding recessed lights
Any of these options should work, so which you should choose depends on how handy you are at DIY, how much you want to utilize the space, and how big the space is. It’s worth understanding all the options before you decide how you want to proceed with this, because all space inside a home can be valuable.
How Do You Do A Simple Cover Up?
The simplest and quickest thing to do in most cases is to cover the hole with wood and then paint or decorate it to match the rest of the ceiling. You can do this by cutting a piece of wood to the right size, drilling holes into the corners of the wood and the surface that you wish to cover, and then screwing in some screws.
To conceal the patch, fill the screw holes with an appropriate filler, allow it to dry, and then paint the area to match your current ceiling color. This should hide most of the gap, although you may need some filler around the edges of the wood too.
Allow your paint to dry and then assess whether you are happy with your patch job. You may need two coats of paint to be successful.
How Do You Add Drywall?
It may be easier to get a contractor in to create this fix unless you are good at DIY, as you will want to ensure that the drywall is installed correctly. The advantage of this method is that it will improve the insulation in your room and make sure you aren’t losing a lot of heat where the skylight used to be.
Once the drywall is in place, you can then decorate it to match the rest of the ceiling and it will look like the skylight was never there. This can be a great way to tidy up the room and make it look better, especially if you disliked the appearance of the skylight.
How Do You Make A Storage Space?
Not all skylights will be suitable for turning into storage spaces, but in some cases, you may be able to do this. The first thing you will need to do is make sure that there is enough light in the space for the storage to be useful.
With this done, put some shelves up in the space, using strong screws and brackets so that there is no risk of the shelves falling on somebody’s head. This kind of storage space is only very useful if it is easy to reach, but in some situations, it’s worth utilizing if you can.
How Do You Add Recessed Lights?
Having a hidden cavity in your wall can be a blessing if you want to add lights with no visible cables. However, you should get an electrician in to do this job so that the space can be assessed for suitability first, and the lights can be installed correctly.
Do not try to install the lights yourself, as you need to know that they have been wired up correctly. If you can’t currently afford an electrician, consider some battery-powered fairy lights, but ensure that they do not get hot, or they may pose a fire risk. Most LED fairy lights will be suitable.
FAQs
Q: Should I remove my skylights?
A: Skylights can be problematic in a home because they have a tendency to cause heat loss, and if your skylight is leaking or failing to seal properly, you may have problems with both heat loss and moisture damage. In these cases, removing the skylight is sometimes preferable to replacing them.
Q: Can you drywall over a skylight?
A: If you don’t want to get the skylight removed immediately, you can drywall over it – but be aware that you then won’t be able to tell if it does begin to leak. It is therefore generally better to remove the skylight before you fill in the cavity with drywall.
Q: Can you close a skylight?
A: It depends on the skylight; some are fixed in place and some are designed to be opened and shut. If you are dealing with a skylight that is designed to be opened and shut, you may be able to close it.
Conclusion
Covering up the gap left when you have removed a skylight is usually a fairly simple process. To fill the hole properly, you should use drywall, but you can also just panel over the gap. However, this will usually result in heat loss because the panel will not be well insulated.
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