Would you actually do what someone on the interweb told you to even if it contradicts what someone you are paying said? While it's true some skilled people might see your post,they are not able to appraise the situation without being there in person. This much I can tell you without seeing your skylight,skylights are notorious for condensing droplets of water and there's little you can do to stop it short of removing it or covering it from inside. Another piece of advice you can take to the bank,poor roofers can and will cause more problems than they fix. Hire someone with a great reputation and follow their advice.

Well that's part of the problem - finding someone you can trust. Most of the roofers I contacted didn't even return my phone call - it's very hard just to get someone to come out. Anyways, the one advised it, the other didn't mention anything. Hence reason for me starting this post to gain a better understanding if vapour barrier is typically necessary for skylight, or is it just precautionary. Not sure I understand why you see it as a problem for me to get gain additional information by posting this thread.

M Miller -When you say new skylight do you mean getting the window replaced? If yes, no that's not necessary as it's in good condition as far as I know. The house itself is 22 years old. The skylight window was replaced in 2012 (Velux) and the roof was also reshingled in 2012 (this is years before I bought the house). As I already mentioned, the problem is poor workmanship as the flashing were not installed properly - that much has already been determined. The only thing I'm trying to ascertain at this point is if vapour barrier/insulation is needed for the skylight if I do not have any other problem other than a leaking skylight (I don't know if condensation is a problem), and if yes, is $350 a reasonable price. If anyone can please help me out I would greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Here are pictures:

The brown dried drips

Th issue is you more than likely will not find a roofer who will come and repair an existing skylight and use existing roof shingles. You will expect some sort of warranty on the work and without doing forensics and possibly changing things out he cannot fix or even ascertain what or where the issue may be. Remember the guy who touches it last owns it and on old product that becomes the major sticking point.

Also I have never heard of the term vapor barrier used in conjuction with a skylight install and I have sold skylights for 30+ years.

@ millworkman - vapour barrier = insulation.

Ok, where does insulation come into play on a skylight install then?

Velux offers training to its installers. I wouldn’t trust a roofer around any skylight unless I had personally seen his work. Unless it’s a real screwup installation, a roofer wouldn’t be able to tell whether the flashing is bad on a Velux skylight without pulling off at least some of the shingles.
Velux has a 10 year warranty on its skylights AND their installation. (I think this was in effect in 2012, but it might have been later.) to find out for sure, get the serial number from the skylight: it’s on a little metal tag on the inside frame of the skylight and duplicated on the spacer between the panels of glass, and call the Velux 800 number. If you had roofers with skylight knowledge, they would know this.
Finally, any roofer who tells you they can redo the flashing on a Velux skylight and re-use the existing shingles is blowing smoke. For an extra $40, they can get a slab of new shingles, do the job properly and leave the remaining shingles, if any, in your garage.

If I had a guess, you’re getting a little condensation in the skylight chase, which is running down the chase and picking up any dirt on the way which is why the droplets are drying brown. A skylight leak will most often show up with wet drywall/bubbling paint in the corners closest to the outside of the house.

A lot incorrect assumption are being made. Unfortunately none that have answered my question.

Skylight shaft require insulation as well as vent fan in the shaft if you are really going to manage humidity in that confined space. Anything will condense if it is cold enough and there is enough dissolved moisture in the air. This skylight is no different.

If it doesn't leak when it rains, the flashing is fine. You need to manage the humidity at that assembly.

To answer your question, yes $350 is a reasonable price. In fact, go ahead and get a vapor barrier as well if it makes you feel better. I don’t understand why you want to spend it, because other than cosmetics, there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with the installation. A extra shingle could have been placed over the “ears” on either side, but that’s neither here nor there.

@Tony Stevens I realize you are trying to help but you're making a lot incorrect assumptions that don't even address my question. I don't want to get insulation. I was asking if it is necessary. I have mentioned this at least three times now.

Not sure how a leak can be considered cosmetic but whatever. It is both the contractors that said it's the installation causing the leak (which is evident in the pic) not me. Not sure why you trying to pick a fight when I'm simply asking questions and you're making assumptions on things that I've not said

Crushedpurple - I realize this is a stressful expense. But frankly you’ve provided most of the relevant information about your skylight in a piecemeal manner. I don’t think it’s fair to criticize the people for making assumptions when it’s not until after they made those assumptions that you provide the needed information and photos.

It doesn’t sound like you’ll be happy with any solution. When the droplets are explained, you say there are assumptions being made. The advice about Velux was very good, but you seemed to ignore it. If the recommendation is then yes, to go ahead with the $350 work, you say you don’t want to get the insulation done and the poster is picking a fight (It did not read that way to me). There is no good answer here for you evidently, so perhaps just decide for yourself whether you want to go ahead with the work or not.

I didn't realize I was providing the information piecemeal - that wasn't my intention so apologies for that. So let me start from the beginning.

The house is 22 years old. I bought the house in Jul 2016 - I'm the 5th owner. In 2012, one of the previous owners had the shingles redone - I have the receipt for that. Since owning the house I have seen brown droplets on the ceiling of the skylight opening and on the baseboard below the skylight. At first I didn't notice it, and then I ignored but when I realize that the problem wasn't going away and that there were drip stains in the skylight I inquired. I've never seen actually wet raindrops - it's always dried on the wall, ceilings and baseboard.

I was told by a friend that I should speak to a roofer so I contacted the roofer who did roof in Nov 2012. The first time he came he asked who did the roof, I said you guys - he said well it should be covered under warranty. Second time he came, before even going on the roof he said I already know what the problem is - it's the flashing and shingling. He went on the roof and took those exterior pictures and confirmed what he said - that it was poorly installed.

He said he would talk to his boss and see what they can do for me. Then the office manager got involved as soon as he left and started saying they didn't install the skylight - it's not their responsibility, not under warranty. I said the skylight was installed before the roof so they should have ensured it was water tight but they claimed the skylight was after they did the roof. He said "there's no way the skylight is 7 years old - it hasn't even weathered" - he was angry and rude, shouting at me. Let's call him contractor A.

I asked the previous owners (who I'm friends with), if they knew anything about the skylight - they said the didn't touch while they lived in the house. So I asked contract A for proof that he skylight was installed after the roof and he got mad - I ended up hanging up on him because he was shouting at me. I figured - I was out of luck so I got a referral from a friend who is contractor and made an appointment with him - let's call him contractor B.

A few days later contractor A emails asking if he can take a picture of the stamp on the window. I said sure and gave him some times when I was home - he shows up with some other guys and start showing me pics on the phone ...one day when I wasn't home, he trespassed onto my property without my permission or knowledge, and took pictures! He did apologize but how can you trust someone like that.

He then proceeded to say that stamp shows 2012 and claimed that the previous owner in question must've had the skylight installed after roof "because there's no way we did that" and was talking about the size of the shingles and the condition of the flashing, etc. He also said the warranty is with the previous owner, not me.

To me, it still didn't prove the skylight was installed after - why would the previous owner get a new skylight after getting the roof done a couple of weeks later, in the winter just before xmas?

Anyways, he offered to fix the problem for half price (half of $800 - $400). He wanted to do it right away - the next day (Saturday). I said let me think about it (I had contractor B coming over to give me a quote later that day).

Contractor B came and first looked at the interior and suggested insulating/vapour barrier. Then went outside (didn't not go on the roof - it's a very steep roof and it was raining that day) and said the flashing and shingling around the skylight needed to be fixed. He emailed me a quote $435 for the exterior work, $350 for the interior. I copied and pasted the work he detailed from the quote.

So then I came on here asking is the interior work needed. That's all the information I have. I don't understand the comment about me being happy. I thought I asked a very simple question - All I was trying to find out was insulation is necessary and I still don't know the answer to that.

I'm so confused and overwhelmed with all the conflicting information I have received - I don't know who to believe or what's what.

If anyone has read this long posts and can help me out - it would be appreciated.

Maybe I've misunderstood the responses on here - my apologies if I have. So my question then is - are the brown droplets a sign the skylight is leaking or is it cosmetic as @ Tony Stevens says (or I think he's saying)? Do I need to do anything about it? If yes, what is it? Why did both the contractors say it was the flashing? My biggest concern is if the flashing isn't installed properly and water is getting to the wooden frame of the house.

I'm going to call Velux tomorrow to get more information about the warranty on installation - I don't see how they can provide a warranty on installation unless they or an authorized dealer installed it . I have no idea who installed it or what month in 2012 it was installed.

Crushed purple: it’s a steep roof. It’s very hard for a skylight on that type on such a pitched roof to leak, but...there is an upper angle limit for that skylight. Check with Velux when you call.
Velux offer the warranty based on following the installation instructions. The company is confident the skylights won’t leak if installed according to the instructions. If the roofers screwed up and didn’t follow instructions which are in English, Spanish and French with great illustrations, then it’s on them. The instructions are also available online.
From what I can see, aside from a nail down low on each of the ears of the top flashing, the installation is not great, but it appears workable, but all the mechanism with keeping the skylight dry is below the shingles, so I guess we’ll just have to take the roofers at their word. If the roofers omitted step flashing on the sides, intertwining the shingles in with the step flashing, or something else just as incompetent, then you need to get that fixed.
Insulation around the tunnel or chase is easy to check if you have attic access, but I’m assuming that’s something no installer would forget to do in Canada. Just ask the Velux rep about vapor barrier when you talk with him.
If you can reach the bottom of the chase where the brown marks are located, just try wiping them off with a slightly damp rag. I think they might only be from condensation picking up dust inside the chase, but I might be mistaken. If the skylight is leaking, in most instances, particularly with a long chase like yours, the water will track down either or both of the two lower edge corners and pool at the bottom corners of the skylight chase and shows up as bubbling paint and/or soft, spongy drywall. From what I can see, this doesn’t appear to be happening, but you can easily check, or you could go one step further and check from inside your attic. There’s a chance if you have a pitched chase that any water leaking in at the skylight may track somewhere else along the rafters towards the outside wall. This isn’t very common, but have you noticed any wet ceiling drywall between the bottom of the skylight chase and the drywall on the outside wall?
In the end, you have to trust what the roofers are telling you. $350 seems a reasonable price, but I can’t understand why they’d want to reuse shingles. If they accidentally tear one, then what? It’s $40 for a slab of new shingles. Just ask them to add it to the price.