Quail Springs Mall Skylight Inspection

• Location: 2501 W Memorial Rd Oklahoma City, OK 73134

  

• Project Type: Consultation
• Project Status: Completed
• Products Used:

Mall Skylight Inspection and Consultation

Quail Springs Mall is a super regional shopping mall and trade area located in far northern Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It contains three major department store anchors, a 24-screen AMC Theatre, and a total of 130 tenants. The mall is the focal point of a large area of recent residential and commercial development.

An onsite skylight inspection was made Sept 9th 2009 by Skylight Specialists, Inc., represented by Rob Packard and Kevin Hodnett.

Skylights of concern on the site are the glass and acrylic dome skylights:

Clerestory glass located adjacent to the single sloped skylights was not inspected.

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1. (4) 10 year old, ridge insulated unit skylights; low E glass, dual glazed, white finish frames, 15’ x 400’ (total nominal length).
2. (52) 30 year old, acrylic domed skylights; tinted, single glazed, mill finish interior mounted frames, 7’ x 7’ nominal sizes.
3. (16) 30 year old acrylic domed skylights; tinted, single glazed, mill finish interior mounted frames, 7’ x 8’ nominal sizes; (2) clusters, each covers roughly 16’ x 27’ area and four of these skylights are trapezoid in shape.
4. (22) 10 year old, single sloped insulated unit skylights; low E glass, dual glazed, white finish frames, 7’ x 250’ (total nominal length of all units).

What our Skylight Inspection Found:

1.  Glass ridge skylights are in good shape with just a couple of issues:

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1. There is a building expansion joint that passes through the skylight. The maintenance department has not been able to resolve the water mitigation completely. Local roofing contractors have modified the design and repaired the same area repeatedly. It still leaks intermittently.
2. Snap caps are not sealed at the junction with the ridge cap. This allows them to slide down and exposes screws to the weather.

2.  Sloped acrylic unit skylights show no leakage problems through the skylights themselves. The skylights are nearly thirty years old and are single glazed. The tinting is inadequate and the skylights suffer from heat gain/loss.

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1. The roof is in bad shape and needs to be redesigned.

3.  Sloped acrylic unit skylights show no leakage problems through the skylights themselves. The skylights are nearly thirty years old and are single glazed. The tinting is inadequate and the skylights suffer from heat gain/loss.

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1. Acrylic Units have (2) of (12) cracked acrylic domes.
2. Bad flashing design by roofers. Lapped over instead of lapped under extruded frame.

The gutters between the skylights are manufactured out of extruded aluminum with all joints welded. These are all interior mounted skylights and are no longer manufactured. Installing new exterior mount skylights is challenging with limited room for fastening.

4.  Glass ridge skylights are in good shape with just a couple of issues:

This area is in good shape with new roofing and good quality glass skylights. One issue worth noting which could lead to future problems—all the caps are perpendicular to the slope and the installation crew has done a poor job of caulking.

Recommendations:

1. Repair expansion joint(s) as recommended above.

2. Re-roof the sloped acrylic units skylight sections with modified curbs and/or crickets to allow for water deflection.

2. , 3. Replace the acrylic skylights as budget allows due to cracked units and energy savings recovery.

4. Glass skylights do not demand any repairs at this time. A proper application of the correct caulking material would prevent future problems.