Should Your Retail Building Have a Skylight? What You Need to Know

Is your retail building dark and dingy? Do your customers look sad and leave quickly? It could be time to install commercial skylights.

Adding natural light from the roof of your retail premises opens up the space. Bright sunlight will help promote your products and encourage customers to stay longer in your store.

There are some things to consider before you install a skylight, though. Here’s everything you need to know about finding the best skylight options for your store.

How Could Your Retail Premises Benefit from Skylights?

Adding a large skylight to your retail building roof will introduce more natural light. This will improve the environment of your store, making it feel more spacious and airy. In turn, your customers will feel happier to spend more time in the building — which leads to increased sales figures.

Your staff will also be more efficient, as a lack of natural daylight negatively affects workers’ experience. Bringing sunlight into their workspace will improve moods and encourage productivity.

Skylights can also reduce energy consumption costs by reducing the need for electric lighting. There are, however, some things to consider before installing one to make sure you’re not facing bigger utility bills in the long-term!

Five Things to Consider Before Installing Commercial Skylights

Consider these five points before you decide whether a skylight is suitable for your retail premises.

Is Your Skylight Energy Efficient?

More natural light in your store is a great way to improve the mood of shoppers and bring a bright atmosphere to your retail building.

However, a skylight can increase energy consumption when not placed correctly or when the materials used are not efficient.

To make sure your skylight is as efficient as possible, check the energy efficiency rating of your chosen window and consider options such as tinted glass to reduce heat intake.

Where Is the Sun?

Make sure you know where the sun travels in relation to your retail premises during the day. This will help you to plan the best location for your skylight.

A roof light that is constantly in the path of the midday sun in a very warm climate adds extra heat to your space. You also want to make sure your skylight isn’t blocked by obstacles to make sure you’re getting as much light as possible.

Finally, consider how the additional sunlight will affect your products. You don’t want your gingerbread melting!

Do You Need to Ventilate Using Your Skylight?

A fixed skylight is ideal for very high ceilings in a building with other adequate climate control such as air conditioning.

But, if you need to be able to ventilate your property using the skylight, consider how it will be accessed to do so.

How Much Maintenance Will It Need?

When you hear “skylight,” you probably picture the classic flat window placed into a roof. However, these take a lot of maintenance as leaves and debris build up.

If you have limited roof access to your retail property or want to keep maintenance to a minimum, consider a domed skylight instead. Debris will fall away from it, resulting in less maintenance.

Is There Suitable Roof Drainage?

Skylights are a common area for roof leaks as seals and flashing deteriorate over time. This can be avoided by ensuring roof drainage is at an optimum.

Is the roof flat or slanted? A flat roof increases the chance of water pooling, which will, in turn, increase the risk of a leak.

Talk to an Expert

Installing commercial skylights takes a lot of planning – there are so many things to consider! Make sure your skylight plans will work with your commercial roof by talking to an expert about your individual needs.

Talk to us today to discover if your building would benefit from a skylight.