Apparent water ingress in storm via roof light.

[Spawn_e_git]

Hi.

Looks like I have a small amount of water ingress after the two heavy storms this week.

I suspected the light leaking a couple of years back and removed and re-sealed the unit. When I removed the unit the seal didn't look in any way compromised. Since then I have not seen any water in the light or in the rubber joining strip along the roof lining

I noticed back then and now water in the ceiling light shown below and around the vent strips nearest the light.



This week we have to monsterous storms and today I see water in the light (about an egg cup full) and there is water around the front vent strips.

I went on the roof to check the seal and it all looks ok. The additional sealant that oozed out when I sealed it has got a bit mucky but in general it looks OK.

I then noticed the small plastic pieces in the roof light and I remembered that I was not sure what they are for. There is one on each of the ides and another two on each of the ends.

The end ones seem to have some of the plastic moulding behind them as below.



The ones on the side do not go all the way down and it appears that if the water builds up on the roof to a height of only a couple of mm, the water will be able to breach the lip and get into the inner section of the roof light.




The picture below shows how the plastic bits slide in. There are a different colour to the main roof light frame and don't look cut straight so it feels like something is missing and these are a "bodge"...




I've put a load of silicone underneath them to seal it for now but what I really want to know if why the hell is there such an obvious inlet point if the roof gets a high water level in a storm and should something else be in there slots?

Any ideas?

 

[hilldweller]

Any ideas?

I seem to remember with ours that if water was deep enough there was a path to the inside. They never allowed for an inch of water. But it was a while ago so I may be wrong.

 

[Camperdoodle]

I think you'll find they are water drains. The plastic bits slide out to make it easier to clean and get any debris out. Because there isn't usually a seal between the Perspex and the roof, so when you are driving in heavy rain water can pushed up the outermost wall of the roof light then drop into the gully and then run out through those drain holes. Water shouldn't be able to get from the gully in into the van unless their is a crack in the plastic or the drains are blocked!

 

[The Nomad]

Over the past ten years or so we have had a couple of occasions of Heki rooflight slight leak, and ordinary 400x400 white plastic openable rooflight slight leak too.........but only in utterly torrential downpour storm conditions, coupled with very strong winds.

I think what actually caused these very slight leaks was the absolutely torrential amounts of rain landing so heavily that spray bounced up again, and the wind forced a bit of that spray/moisture actually up and through the very thin space between cover and outer wall of rooflight. Over several hours that amount of spray was enough to form droplets on the inside of the rooflight and then dribble down/drop out of it.