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they were never intended to be opened
I think you’re exactly right. When we moved in they were shut off with trim and translucent plastic, but it looked rubbish and I like light. Wouldn’t be the DIY thread without the conceit of tackling something futile!
@Hefty thankfully behind the ply is the loft, which we have access to and all seems sound behind the ply, in every weather through winter. The shit bottom edge is where my partner ran a roller over the flaking paint at the bottom because there was paint left over after painting an adjacent ceiling. I think just age/poorly originally painted is the cause for the flaking, most of it came off when I sanded back the (rough) filler patch job after pulling the trim off. Didn’t want to repaint properly staring down the barrel of ripping it all down anyway.
@Airhead I think probably bodge/close enough job for someone who wasn’t that invested. Previous owner was a bit senile and her son mostly handled her affairs from abroad, so I don’t think anyone would be looking at work too closely beyond ‘yep, that’s windows’
Thankfully there is loads of work including more decorating/plastering to do on this floor, so it’s a good time for exploratory work. I think I will have take the top couple of inches of ply off with an oscillating tool and see where I get. They’d be a great feature if they were functional so I’m not too averse to throwing ££ at them if necessary - it’s just in my nature to exhaust my DIY capabilities as first port of call. Presumably I’m looking at a grand or two per skylight (there are 4 sets of 2 in total) for replacements? I think if they are sound I’d rather pay someone to rebox them nicely if that is feasible but proves beyond me.
kkg337-
The plastic sheeting that you removed was probably to help keep some heat in. It doesn't look like there's any insulation between the two frames, so that's probably just a flashing strip between inside and out. Ply sheeting isn't located in the provided grove in the frame, so that's probably draughty....
With the large sections of frame down the middle of the available opening, you would get more glazed area from a single skylight, even if you downsize it a bit to get a tidy installation.
New velux windows are 24mm overall thickness double glazed units. Yours may be the older 16mm versions, but I don't know what year the change over was.
Obviously you'd need the window £600-800.
Flashing kit £100-150.
If the old ones are in working order, sell them on
user69121
There's some dumb reason why they were boxed in like that, i.e. if you try to open them properly, you find you can't, because something even more silly was done at some point, or they were never intended to be opened it just so happened that the builder loved Velux