ᐅ Cleaning high, hard-to-reach roof windows / skylights in the gallery?

Hello,

our house has one and a half stories and a mezzanine above the dining area. We are planning to install two skylights there, mainly to let in natural light.

Now we have two questions, the more important one first:

The windows will be approximately 5.5 m (18 feet) above the floor. How can these be cleaned? Setting up a ladder is not possible due to the slope of the roof. What suggestions do you have, or how do you manage this?

Second, we have so far considered fixed glazing for the windows. Does anyone happen to have skylights in a mezzanine and can share whether there is a noticeable pleasant airflow in summer if they can be opened? Or is this effect negligible, so that one could save the additional cost?

Thank you very much

Our windows can be opened, and in summer we like to open them in the evenings and/or mornings to let the heat out. This is very pleasant. However, the air conditioning we have in the bedrooms is more effective.

So far, the windows have only been cleaned once, when repair work required scaffolding to be set up. Otherwise, it has been too much effort for us, since scaffolding is needed.

Some friends have fixed glazing with glass coated with a special lotus effect. It hardly gets dirty at all.

UnfähigerBeamt schrieb:

There, we imagined having 2 roof windows.

UnfähigerBeamt schrieb:

The windows are at a height of about 5.5 m (18 feet) above the ground.

Why are they placed at this height? When planning roof windows in the attic space of a typical single-family house with a gable roof, the roof windows are usually installed much lower. The attic space can’t be that large. This way, you can also reach them with a ladder.
What do you mean by “we imagined”? Has nothing been planned yet?
With a corridor window, you generally avoid regular cleaning – the exterior basically takes care of itself. However, in living areas, insects and dust on the glass can eventually become a nuisance.

I have skylight windows with an electric opener. After 1 to 2 years, we never operated them again. So, in my opinion, fixed glazing works quite well too. What roof pitch should the roof windows have?

@Siedler34 Lotus effect. Never heard of it, I’ll look into it.

@ypg Well, the open space extends over 1.5 floors. So the bottom of the roof window is already about 5m (16 feet) above you. The construction plan is quite advanced. But now we can still decide that we don’t need these two windows. Yes, exactly, the interior cleaning is the key issue.

@hanghaus2023 The pitch angle is 43 degrees.

Thank you all for your answers.

Hello,

we also have several hard-to-reach windows. For exterior cleaning, using a telescopic brush with an attached hose has proven effective for preliminary and frame cleaning. For the final cleaning, there is now suitable equipment available, as shown in the picture.

For roof windows, the inclination determines whether such a robot can be used.

Best regards