Work out which of the three you have
Water appears only during driving rain, or on one side, and there are stains on the ceiling around the opening rather than on the glass: that is flashing. Water is entering where the skylight meets the roof, not through the unit.
The glass looks hazy or has a permanent milky film between the panes that you cannot wipe off either side: that is a failed insulated glass seal. The gas between the panes has gone and moisture has replaced it. It is not repairable — the sealed unit is what gets replaced.
Water beads on the inside face of the glass on cold mornings and nowhere else: that is very often condensation, not a leak, and the fix is ventilation and humidity rather than roofing.
Why flashing is the usual answer
A skylight is a hole in a roof, and what keeps it dry is a kit of formed metal that laces into the shingle courses in a specific order: an underlayment collar, a sill piece at the bottom, step pieces up each side interleaved with every shingle course, and a head piece at the top. Done properly it drains water around the unit. Done with sealant instead of metal, it works for a couple of years.
That is why the most common skylight repair is not a repair of the skylight at all. It is stripping the shingles back around it and re-flashing the opening correctly. The unit is often fine.
When repairing stops making sense
If the unit is older, if it is a non-vented model that has already had the seal fail, or if the roof around it is within a few years of replacement, re-flashing on its own is money you spend twice. Skylight and roof want doing together, because the flashing is part of the roof, not part of the window.
The reverse is also true and worth saying: if the roof is new and the flashing is the problem, that is a contained job and nobody should be selling you a roof for it.
Hail, wind and your insurance
A cracked pane after a storm is usually part of a storm claim rather than a maintenance item, and skylights are one of the things adjusters look at because they bruise and crack at lower impact energy than shingles. If a storm went through and a skylight cracked, the roof around it is worth inspecting at the same time.
On an approved claim your deductible is typically your only out-of-pocket cost. We are a roofing contractor, not a public adjuster: you file and own the claim, and we document what is there.
What we do, and what it costs to find out
The inspection is free, across Maryland and Northern Virginia, usually within twenty four hours, and you keep the photo report whether or not you hire us. We will tell you which of the three causes you have and whether it is a contained job or one that wants doing with the roof.
We do not publish a skylight repair price, because the number depends entirely on which cause it is, how the unit is set into the roof and what the deck looks like once the shingles come back. A figure quoted before anyone has been on the roof is a guess.
Get it looked at, free
We inspect across Maryland — Montgomery, Prince George's, Howard, Anne Arundel, Frederick, Carroll and Baltimore counties. Free inspection, photo report within 24 hours, and the report is yours to keep whether or not you hire us.