What’s the point of having skylights if it’s too dark to ride?
The corrugated fiberglass panels installed over this equestrian arena in Larkspur were letting in little to no light to the point of needing to use electric interior lights in the middle of the day. What’s the point of having skylights if you’re not getting any light from them? An upgrade from the outdated & darkened panels was needed to make things right.
Twenty-Eight (28) failed fiberglass skylights. 
Old, yellowed and stained fiberglass panels.
“It’s amazing how crazy the horses get with random spots of bright sunlight in the arena”.
Our Customer
More natural light desired without creating any shadows or sun spots.
There are many different ways we can bring additional light into a large area like this, but a few specific requirements for the building needed accommodation.
The length of the existing panels weren’t amended before they were installed, so they overlapped and the old panels so darkly stained over time, created an almost solid black shadow on the ground beneath them.
As the customer put it, “It’s amazing how crazy the horses get with random spots of bright sunlight in the arena”. So, we needed to bring in more natural light without creating any shadows, shapes or sun spots that might spook the horses.
With parameters of a budget in place and concerns for the horses in mind, we decided that leaving the existing framing & replacing the existing panels with a more transparent glazing was the most cost effective solution to the problem.
Removing old fiberglass. 
Securing new panels to the roofing. 
White-Opal colored panels.
Polycarbonate panels were the perfect solution and offered a range of light transmittance.
Replacing corrugated panels require matching the existing profile to allow for a seamless installation of the new material to avoid any alteration of the framing or roofing. Considering our short list of criteria, polycarbonate panels were the perfect solution and offered a range of light transmittance to choose from, with White Opal eventually being the choice:
- Clear – 90%
- Soft White – 85%
- White Opal – 45%
- Solar Gray – 35%
Once the project started, the old panels were removed and taken to the ground so that our technicians could measure and match the old mounting points to the new. The polycarbonate sheets are ordered to size and once the product arrived we were complete with twenty-eight (28) bays in just three days.
Certain glazing, like polycarbonate, don’t have any insulative qualities, so residential use should be limited to unheated areas such as barns, sheds, greenhouses, garages, patio covers and so on, but this was the perfect application. The new skylights were customer and horse approved. We’re already discussing new projects on the property!
New polycarbonate skylights in place. 
Cleaning our work area. 
Finished skylights. 
Note dark corner where panels have not yet been replaced.
Product used:
Large horse arena that has 28 SL openings but we will need 56 SunSky White Opal panels 12 foot length.
