Roof Lantern Lower Corner Loose

[andymartin86]

Hi Everyone
I hope I have posted this in the right section as technically it is a roof but a UPVC window also.
I have an orangery with a UPVC roof lantern.
Today I was clearing the box gutter around the parapet wall and noticed the lower corner of the roof lantern could be lifted up, and you could physically reach into the inside if you tried.
This room has always felt draughty and I could never figure out why but this might explain it.
The glass does not appear sealed along the bottom edge, only to the vertical trim frame pieces (excuse my ignorance) the photo shows the worst offender but others can be lifted a small amount also. The photo is showing my hand lifting it outwards. I do have a video but not sure it will upload
Thanks

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

It's not very clear exctly what's loose/lifting, upload your video to youtube and you can insert that.

 

[andymartin86]

Thanks

 

[andymartin86]

Hi Guys
Any ideas? I’ve since realised you can slide the whole panel up and down by around an inch or so. What holds the panels in place? Are they bonded in?

 

[crank39]

The up and down movement is normal, you should have a 5 to 10mm gap all around the glass to the aluminium sections, because its a triangle it appears to have more up and down movement, your pushing it up till the top point in the glass is going right up into the corner of the hip rafter and the jack rafter, don't start ramming it up because you risk breaking the toughened glass as it hits/rubs against the aluminium under the white capping. The glass will not slide down because there will be some anti slip brackets hidden under the white capping, if you remove the end cap by either sliding it up and off or hinging it forward you will see the anti slip bracket if you get on your knees and look up the rafter, you could at this point peel the top rafter cap off by seeing how it clips down, its generally held down on male and female teeth, a soft rubber mallet usually is enough to knock the cap down enough to hold the glass down, yours may have popped up a tooth hence no downward compression

 

[crank39]

Take a photo of the end cap and I'll tell you the make of the roof, from the original photo its hard to tell, could be Ultraframe, Eurocell or A Wendland roof

 

[andymartin86]

Many thanks for your help.
One of the caps came off the other day by accident. It appears to be siliconed onto the end of the rafter. See pics. Says eurocell on the back

 

[crank39]

Eurocell, should be hinged. Anyhow, the rafter cap should thump down enough to hold the glass down, remove end cap and look up the end of the rafter to see if there's any teeth left to compress

 

[andymartin86]

Thanks for that
It looks like the lower hinge may have broken and the rest of it is still inside the rafter, judging by photos off google for a CRS8201.
It’s very difficult to look up the rafter as the whole roof unit is sat inside a parapet wall so getting a look up is impossible. I’ll try with my camera.

 

[andymartin86]

The actual glass panel whilst I agree there should be some clearance around its perimeter it seems like it isn’t clamped down due to being able to pull up on the glass at the bottom. How is it clamped? Is it the pressure of the rafter cap or is there something below this?
There appears to be a seal along the bottom edge of the glass and I can see water on this as I lift the panel. I’ve tried tapping the cap with a mallet and there has been no improvement.

 

[crank39]

The white rafter top cap pushes down to compress against the glass, if you can lift the glass then the top cap isn't holding the glass down, there is also a black neoprene double sided tape along the width of the glass which helps keep the glass held down but is more for draught sealing