Hipped tile roofs, skylights and rooflights in Adwick le Street

Which slope

The front slope faces the street, and the rear slope faces the garden. Planning questions for Adwick le Street go to Doncaster Council. The old village around St Laurence's church is a conservation area, designated in 1992, and we check whether a house sits inside it before a unit is chosen. Rooflights on houses generally fall under permitted development, and the conditions are in the planning guide. A rear slope avoids the question of how the unit looks from the road.

Sizing against the rafters

The width of the frame follows the gap between two rafters. On a VELUX box, a code such as MK04 reads width first, as the letter, and then height, as the two digits. The unit is chosen to fit the room it lights and the roof above it, and the quote states both.

Why the hip matters

On a hipped roof the hip rafters run diagonally from the ridge to the corners, and they carry the loads of the short slopes. A frame set near a hip needs room on both sides, so the position is moved clear of it. Over a landing that sits near the end of the house, this can make the long rear slope the only sensible choice, and the landing is lit just as well from there.

Tile and flashing

Interlocking tiles overlap one another, so a flashing for them differs from one for a flat slate. The kit is chosen to match, and the tiles are lifted by hand, stacked and relaid around the frame. The ridge and hip tiles stay where they are.

Rear wings and valleys

Where a rear wing meets the main roof, a valley runs between the two slopes. A frame needs clean tiling on all four sides, so the position stays well clear of the valley. On a shallow wing the unit may be smaller, and a flat rooflight on the wing is sometimes the better way to light the kitchen below.

The landing inside

Through the void above the landing ceiling, the opening is lined with a splayed light well, and plaster goes on the reveal as quoted. A splayed well spreads the light into the stairwell and avoids a dark tunnel above the ceiling.

How the window should open over the stair

A centre-pivot unit turns around its midline, so a chair or a chest can stand under the glass on the landing. A top-hung unit pushes out from its upper edge, which keeps head height clear if you reach up to open it from the stair.

What brings the figure down

Extra panes, warm-edge spacers and an argon fill all lower the U-value, and low-emissivity coatings cut the heat passing through the glass. A thermally broken frame stops cold running through the metal. Heat loss drops as the U-value drops.

Taking out the old unit

The old frame is lifted from its kerb or upstand, and the surface it sat on is checked. A kerb in good order takes the new unit directly. A tired one is rebuilt first, since a new rooflight on a weak kerb leaks at the same corner as the old one.

Keeping the opening the same size

Where the aim is a straight swap, the new frame is chosen to match the opening, so the trimmers and the kerb stay as they are. Where a larger unit is wanted, the opening is widened between the rafters, and that is structural work for the roof. The written quote states which of the two applies to your room and gives the size.

Solar gain in summer

A kitchen below a south-facing rooflight can overheat. Solar-control glazing cuts the gain, and an opening unit lets the heat out. Both are choices for the new unit, made when the size is agreed.

On the roof around it

The felt or rubber around the kerb is tied into the new flashing. Where the covering is worn at the edge, it is cut back to sound material before the join is made.

Inside

The plaster goes back on the reveal as quoted, and the room is cleaned before we leave. The new rooflight is the same shape as the old one, or larger if the opening allows.

Opening the roof above the stairs

The roof window goes in the slope above the top of the stairs. The ceiling over the landing is opened, and a light well is lined and plastered. The hall then catches the daylight that falls down the stairwell.

How much light reaches down

Light falls down a stairwell in a cone, brightest at the top and fading towards the bottom. A tall stairwell with a pale wall and a light-coloured handrail carries it further than one with dark panelling. The hall gains most when its door stands open to the stair, so the position of the roof window is chosen over the part of the stairwell that is straightest.

If the hall has no stair above it

Some halls sit under the loft with no room over them, in a bungalow or at the back of a house. There, a sun tunnel runs straight down through the loft, and the case is the same as for a landing.

Glazed doors help

A glazed internal door between the hall and the living room lets the light travel on, which makes the rooflight go further.

What the stairwell reaches

A rooflight over the stairs brightens the stairwell and the rooms that open off it. A room with a closed door and no glass between it and the stair stays as it was.

The quote states the room the unit serves and the unit's size.