Batley skylights and rooflights for hillside terraces and old attics

Keeping clear of the party wall

Where the roof meets a neighbour's wall, the slates stop at a lead or zinc flashing. That joint takes more weathering care than open slate, so we keep the new frame away from it and leave a run of whole slates between the two. On a narrow terrace slope that may place the rooflight towards the middle of the room below, which is usually where the daylight is wanted anyway.

Chimney stacks and breasts

A stack stands on the party wall, and its breast runs down through the bedrooms. The rafters bend round the stack, so the space beside it is awkward to frame. We look at where the breast sits upstairs, because a window placed beside the stack on the roof can land on the breast below instead of in the room.

Choosing between the street slope and the yard slope

The back slope is easier to work on, since it looks onto the yard where the front faces the street. The front slope carries the same slates and rafters but it is on show, and a row of matching windows looks tidier than a single one out of line with its neighbours. Where a room could be lit from either side, we talk through which reads better from the pavement.

Slates and the flashing kit

Slates overlap in courses, so a frame in a slate roof takes a flashing kit shaped for that overlap. We take the slates off round the opening one at a time, keep the sound ones and lay them back over the kit, which sends rain round the frame and onto the slope below. A slate that cracks on the way off is replaced with a matching one.

Reaching the roof on a sloping street

Where a street falls steeply, the yard behind a terrace can be small and uneven. That affects where a ladder or a working tower can stand, so we look at the ground at the back and the width of the passage before we settle how the roof is reached.

Lining the well inside

Between the rafters and the ceiling the opening is lined with insulation and plasterboard, and the plasterwork round the opening matches what the written quote promises. A well that widens a little towards the ceiling spreads the daylight further across the room than a straight shaft does.

Planning for a terraced house

For a house in Batley, planning questions go to Kirklees Council, and we notify Building Control too. A rooflight in the back slope of a terraced house is usually permitted development, and whether your house meets the conditions is covered by the fuller treatment of planning and Building Regulations for skylights.

From storeroom to bedroom

Fitting the rooflights is one job, and converting an attic into a bedroom is a larger one with its own floor, stair and fire precautions. Where an attic is being converted, the rooflights are planned around those requirements, and whoever designs the conversion tells us what the room needs from the glass.

Getting out in a fire

An escape window can only serve a storey within 4.5m of the ground, and an attic on a two-storey house has its floor above that height. The way out of a converted attic in a house of that height is a protected stair, with the detail set by Approved Document B. That is a point to settle before anyone sleeps up there.

Which way the sash moves

Centre-pivot windows rotate on pins halfway up the sash, so the lower edge moves out as the top moves in, and they suit a room where a wardrobe or bed stands below. A top-hung window is hinged high and pushes out from below, so a head can pass the opening without catching the sash. In a low attic the choice follows the spots where the bed and a person's head will be.

Keeping the room cool

Slates hold the afternoon sun, and a small attic under them warms up. A window that opens lets hot air leave from the top of the room, and a blind made for roof windows shades the glass. Between them they make the room usable on a warm night.

Light and the stair below

A window over a bed lights the attic itself, but the daylight does not stop there. If the attic door is glazed or left open, some of it reaches the landing underneath, which is the other room in a terrace that rarely sees the sky.

Replacing only the glazed unit

Where the frame is sound, the sealed unit can be changed and the frame kept. That suits a rooflight with flashing and a lining in good order, in an opening that has not shifted. The new unit is made to the measured size, and we take that size from the frame itself.

Replacing the whole rooflight

If the timber is soft, the flashing has lifted or the unit is single-glazed, a replacement fitted into the existing opening is the better route. A roof window takes the window figure under Part L, a U-value of 1.4 W/m²K or Window Energy Rating band B, and a flat rooflight takes 2.2 W/m²K. A modern unit wastes less warmth than old single glazing, so the attic gains as well as the glass.

Matching the old opening

Before ordering, we confirm whether the maker's quoted sizes are measured to the kerb's inner face or to its outer face, because the same number can mean two different openings. That check lets the new unit land in the old opening. A slightly larger unit is possible where the roofing round the opening can be cut back and dressed again to suit.

What the old unit tells us

A rooflight that fogged is often one that has also marked the lining below it. We look at the plaster around the opening for staining, and at the timber behind it for softness, because those show whether the trouble is the glass alone or the water path round it.

When the old unit comes out

On the day the old unit comes out, the kerb and flashing get checked, the new unit goes in and is weathered into the slates.