Skylights and rooflights for Victorian villas and mill flats in Bradford's older suburbs

Whose agreement the lease needs

A flat belongs to the building as well as to you. Read the lease, or ask the freeholder or the managing agent, about work to the roof and about any change to what the building looks like from outside. They will want to see what is proposed, so we write the quote for a named unit, a stated size and the room it lights.

Listed and protected buildings

Some of Bradford's mill buildings are listed, and parts of the city centre, including Little Germany, lie inside a conservation area. Listed status means a new rooflight needs its own consent first. In a protected setting the type most often asked for is a conservation rooflight, slim and black-framed; where the roof is listed, we explain how listed building consent works for a rooflight.

What suits a top-floor flat

• A sun tunnel for the inner hall or bathroom, where the tube can run up in a straight line to the roof.
• A roof window over a bedroom or a living space under a sloping ceiling, provided the structure allows an opening.
• A flat rooflight where the converted roof is flat or nearly so.

What lower floors cannot do

Lower down the building, other homes sit between your flat and the roof, and a rooflight needs a clear line to the sky from the room it lights. A tube cannot pass through another household's home, so the realistic answer there is usually no. We say so after looking at the building, before any work is priced.

Some mill buildings are framed in iron, steel or heavy timber behind the masonry, so an opening that suits a house roof may need a different frame. Where the structure is a steel or timber frame behind masonry, the way the roof is built dictates how an opening can be framed. That is checked on site, and the tower or access arrangements for a large building are agreed with the managing agent first.

Why a tall stair needs more than a small window

Light from above travels down a well, and the taller the house, the longer the well. A narrow opening in the roof loses much of the light on the way down. A wider frame, or a well splayed at the bottom, delivers more of it to the landing.

Roof window or lantern

Villa roofs are pitched or hipped, so a roof window over the stairs is the normal choice. Where the stair rises under a flat section of roof, which some villas have behind a parapet, a lantern or a flat rooflight can suit better. Either one is set in a well lined in plaster and painted white.

Steep pitches and chimney stacks

Villa roofs carry stacks, valleys and hips, and every one narrows the places a frame can sit, because it needs clear covering on all four sides. A hip over the landing may be too short for a large window, in which case a smaller unit or a tube is the better answer.

Working at height

A tall house means a long way up. The roof is reached from scaffold or a tower set up for the job, and the opening is only made once the weather cover is in place. We plan the access when we measure, so the chimney, the gutter and the neighbouring plots are all considered, and the person who lives there knows in advance where the equipment will stand.

Keeping the stair finished

The well is plastered and painted to the standard in the written quote, and the stair carpet and banister are covered before any cutting. In an older villa the plaster may be lime or lath, which is taken back carefully, because rough cutting cracks the ceiling around it.

A villa that has been split into flats changes this picture, because the stair serves several households. Anything that alters the shared stair is raised with the other owners before the opening is planned, and a roof window over a communal landing is one the whole building has to be happy with.

Why a lantern suits this room

A roof lantern is a glazed roof with pitched sides, and it stands on a flat one. It lets light in from four sides above the room, so the area by the old back wall is lit as well as the garden end. It is the unit most often used over a kitchen extension.

The kerb underneath

A lantern stands on a timber upstand built up from the roof deck. The covering is carried up the kerb's sides and slipped beneath the lantern's own flashing, whether it is felt, EPDM rubber or GRP. Each covering has its own detail, and the join between old and new is where leaks start if it is done badly. The kerb size is set by the opening, and the roof lantern sizes on offer decide how much upstand is built.

Whether a lantern needs an application

Permitted development lets a rooflight stand only 150mm proud of the roof, and a lantern usually rises well beyond that, which puts it outside that allowance in many cases. Ask Bradford Council, or look at the extension's own planning permission to see whether it takes the lantern in. Where the extension is recent, its drawings may show the lantern.

Choosing the frame material

A frame in aluminium is narrower in section for its strength, which helps over a wide opening, and uPVC is the cheaper material. The written quote is fixed for the type chosen, and cost pages explain what moves the price.

When a flat rooflight is the better choice

If the neighbour's roof is close, or the ceiling height under the extension is low, a lantern can look too tall. A flat rooflight sits almost level with the covering and still lets in the light from the sky. Our page weighing flat rooflight against lantern lays out the difference.

The room is dark in the old part of the house, not only at the far end, so the position is worked out from the plan of the room. A unit placed over the middle of the room usually lights the most of it, and we work out the position from the room's plan. A roof lantern or flat rooflight suits that best.