Tile-roof skylights and rooflights for the roomy houses of Bramhope
9.5 road miles north-west of Leeds city centre
Skylight installation in Bramhope for wide detached houses under tile and for the older stone cottages, with each rooflight matched to the slope above the room it lights.
The inner rooms of a Bramhope house, away from the glass
Houses built wide and deep leave some rooms a long way from any window, however big the glass on the outside walls.
Central landingA landing at the centre of a detached house sits far from the end walls and their windows.
Utility and boot roomA utility room tucked between the garage and the kitchen has a door for light and little else.
En-suite shower roomAn en-suite partitioned from a large bedroom can end up with no window of its own.
Units for Bramhope's tile and stone slopes
The room below sets the unit first. The roof covering then sets the flashing and the way the opening is dressed.
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Roof Windows
A roof window over a wide landing or a loft bedroom, with the flashing cut for the tile profile on your slope.
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Sun Tunnels
A sun tunnel serves an en-suite or boot room where the roof sits close above and no wall is free for glass.
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Roof Lanterns
A lantern over a flat-roofed kitchen extension lights the part of the room the garden doors leave behind.
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Energy Efficient Rooflights
Older double-glazed units on a Bramhope extension can be replaced with ones that meet today's Part L figures.
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Conservation Rooflights
A slim, low-set frame suits the stone cottages and the slate or stone slopes of the older streets.
What Bramhope owners ask before a tile is lifted
The answers start from the tiled roofs and the large floor plans of the village's detached houses.
Can a roof window go into the tiled slope above our landing?
A big detached house asks a great deal of its roof. The landing sits at the centre of the plan, a long way from the end walls, so the windows at the gables and the front never reach it. The slope above it is the nearest place to bring daylight in, and on a tiled house that slope is usually simple to work with.
Concrete or clay tiles hang from battens fixed across timber rafters. We lift the tiles around the opening one at a time, stack them, and relay them against the new frame. The skylight installation in Bramhope then looks as if the tiling had always run around it.
What the slope has to allow
The frame needs a clear run between two rafters and clean tiling on all four sides. A chimney stack, a valley or a hipped end near the landing takes some positions away. In a few of those positions a narrower unit or a sun tunnel sits better than a full roof window.
A flashing for your tile
Tile profiles differ, and each one leaves its own gaps for rain to find. The flashing kit supplied for the frame is chosen for the profile on your roof, so water runs around the unit and back onto the tiles below it.
Choosing the size
VELUX sizes are coded with a letter and a number, and the letter stands for the width. The quote spells out which unit goes over which room and how big it is.
Tiles that break or have faded
Old tiles can crack when they are lifted, and a roof that has weathered for decades will not match a new tile. We match the profile as closely as we can from spares, and the odd replacement tile is set where the flashing hides it. The roof you see afterwards is the roof you had, with one new frame in it.
Finishing inside
Above the landing ceiling there is usually a gap filled with insulation. The opening is lined through that gap with a splayed light well, and plaster goes on the reveal with the finish the quote describes. Dust sheets cover the stair carpet while this happens.
A roof window can also open, and on a landing that adds ventilation for a house with bedrooms on the floor above.
Reading the slope above the landing
Where the chimney and any valley sit, whether the tiles are clay or concrete, and how the rafters run above the stairwell.
We want to use the roof space as a bedroom. Which windows suit a sloping ceiling?
Some Bramhope houses are big enough to have a roof space worth using, and well-placed roof windows help make a bedroom up there a usable room. Two things matter most: how the window opens, and whether the room can be left safely if a fire starts below.
A centre-pivot window swings on a line through its middle: the lower edge goes out and the upper edge comes in, so furniture can stand beneath it. A top-hung window pushes outward from the top edge, which keeps the space at head height clear when you stand close to the glass.
Escape from a room in the roof
Approved Document B caps escape windows at storeys 4.5m or less above the ground. A two-storey house therefore needs a protected stair to a loft bedroom, because a roof window cannot serve as its escape. Where a bungalow or chalet bungalow has rooms under the roof, a roof window can be the way out, if the room sits within that height. Document B sets the minimum opening sizes, and the unit is picked to meet them. (We notify Building Control for the new opening.)
Heat in a roof-space bedroom
A south-facing roof window above a bed can bring in more warmth than the room wants in July. Solar-control coatings on the glass cut that gain, and an outside blind fitted to the frame cuts it further. Both are worth settling when the unit is chosen, since neither is easy to add once the plaster is up.
Cutting into the rafters
A cut through the rafters changes how the roof is built. The rafters that are cut are carried round the frame on trimmers, and the span and the rafter size are checked on site before the opening is drawn on the slope.
Choosing between the two windows
Where the bed is under the glass and the ceiling slopes steeply, the centre-pivot window is the usual answer. Where the room is a study with the desk clear of the wall, the top-hung window keeps the opening tidy.
For a roof window Part L asks for 1.4 W/m²K at most or, on the Window Energy Rating scale, band B. Better-insulated units are available above that, and a bedroom in the roof is a good place to ask for one, since it sits directly under the weather.
When the window is in, the sloping ceilings are boarded around the light well and the plaster goes on, leaving the room ready to decorate.
Pivot and top-hung, side by side
| Type | How it opens | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Centre-pivot | Turns about its middle | A bed or desk under the glass |
| Top-hung | Opens outward from the top | A clear step up to the opening |
Does a roof lantern on our extension need planning permission from Leeds City Council?
In a large house the extension at the back can become the main living room. It tends to have a flat roof and a deep plan, with the garden doors at one end and the old house wall at the other. A lantern over the middle of that roof lights the part of the room the doors cannot reach.
Class C lets a rooflight stand up to 150mm proud of the slope. A lantern stands on an upstand and rises well beyond that, so the rule may not apply to it. The council for Bramhope is Leeds City Council, and the sound routes are to ask it, or to have the lantern shown on the plans for the extension.
The rule and its exceptions are explained in our planning guide.
Where the lantern sits on the roof
On a deep extension the lantern goes over the part of the room furthest from the garden doors. Its kerb height and the size of the glass are drawn up with that position in mind, so the light falls on the table or the worktop rather than on a bare wall.
If the extension is still on paper
Putting the lantern into the extension's design means the permission covers it from the start, and the builder can leave the right opening in the roof deck. We can price the lantern against the size the drawings show.
If the extension is already built
A flat roof that already has a lantern-sized gap, or a plain roof with no opening at all, can take one later. A new opening is cut and framed, an upstand is built to the covering, and the lantern is sealed to it.
Aluminium or uPVC
An aluminium frame is the slimmer, stronger choice and a uPVC frame the cheaper one. Slim bars matter more on a big span, because they cast less shadow across the kitchen below. A wider lantern also needs deeper rafters or a stronger kerb beneath it, which is checked when the roof is measured.
Roof lanterns take the rooflight figure for energy, 2.2 W/m²K, and the written quote states the glazing and the size so that you can compare them with any other quote.
Short answers for Bramhope houses
Will a roof window show from the road on a Bramhope house?
A roof window lies close to the tile plane, so from the road it reads as a small glazed panel in the slope. A rear slope is much less visible than the front and is the first one we look at, and a landing under a ridge can take its light from either side.
How does a sun tunnel get past the insulation in the loft?
The tube runs from the roof dome to the ceiling diffuser through the gap between the rafters, and the insulation is packed back around it. A rigid tube passes more light down the same run than a flexible one, so the route is kept straight.
Can the old rooflight in a flat kitchen roof be swapped without lifting the whole covering?
Replacing a rooflight in its existing opening disturbs the covering only around the kerb. We fit the new unit to the upstand and weather it into the felt or rubber around it. Each covering takes its own detail at the upstand, so the work is planned around the material on your roof.
What if a Bramhope house is listed?
Listed building consent is needed before a new rooflight goes into a listed house; the usual permitted development rule does not stand in for it. We find out whether the house is listed before ordering, and a swap of an old rooflight for a new one gets the same check.
How tall is the upstand a lantern sits on?
The upstand is built up from the roof deck to suit the covering and the lantern you choose, and the two are matched at the quote. Insulation sits inside the upstand, and the covering is turned up its outer face and sealed under the lantern frame.
Can a Bramhope garage conversion take a rooflight?
A garage with a flat or low-pitched roof can take a flat rooflight over the new room, set on a kerb like any other. The conversion has its own permission and Building Regulations route, and we fit the rooflight to the roof as it stands at that point.
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