Skylights and rooflights for the stone houses of Burley-in-Wharfedale
15.6 road miles north-west of Leeds city centre
Skylight installation in Burley-in-Wharfedale for stone villas, cottages and bungalows, with rooflights for the stair hall and for rooms that a wall window cannot reach.
Where Burley's stone houses keep their light at the edges
Villas, cottages and bungalows in Burley each have a room that sits away from the outside walls.
Stair hallA wide villa staircase is lit by a single window, leaving the hall below in shade.
Extension kitchenA long extension is bright at the garden doors, but the end by the old wall stays shaded.
Added bathroomA bathroom inserted into a bedroom or landing in an older house often loses its window.
Roof units that suit Burley's stone and slate
The room below sets the first choice, and the stone walls, the slope and the street shape the rest.
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Conservation Rooflights
Burley's older core is a conservation area, where officers often ask for a slim black unit lying low in the slates.
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Roof Windows
A roof window in a loft room or over a villa stair; centre-pivot suits a bed under the slope, top-hung gives clear headroom.
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Roof Lanterns
A lantern on a stone villa's rear kitchen extension brings light to the end that faces the old house wall.
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Energy Efficient Rooflights
Where a loft room must stay warm, glazing with warm-edge spacers and a low U-value limits heat loss through the roof.
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Sun Tunnels
A sun tunnel for a hall, landing or bathroom with the roof directly above and no wall to hold a window.
What Burley homeowners ask about adding light from the roof
A bungalow roof space as a bedroom comes first, then a long kitchen extension. Planning with Bradford Council comes last.
Can the roof space of a Burley bungalow become a bedroom lit by roof windows?
The roof space over a bungalow or chalet bungalow in Burley is a ready place for a spare room. Whether it is tall enough to stand in is a question for the loft itself: the ridge height, the depth of the rafters and the room around the chimney are all measured on the survey day.
Roof windows are what make such a room liveable. They sit in the slope itself, so they add no bulk to the outside of the house and give the room daylight from above. Several windows side by side along one slope can light a long attic better than a single large unit, and they leave the walls free for furniture and shelving.
Reading the roof from inside
From inside the loft we look at how the rafters run, how wide the gaps between them are and whether anything, such as a water tank, a flue or a purlin, crosses the place where a window would go. Rafter spacing governs the width of unit that fits without trimming, and a window that suits the gap goes in with less disturbance to the roof.
Which way a window opens
Two designs suit a loft bedroom. One pivots about its centre, which leaves room for a bed or a desk right under the glass. The other is hinged along the top and swings outward, which keeps the headroom clear at the opening. The use of the space under the glass points to the right one.
Dormers, or windows alone
Some loft rooms are built out with a dormer to gain standing height, and some rely on roof windows alone. The windows-only route is lighter on the roof and the house, while a dormer is a larger project with its own planning position. Roof windows alone suit a loft where the existing height already works, and we tell you which situation you have.
The way out in a fire
Approved Document B governs how a person gets out of a loft bedroom. On a bungalow or chalet bungalow, a roof window can serve as that way out for a room under the roof, provided it sits within the height the document allows and opens to its stated sizes. A house with two storeys below is another matter, since a loft conversion there needs a protected stair.
Heat loss from a loft room
Glazing in the roof can lose heat if it is poor. Under Part L the glazing in a new roof window has to reach 1.4 W/m²K, or Window Energy Rating band B, and two features help it get there: a low-emissivity coating, and spacers between the panes that conduct little heat.
Two ways a roof window can open
| Type | How it moves | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Centre-pivot | Pivots at the middle of the sash | A bed or desk below the glass |
| Top-hung | Hinged at the top, opens outward | Clear headroom at the opening |
How do you light a long kitchen extension built onto an older Burley stone house?
Some stone houses in Burley have a modern kitchen on the back. The extension is bright where the glass doors are. Towards the old house, the stone wall that used to be the outside wall now stands inside the room, its window long since blocked, and the cooking end ends up lit by little more than what drifts across from the doors.
A rooflight over that end meets the problem head on. It puts glass above the worktops instead of trying to push more light through the garden doors.
A lantern for a wide room
On a kerb above the flat roof, a lantern forms a glazed roof of its own, with sloping sides that come together at a ridge or at a point. In a wide kitchen-diner its height gives the ceiling some shape and the whole room takes daylight from above. Aluminium makes the slimmer, stiffer frame and uPVC the lower-cost one. A lantern normally stands well above the permitted development limit, so ask the council, or check whether the extension's own planning permission already covers one.
A flat rooflight for a narrower room
Where the extension is narrow, or the ceiling is modest, a flat rooflight lies low on a shallow upstand and does the same job with less bulk. It also suits a utility or a boot room along the side of the house.
Where the old wall meets the new roof
The line where an extension roof meets the old stone wall is where leaks tend to begin on a poorly built extension. A rooflight set too near that junction leaves no room for the flashings, so the unit is placed with the junction in view, a short way out into the roof where the covering is straightforward.
Glass facing the garden
An extension's roof often looks onto open sky over the garden, which lets in strong sun. Solar-control glazing holds back some of the sun's heat, and an opening rooflight lets warm air out of a kitchen once the oven has been on. We talk through both on the survey, since the answer depends on which way the roof faces.
Roof coverings at the back
Felt, EPDM rubber and GRP fibreglass are the coverings we meet on flat extension roofs, and a kerb has to be dressed in whichever one is there. The covering and the age of the roof both go into our notes.
What we note at the cooking end
How far the cooking end lies from the garden doors, what covers the flat roof, and how close the old stone wall comes to where the unit would sit.
What will Bradford Council want to know about a rooflight in Burley?
Burley-in-Wharfedale lies in the Bradford district, so any application or enquiry goes to Bradford Council. An ordinary house can take a rooflight without an application, as permitted development, and the conditions, along with the places where that right is withdrawn, are set out in our skylight planning guide.
Whether your street lies inside a conservation area is something we look up in the council's mapping at the start. If the cottage is listed, no rooflight goes onto either slope until listed building consent is granted.
The paper trail from our side
Our written quote is fixed and records the room, the rooflight and the size agreed for the job. We also notify Building Control when the job requires it. Those pages are what you would show a neighbour, a lender or a conveyancer if the question ever came up.
Which slope takes the unit
On a villa, the front slope faces the road and the back faces the garden. A rooflight on the back slope is the less visible from the road, so a stair or landing that can be lit from there is the easier case. If the front is the only choice, a slim conservation unit lies lowest in the roof.
Swapping an old unit
Putting a new rooflight into an old one's opening is the lightest touch on the roof. For a listed building even a like-for-like swap can need consent, so we check the listing first.
Before an application is ever needed
A unit within the permitted limits needs no planning application. Should an application be needed, we tell you at the survey and you can weigh up whether to go ahead.
Planning words for a Burley survey
- Permitted development
- Work the national rules allow without a planning application, if its conditions are met.
- Conservation area
- An area the council protects for its character, sometimes with extra limits on roof changes.
- Article 4 direction
- A council order that removes permitted development rights for named work in a named area.
Along the Wharfe and the Aire
Beyond Burley-in-Wharfedale itself we cover Menston, Otley, Ilkley, Guiseley, Bramhope, Yeadon and Baildon. Indoors, the opening is made good with a plastered reveal. To get in touch, use the form on this page.
Burley answers on stone walls and slate roofs
Do roof windows work in a stone cottage with thick walls?
Thick walls make wall windows deep and shaded, but the roof is thinner, so a roof window sees much more of the sky. The light well inside is cut to the thickness of the roof, and a splayed well spreads the daylight into the room.
Which way should a bungalow roof window face?
A slope facing south or west collects the most sun and warms the room fastest, and solar-control glazing can offset that. A north slope gives even light all day. We note how the roof sits, so the glazing is matched to the slope.
How are the slates protected while the roof is open?
The opening is kept as small as the work allows, and a waterproof cover goes over it whenever we leave the roof. Slates lifted around the opening are stacked and relaid, and the floor below is sheeted.
Will a new rooflight show from the road?
A unit on the back slope will rarely be seen from the road, and a slim conservation unit lies low enough on a front slope to read as part of the roof. Each slope is viewed from the pavement on the survey day, so you know how the unit would read from the road.
Will the stone walls or the plaster downstairs be disturbed?
The stone walls are left alone, because the work is in the roof and the ceiling beneath it. The floor and stair below the opening are sheeted before cutting begins, and the ceiling around the new reveal is the only plaster that is touched.
Get a free survey
- No obligation
- We survey before we price
- WhatsApp or phone, whichever suits
We arrange a survey, then send a fixed written quote. Nothing is booked until you say yes.