Slate above gritstone in Calverley, and the skylights and rooflights that light the rooms beneath
10.1 road miles west of Leeds city centre
Skylight installation in Calverley, from stone cottages in the old village to the semis around it, puts a rooflight in the slate or tile above whichever room the wall windows fall short of.
Rooms a Calverley gritstone wall and a sloping roof leave short of daylight
Thick walls, small deep-set windows and rear lean-tos give some Calverley rooms a window that does very little.
Lean-to kitchenA kitchen in the lean-to behind a cottage has one side window and a low sloping ceiling.
Box roomA box room over the front door gets one small window set deep in the wall.
Semi hallwayA semi's hall has a front door, a stair along one wall and no window of its own.
Units for Calverley's slate and tiled roofs
Chosen for the room beneath first, then for the covering on the slope and the age of the house.
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Conservation Rooflights
A slim black frame sitting low in the slate suits the old village, where the roof is seen from the lane.
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Roof Windows
Goes in the rear slope over a box room or back bedroom, with slates dressed back up to the frame.
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Sun Tunnels
Carries daylight along a reflective tube to a semi's hall or landing when the loft above is clear.
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Flat Roof Rooflights
Suits a rear extension's flat roof, or a garage turned utility room.
What Calverley owners ask about rooflights in the old village
They start from the lanes and cottages of the old village, then move out to the semis built around it.
Does Calverley's conservation area limit where a rooflight can go?
Skylight installation in Calverley starts with where the house stands. Part of the old village is a conservation area under Leeds City Council, and inside such an area the appearance of a roof from the lane is a planning matter in its own right. A cottage within the boundary and a semi a few streets away are treated differently, even when the room needing daylight is the same.
A house outside the boundary can usually take a rooflight as permitted development, provided the unit stays within a set height above the slope. Each of those conditions is explained on our page about what permitted development allows for a rooflight.
Which slope the lane can see
A cottage often has one slope facing the lane and another facing its own yard. A rooflight on the hidden slope changes the street far less, and over a back bedroom or a stair it lights the room as well as a front one would. When the room sits beneath the front slope alone, the type of unit and its size carry more weight.
A frame that lies low in the slate
For slate in a conservation area we usually put forward a conservation rooflight. Its slim black frame, often split by one glazing bar, stays close to the slates, and from the lane it merges with the slates around it. A single well-placed unit makes a simpler case than several in a line up the slope.
Listed cottages and Article 4 areas
If the cottage is listed, a new rooflight needs listed building consent, whatever the permitted development rules say. An Article 4 direction on certain streets can strip that permitted right away. Both are looked up against your address before any unit is chosen.
Swapping an old rooflight
Setting a new unit in the opening an old rooflight already fills disturbs far less of the roof than cutting a fresh one. A listed cottage can still need consent for that swap, so the address comes first.
Doors and windows on the wall below
Where a rooflight sits above a row of windows on the wall beneath, the two read together from the lane. Lining the rooflight up with the windows below keeps the front of the cottage orderly, and it often settles where on the slope the unit belongs.
Looking at the lane side of the roof
Which slope the lane can see, whether the slates are original, and whether the rear slope could light the room just as well.
What does it take to fit a rooflight in a gritstone cottage with a slate roof?
Calverley's older cottages are built of gritstone, and the walls are thick enough to give every window a deep reveal. The earliest buildings are roofed in stone slate and later ones in dark Welsh slate, on timber, often with a lean-to or catslide at the back where the slope runs down towards the eaves. Those details shape both where a rooflight can go and the work needed inside.
Opening up a roof counts as building work that has to be notified (we notify Building Control), and the framing is built around the timbers already there.
Lifting the slates
Slate is thin and grows brittle with age, so it is lifted by hand around the opening and each sound slate is kept to be laid back. One that cracks gets the nearest match we can find. The flashing kit for the frame is cut for a flat covering, since a kit meant for a deep moulded tile leaves the wrong gaps.
Rafters cut by eye
Rafters in an old cottage are seldom evenly spaced or quite straight. The gap is framed between two of them with trimmers that pass the load round it, because an opening cut where none existed changes the structure of the roof. The size is chosen to suit the spacing you actually have.
Inside, under a sloping ceiling
In a room whose ceiling follows the rafters the reveal is short, and the glass sits close to the plaster. Where a flat ceiling has loft above it, the reveal turns into a boxed light well running up through the roof space. Either way the lining is insulated, plastered and left ready for paint. A light well is worth a thought for the colour of its walls, since a pale plaster finish passes daylight further down than a dark one.
Floors and dust
Cutting through a cottage ceiling brings down old plaster dust. Floors and the stair are sheeted before work begins, and once the frame is weathered the sheets come up and the rooms are wiped over before we go.
Getting the unit to the roof
Cottages in the old lanes can be awkward to reach, with narrow frontages and few places to stand a ladder. How the unit travels to the roof, through the house or up the outside, is agreed in advance and protected along the way. A long frame is the awkward one on a cottage stair, so its length is checked against the turns before it leaves the supplier.
Parts of a cottage roof and what each affects
| Part | What it affects |
|---|---|
| Slates | Lifted by hand and relaid up to the frame |
| Rafters | Set the width and position of the opening |
| Lean-to slope | Often the shortest run, so a smaller unit |
| Ceiling lining | Plastered as a reveal or a light well |
How should daylight reach the hall of a Calverley semi, by tube or by window?
Around the old village stand semis and later estate houses, some roofed in concrete tile. The hall is the usual trouble spot: a front door at one end, a stair along one wall, and a small glazed panel in the door that lights the first step or two. Rooflight installation in Calverley for a house like that comes down to what the loft above the landing can accept.
What a sun tunnel needs
A sun tunnel consists of a low dome on the slope, a mirrored tube running through the loft and, at the bottom, a diffuser in the ceiling. It needs a clear run from slope to landing. The tube is slim enough to pass between rafters; cutting into a joist or rafter turns the job into structural work, which we notify.
Hipped roofs over landings
Some semis are hipped, with a short sloping end over the stair. On a slope that short, a roof window may not fit between the ridge and the eaves, while a dome and tube ask for far less room. The slope is measured before either is chosen.
When the roof window wins
Where the stair climbs into a converted loft, a roof window lights the top flight and opens for fresh air. Where a bed or a desk will stand under the glass, a centre-pivot model, which rotates about its middle, is the one to look at. Where clear headroom at the opening matters, a top-hung model, hinged along its upper edge and swinging outwards, provides it.
Tile and its flashing
A concrete tile is thick and moulded, so its flashing kit differs from the one used on slate. Tiles come up course by course round the opening and go back up to the frame, and any that break are swapped for matching ones. Interlocking concrete tiles lock into their neighbours, so the courses beside the opening are lifted with care and counted back in the same order.
Which room the light reaches
A tube serves the space immediately beneath the loft. On a two-storey semi that is the landing, and the ground-floor hall gets nothing from it unless the stair is open. Knowing that early saves a disappointment, and it is why the tube's destination is worked out on the landing before the loft is entered. A semi with an open-well stair is the exception, since daylight on the landing can then fall down the stair into the hall.
- Myth: Any hall can have a sun tunnel.
- Fact: The tube needs a clear route between the roof and the ceiling, so it serves the space directly under the loft.
- Myth: A flexible tube carries daylight as well as a rigid one.
- Fact: On an identical route a rigid tube sends more daylight down than a flexible one does.
Calverley's neighbours on the Aire side
Calverley sits close to Rawdon, Horsforth, Yeadon, Pudsey and Guiseley, and the Bradford side of the valley brings in Baildon and Shipley. Every job's workmanship is guaranteed for ten years; to begin, message 07880 284133.
Calverley answers on old glass and low ceilings
Can a misted rooflight in an old cottage roof be replaced without re-laying the slates?
Cloudy glass with moisture trapped inside points to a failed seal around the sealed unit, and no cloth reaches it. We replace the sealed glass or the whole rooflight, working in the existing opening, so the slates around it are disturbed only where the flashing needs them.
Do you take on small commercial roofs in Calverley as well as houses?
A workshop or an office above a shop can have the same units fitted as a home, and the same services apply. A flat roof on a kerb suits a low commercial building well.
Can a rooflight in a low cottage ceiling open for ventilation?
A roof window opens by its handle, while an electric opening rooflight runs from a switch or remote, which helps when the ceiling is out of reach. Models fitted with a rain sensor close themselves when a shower starts.
What happens to the slates that come off a Calverley roof?
Sound slates are set aside as they come off and laid back round the new frame, so the roof keeps its old covering. Any that break are replaced with the closest match we can find.
Does a rooflight make a cottage bedroom too warm in summer?
A coating built into solar-control glass limits how much sun-heat enters, and an opening unit lets stale air out. The layers of glazing hold winter heat in, so one unit copes across the seasons.
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