Skylights and rooflights for the stone terraces and mill streets of Heckmondwike

Fitting between a party wall and a chimney

A terrace roof is cut by the party walls that run up between the houses, and some rows have a stack rising from each wall. Both limit where a frame can go, because it needs a run of sound rafters between them and a clear metre of slate on every side. When the landing sits close to a stack, a narrower unit placed a little off-centre often lights the stair as well as a wider one.

Slate on the slope

Victorian terraces may be roofed in Welsh slate, which is thin and flat. Each slate round the opening is taken off by hand, kept safe and relaid over a flashing cut for slate, because a kit made for deeper tiles leaves the wrong gaps. A slate that splits is swapped for the nearest match to the rest of your roof.

Which slope to use

A terrace's back slope looks onto its own yard or back lane, which makes it less exposed to the street than the front and the quieter choice. If the front slope is the only one above the stair, the planning side needs a closer look. We list the conditions for a house among the planning rules for roof alterations, and Kirklees Council answers anything unclear for your street.

Making good the stairwell

Working above a stair is slow, careful work, and the platform we set up on the flight keeps tools and offcuts off the treads.

A stairwell means working above a flight, so we sheet the treads and the landing before the saw comes out. Once the opening is framed, the reveal is plastered down to the ceiling and left ready for paint, so the shaft of light lands on a clean finished wall.

If the landing is too far from the slope for a window, or a stack blocks the only clear stretch, a sun tunnel can reach it with a small dome and a tube instead.

A flat rooflight or a lantern

A flat rooflight lies low and keeps the line of the roof plain. A roof lantern stands higher, with a pitched glazed roof, and puts light into the room from all four sides of the frame. A lantern usually rises well beyond what permitted development allows for roof alterations, so it can need its own permission or be covered by the extension's own; ask Kirklees Council before ordering one.

The roof that is already there

Early on, we look at the age of the covering and at the roof deck beneath it. Any soft or damp boarding around the new opening is dealt with while the roof is open, because that is far easier then than later.

Felt, EPDM rubber and fibreglass each take their own weathering at the upstand. We note which covering you have, how old it is and whether it has ponding or splits, because a new rooflight is a sensible moment to renew the strip of covering around it. Ageing felt that has cracked at the edges is not a good base for new glass.

Light for cooking and washing up

In a back kitchen, the useful spot is over the worktop or the table, where people stand. Daylight from above reaches the units and the hob without the shadow a wall window casts across them. A rooflight that opens also lets steam out of a small room.

What the ceiling looks like inside

Older back kitchens sometimes have a ceiling of plasterboard fixed straight to the joists, and the opening is cut with the floor sheeted below so that dust stays out of the cupboards and off the worktop.

The ceiling joists below a flat roof run in one direction, and the opening is framed around them. A short lined shaft, called a light well, links the ceiling to the glass, and we plaster and finish it so the opening reads as part of the kitchen.

Straight or bent

A short straight drop from roof to ceiling works best. Each bend costs some light, so rigid tubing takes the long drop and flexible tubing is kept for a short final bend, where one is unavoidable. Where the bathroom is not directly below the slope, we plan the shortest rigid run and keep any flexible section for the last stretch past a joist.

The roof above the loft

On a bungalow roofed in concrete tile, we lift the tiles around the dome by hand and relay them over a flashing shaped to the profile, so water runs off as it does elsewhere on the roof. Where the tube crosses the cold loft we check how it sits against the insulation.

When the loft is a floored room

If the loft has been boarded or converted, the tube may need to pass through a room above the bathroom. In that case a roof window for the room may be the better choice, and the bathroom is lit another way. We look at what sits above the ceiling before choosing the product.

Making good the bathroom ceiling

The diffuser goes into a clean round opening in the ceiling, with the edge taped, filled and painted. Tiles and the bath are sheeted before we start, and the dust is cleared before we go.