Skylights and rooflights for stone houses and cottages in Kirkheaton

Lifting the slates

Slates around the planned opening are taken off one at a time and stacked in the order they came. We keep the sound ones and look at the nail holes and the timber battens beneath. Stone slates are often hung on oak pegs or nails, and a slate with a broken peg hole is set aside before it can slip.

The frame and the rafters

Timber trimmers frame the gap between two rafters, so the load goes round the new opening. Old rafters in a stone house can be wider apart than on a modern roof, and not always straight. The frame is sized to the gap we find, and the unit is chosen to fit that frame.

Flashing against heavy slate

Stone slate lies thicker than blue slate and has an uneven face, so a flat flashing sheet does not seat well. A lead apron and soakers, cut to the course lines, follow the surface better. They let rain pass round the frame and onto the slates below.

Our fixed written quote carries the room, the unit chosen and its dimensions, and we notify Building Control because forming the opening touches the rafters.

Matching what goes back

Where a slate breaks we look for one close in colour and thickness from the stack, rather than a modern substitute that would stand out. A few weathered replacements settle quickly into an old roof, and the new unit sits low among them.

Inside the stone house

The ceiling below an old roof is often lath and plaster or boarded timber. We cut cleanly, form the light well between rafters and plaster the reveal, finishing it as the quote sets out. A dust sheet goes over the floor and furniture first.

Weathering for exposed roofs

Water driven upward under a slate or tile will find any weak point in the flashing. The kit around a roof window is built with an upstand and side channels to catch that water, and on an exposed slope we take care that each lap of the flashing sits over the one below it. The frame itself is sealed to the rafters inside.

Ladders and scaffold on a sloping plot

On a sloping plot, the ground at the back of the house may be a storey lower than the road at the front. We plan the ladders and any scaffold from the side of the house that can take them. A roof ladder spreads weight on the slates, and a platform at the eaves keeps the stack of slates, or the unit itself, from sliding. Lifting a window frame onto a steep slope is a two-person job, with the unit roped until it sits in the opening.

Choosing the slope for the unit

On a hillside the roof may face downhill, across the slope or toward the road, and each has its own light. A slope that looks over open ground can carry a larger unit without the roof line being affected from the street. The room underneath sets the position, and the slope on offer settles whether a roof window or a smaller unit goes in.

Thermal performance

A house on an open hill feels the cold and loses heat quickly. The glazing in a new unit is double or triple, with a gas fill between the panes and a warm-edge spacer around them. A low-emissivity coating keeps warmth in the room. The U-value tells you how much heat a unit lets through, and a lower number means less is lost.

Condensation on a cold roof

Warm, damp air from a bathroom or kitchen finds the coldest surface in a room. A well-sealed unit with a thermally broken frame has a warmer inner face than an old single pane. Insulation round the light well also stops the lining from becoming a cold bridge. An opening version lets steam out after a shower.

If you want to know whether a house suits the work, the best start is a look at the roof and the loft together.

Looking at the roof first

Conversions often carry stone slate or slate on exposed timbers, and the ceiling may follow the roof pitch up to the ridge. In that case there is no loft void and no hatch. The unit is bedded straight into the sloping ceiling, and the rafters themselves form the sides of the light well.

A low unit for a visible roof

Conservation rooflights come with slender frames, usually black, and frequently carrying a single central bar, so it lies low against the roof. On an old building that is seen from a lane or a neighbour's garden, that low profile is what officers tend to ask for. Where one slope is out of sight, the unit can go there instead.

When the old building is listed

If the conversion is listed, Kirklees Council has to consent before a rooflight goes in, and an Article 4 direction can take the usual permitted right away inside a conservation area. The planning permission guide for rooflights lays out how that works.

Hallways and bathrooms in the middle of a plan

The centre of a converted building is often a corridor or a bathroom with no external wall. Where roof space sits above, a sun tunnel brings light down without altering the outside much, because its dome is small and low. Where the ceiling follows the roof, a short tube can run straight from slope to room.

Insulation in the roof

Conversions normally have insulation between and under the rafters. The unit is fitted so the insulation closes tightly round the frame, and the plasterboard returns to the reveal. A gap in that line would let warm air reach the cold glass.

Replacing an old rooflight in a conversion

If an earlier rooflight has gone cloudy, the sealed unit has failed. We swap the glazing or the rooflight, and because it is the same opening the roof is disturbed far less.