Skylights and rooflights for the terraced streets of Liversedge

Reading the roof you already have

Older extension roofs carry felt, a rubber sheet or a fibreglass skin, and every one of them needs a different upstand and weathering detail. We look at the covering first. A tired felt roof is best renewed around the opening while the kerb is built, so the new detail and the old roof age together.

How wide the opening can go

The joists beneath the roof set the limit. A lantern is often sized to the width of the dark end of the kitchen, while a smaller rooflight can sit between existing joists with little trimming. If a joist has to be cut, the opening is framed round the cut, which makes it structural and notifiable. You will see in writing which case applies to your roof.

Glass and heat

Under Part L a new rooflight or lantern in an existing house has to reach a U-value of 2.2 W/m²K. A double-glazed unit with a coated pane and a warm-edge spacer is one way there. In a kitchen that faces the afternoon sun, a solar-control coating keeps the worktops cooler in summer.

Which end of the room needs it

In a kitchen that has been pushed out into the yard, the dark end is usually the one nearest the old back wall of the house, where the original kitchen window now looks into the extension itself. A rooflight placed over that end lights the worktops and the sink. A lantern placed further out lights the dining table. Where the room is long enough for both, two smaller units can serve it better than one large one.

Weathering at the old wall

Where the extension roof meets the back wall of the house, the junction needs its own flashing. The kerb for a new unit is kept clear of that line, so the two details do not crowd each other.

Lining the opening

Inside, the kerb is boxed in and the reveal gets its plaster coat, so the finished kitchen shows a clean plastered splay up to the glass. The floor and units below are sheeted while the plasterboard is cut.

Clear of the party wall and the stack

A window wants unbroken roof covering round its frame and a clear stretch of rafters behind it. Near the party wall, the upstand and the shared chimney stack take up that space. In a narrow terrace the sound position is often a little way in from the wall, and the opening is cut to the gap that remains.

Over the stair

The stair is the usual target. Placed above the top flight, one of these roof windows for stairs and landings lights the landing directly and sends some light down the flights. How much reaches the hall depends on how open the stairwell is.

A box room under the slope

The box room over the front door often has a sloping ceiling on one side. A roof window set into that slope gives it daylight from overhead and a little ventilation, and a centre-pivot sash lets a bed or a desk stand under it. Top-hung suits a room where the opening has to clear the furniture.

Reaching the roof

A sloping street may mean the front slope is higher off the ground than the one at the back. We note how the roof will be reached, so the ladders or scaffold are in the quote before the work begins.

Replacing an old window in the same place

Some terraces already have a roof window from an earlier conversion, now with a failed seal or a frame that has seen better days. Fitting its successor in the old opening is quicker than cutting afresh, because the rafters are already trimmed. We still check the trimming and the flashing, since the new frame may differ in size from the old one.

The shaft between the roof and the ceiling is shaped and lined to suit the room, and the options are covered under light wells and reveals.

Flats and divided houses

Roof alterations to a flat fall outside permitted development, which usually means an application, and Kirklees Council can confirm. A house split into flats counts as flats here.

Roof lanterns on extensions

A lantern on a rear extension is a different question from a rooflight in a slope. It often rises well above the usual allowance, so check with the council, or find out whether the extension's own permission covers it. If the extension has been built under a recent permission, the plans may already show the lantern.

Listed buildings and special streets

Listed status brings its own consent for any new rooflight, apart from permitted development. Ask Kirklees Council whether your street has a conservation area or an Article 4 direction, since either can change what you may do without an application.

What the council is shown

An application for a rooflight needs a definite unit and size. Our written quote sets down which room is lit, which unit goes in and how big it is; we notify Building Control where the work is notifiable, and you can give the council those same details.

Who to approach first

For a simple rooflight in a house, you need to approach the council only when something on the list above applies to you. If none does, the work can go ahead as permitted development. When you are unsure, give us the address and we will look at its position first.

Replacing an old unit

Lifting out an old rooflight and fitting a new one in its old opening disturbs the roof less than a fresh cut. The paperwork still needs a look, and the replacement must reach the current Part L figure.