Tile roofs, skylights and rooflights in Lofthouse

6.3 road miles south of Leeds city centre

Skylight installation in Lofthouse for the landing and the extended back kitchen, set into the concrete tiles of the semis and estates above them.

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Cut-away drawing of a stone house: daylight from a roof lantern falls down the stairwell and into the landing and the rooms below.

Rooms in a Lofthouse semi that sit between the front and back windows

Houses here have glass at the front and the back, so the rooms in between get what is left.

Stairs and landingThe stair climbs through the middle of the house, past a small side window at best.
Extended kitchen-dinerAn extension adds depth towards the garden, so the end by the old house loses light.
Landing-side bathroomA bathroom built into the middle of the first floor has no wall to the outside.

Units for a concrete-tile roof and the rooms under it

Picked from the room first, then from the tile covering above it.

What Lofthouse homeowners ask before the tiles come off

The questions come from semis with a hipped roof over the stair and a flat-roofed kitchen at the back.

Which unit lights the landing of a Lofthouse semi best?

Lofthouse has semi-detached housing from the twentieth century, along with newer estates. In those houses the stair usually climbs between two bedrooms to a landing lit by a small side window, or by none. A landing is a room everyone crosses and nobody sits in, so it is the one that gets left alone when the bedrooms are done. A roof window above it drops daylight straight down the stairwell.

The roof over a semi's stair is often hipped or short at the point where you would like the window, and that limits what can go in.

A window in the slope or a tube through the loft

A roof window gives the most light, and it opens for fresh air on a warm landing. It needs a clear stretch of slope with room for the frame between the rafters, and enough height above the ceiling for a light well that widens as it comes down. A sun tunnel needs far less: a dome on the tiles, a reflective tube and a diffuser in the ceiling. Over the same run, a rigid tube passes more light than a flexible one.

What we look at in the loft

How far the ceiling sits below the roof slope, which sets the length of the light well or the tube.
Which way the rafters run and how far apart they are. A unit sized to the gap between two rafters needs no extra structural work, and a wider one does.
Whether a water tank, a boarded floor or a flue pipe sits in the way.

Light wells get a longer treatment in roof windows over stairs and landings.

Shaping the light well

The light well runs from the frame in the slope down to the ceiling. It is lined with plasterboard, plastered and painted white, and it is angled outwards as it drops so the opening in the ceiling is wider than the glass above. A pale, splayed well passes more daylight into the stairwell than a straight-sided one, and we work out the angle from where the ceiling sits under the rafters.

Which slope, and whether permission is needed

On a semi that faces the road, the rear slope keeps a window out of sight from the street, which matters when permission is a question. The limits on projection, height and side windows, and the cases where rights are removed, sit in our skylight planning and Building Regulations guide. Leeds City Council is the authority for Lofthouse.

We also check whether a bathroom or a box room opens off the landing, because a bright landing changes how those doorways look and sometimes saves a second opening in the roof.

What the loft shows above a hipped-roof stair

The depth of the light well from the ceiling to the slope, the rafter spacing over the stair, and whether the hipped end leaves room for the frame.

How does a rooflight go through a concrete tile roof?

Newer roofs in Lofthouse are covered in concrete tiles, laid on battens over a felt underlay. They are heavy, they interlock, and each profile has its own flashing kit, so a roof window is ordered with the kit that matches the tile on your house. A kit meant for flat slate would leave gaps on a deep-profile interlocking tile, and the reverse is true too. (We notify Building Control, either at Leeds City Council or through a registered building control approver.)

Work starts from the outside, working on one patch of the slope at a time so the house is not left open.

Lifting the tiles

Tiles come off by hand in the order they were laid and are stacked on the roof, ready to go back. Concrete tiles are less brittle than old slate, so the sound ones go straight back on, and any that crack are replaced with a match for the rest. The battens are cut back to the opening and the underlay is cut and turned up around the frame.

Framing the opening

Where a rafter has to be cut, timber trimmers are fixed across the gap so the load is carried round the new opening. Cutting the opening changes how the roof carries its own weight. The survey measures the rafter spacing before a unit is chosen.

Flashing and relaying

The frame is fitted to the rafters and the flashing is laid over the tiles around it. The lower edge is dressed over the tile course below, the sides are lapped, and the tiles above are cut to run down onto the flashing, so rain runs round the frame and back onto the roof.

Pitch and the laps

A flashing kit is made for a range of roof pitches. Some estate roofs are shallower than the steeper pitches of older semis, and a shallower slope sheds water more slowly, so the laps around the frame matter more. We note the pitch on the survey and order the kit to suit it.

The finish indoors

Inside, the opening is lined, insulated around the frame, and plastered back to the ceiling, so the reveal is ready to paint. Floors and stairs are sheeted before anything is cut.

Words you will meet on a tiled roof

Underlay: The felt or membrane under the battens that catches anything the tiles let through.
Trimmer: A timber across the cut rafters that carries their load around the opening.
Tile profile: The shape of the tile in section; the flashing kit has to match it.
Lap: The overlap between one course of tiles and the next, which sheds the rain.

Our kitchen-diner was extended and the old-house end is gloomy. Lantern or flat rooflight?

Some Lofthouse semis have been pushed out at the back for a bigger kitchen. The glass doors at the garden end are bright, but the part of the room next to the original house sits well back from them, so the worktops there get little daylight of their own.

A flat roof over the extension gives the daylight a way in from above.

What a lantern gives you

A roof lantern has glazed slopes rising to a ridge, and it stands on a raised kerb built into the flat roof. It adds height inside, because the ceiling opens up into the glazing, and it spreads light across a long stretch of the room. It also stands well clear of the flat roof, so it needs more thought about how it looks from the neighbours' bedroom windows.

What a flat rooflight gives you

A flat roof rooflight sits low on its kerb and is the better answer where the roof is overlooked or the room is narrow. It can be set directly over the worktop or the table, wherever the light is needed. The two sit side by side in choosing between a flat rooflight and a lantern.

Cutting into a finished roof

When the extension already has a roof covering and no rooflight, the opening is cut through the finished deck. The kerb is built up around it, and the roofing sheet is dressed up the sides of the kerb and lapped under the frame, so the waterproofing of the roof carries on unbroken round the unit.

Where the unit goes

On the survey we mark out the floor that the garden doors leave without direct light and put the unit above that area, which is seldom the middle of the roof. In a long extension it is the end by the old kitchen wall. The joists then limit how large the opening can be before extra trimming is needed, and a unit that suits the gap between two joists keeps the structural work down.

Planning is a separate question for a lantern, because it rises well above the flat roof: the lantern planning guide explains when a roof lantern needs permission.

Myth: A rooflight has to sit in the middle of the roof.: Fact: It goes where the light is missing, which on a deep extension is the end by the old house wall.
Myth: A bigger unit always means a brighter room.: Fact: Past a point, extra glass adds heat loss and a bigger opening, so the size follows the part of the room it has to reach.

Lofthouse and the villages on either side

We also work in Stanley, Rothwell, East Ardsley and Methley, and in Wakefield, Normanton and Morley close by. The written quote stays fixed once it is agreed. To talk about a Lofthouse house, ring 0113 436 0654.

Small practical points for a Lofthouse house

Can you put a rooflight into a garage that has been converted?

A converted garage often has a flat or low-pitched roof, and a flat rooflight or a small lantern suits it. We look at which way the joists run, what covers the roof, and how the conversion was insulated, because those three things set how big the opening can be and how tall the kerb stands. If the old garage door opening is now a window, the rooflight also helps the middle of the room.

Will the stairs and landing be left in a state?

Floors, stairs and furniture below the opening are sheeted before the roof is cut, and the dust from the ceiling is kept to that area. We plaster the reveal to the finish in the quote, and the sheets and rubbish go with us.

Will a roof window make a south-facing landing too hot in summer?

A coating that limits solar gain takes the heat down, and a blind fitted to the frame takes out more. Which slope the window faces matters as well, and rooflights and summer heat runs through the options.

Can an old extension rooflight be swapped for a larger one?

A larger unit needs a larger opening, so the kerb is rebuilt, the joists around it are trimmed and the roof covering is dressed up the new upstand. The change is set out in going up a size when you replace.

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What happens next We arrange a survey, then send a fixed written quote. Nothing is booked until you say yes.