Skylights and rooflights for the stone terraces of Morley

The stair and the landing

A roof window above a stairwell needs a clear drop. Between the glass in the slope and the opening in the ceiling there is a light well, a short lined shaft that carries the daylight down. Splaying the well, so that it widens towards the ceiling, spreads the light further across the landing and makes a smaller window work harder.

The middle room upstairs

On the first floor of a through-terrace, a small middle bedroom or box room often sits beside the stair with its window on a yard or a neighbour's wall. Where the loft is above it, a sun tunnel or a roof window can carry daylight into that room too. The ground-floor middle room is harder to reach from the roof, and we say on the survey whether the roof can serve it at all.

What stands in the way on a stone row

The party walls between houses rise through the roof and carry the chimney stacks. A roof window has to sit between the rafters, clear of a stack and a good distance from the wall that divides you from the neighbour. That is why the position on the slope is marked out from inside the loft with a tape, and the street view only confirms it.

Front slope or back slope

The ridge of a terrace runs along the street, so one slope faces the road and the other faces the yard. The back slope is usually the better place for a window, since it is seen less from the street and the stair often lies nearer to it.

The hall at the bottom

A roof window lights the hall only if the stair is open to it. Where a boxed-in stair or a closed door stops the daylight at the landing, the upstairs still gains a good deal, and we tell you how far down the light will carry.

The roof covering matters

Flat back roofs here are covered in felt, EPDM or GRP, and each one wants a kerb detail of its own. A rooflight set into a felt roof needs its membrane dressed up the kerb and sealed at the top edge. On an EPDM or GRP roof the sheet or the resin is carried up the kerb in its own way. We look at the covering on the survey and match the unit and its upstand to it.

Lantern height and the council

A lantern normally stands far higher than the 150mm permitted development allows a rooflight to project, so it often falls outside those rules. Either the extension's own planning permission covers it or the council needs to be asked first. A flat rooflight on a low upstand is much more likely to stay within the rules, though the house still has to be checked.

Swapping an old rooflight

Some of these flat roofs already carry a rooflight that has clouded or leaked at the edges. Replacing it in the same opening is the simpler job. Enlarging the opening means the roof structure is altered, because the joists are trimmed round the new size, and the written quote then carries that larger size.

Where the rain goes

A flat roof has a slight fall towards a gutter or an outlet. A kerb built across that fall can hold water on its high side, so the position of the unit is set with the fall in mind. Behind the kerb a small sloped infill, known as a cricket, can send the water round it. This is the sort of detail a survey on the roof itself picks up.

What the written quote carries

The written quote is fixed. It names the room, the rooflight and its size, and we notify Building Control whenever the work is notifiable.

Why the slope matters for permission

A rooflight on a back slope is far less visible from the street than one at the front. Where a front slope is the only choice for a stair, a single well-placed window sits more quietly in the street than a row of them.

What we look at first

At the survey we look at the street, ask whether the house is listed or in a conservation area, and note which slope the unit would sit on. You hear the planning position in plain terms, and should an application prove necessary, you can weigh it up before deciding.