Skylights and rooflights for hillside stone terraces in Pudsey and its older streets

Three things that change the answer

• Listing brings a consent of its own, applied for before any new rooflight is cut in.
• A conservation area can strip out the usual freedom for roof changes, particularly where an Article 4 direction applies.
• A flat sits outside the permitted development class for roofs altogether.

Choosing the slope

A rooflight on the back slope is far less visible from the road than one on the front. If the room underneath could take its daylight from either slope, weigh the back one first. In a protected house the reviewer will also ask how big the unit is and how it sits against the windows on the wall under it.

A slim frame on stone-slate and slate

A conservation rooflight has a thin black frame, usually with a single bar across the centre of the glass, and it lies close to the covering. Seen from the pavement it merges with the roof. What officers usually look for is set out under rooflights in conservation areas.

Villas divided into flats

Where a larger Victorian house has been split into flats, the top flat has the roof directly overhead and often the gloomiest hall, but the roof-alteration allowance behind permitted development does not reach flats, so ask the council whether permission is needed.

Replacing a rooflight already there

A new unit set into an opening that exists alters the roof much less than a fresh cut. A listed house can still need consent for it, so the same questions come first. Once they are answered, the written quote is fixed for a named unit in a named room, which gives the council something definite to read.

A roof window over the stair

A roof window over a stair and landing is a glazed frame set into the slope, with the opening trimmed between the rafters. The light well runs from the frame down to the ceiling, plastered and painted white, and its sides can be angled to spread the light along the flight.

On a stair, a top-hung window swings out from its upper edge, so you can stand under it to reach the handle. A centre-pivot unit swings on a bar through its middle, which is kind to a room with furniture below.

A sun tunnel when space is tight

Some terraces have a shallow loft, a water tank or a run of rafters that sits awkwardly over the landing. A sun tunnel uses a dome on the slope to collect the light, a mirrored tube to pass it down, and a diffuser panel to spread it from the ceiling. It is slim enough to fit between rafters. A stiff tube holds more of the light than a flexible, ribbed one, and a joist cut to make room for the route turns it into structural work.

Slate and stone-slate above the stair

Pudsey's older terraces may be roofed in slate or stone slate, and later houses in concrete tile. The covering sets the flashing: a kit for thin slate is not the same as one for a deep profiled tile, and the slates above the frame must lap over its top edge. We choose the kit to match the covering on your roof once we have measured it, and we say which one in advance.

Making good indoors

On older ceilings the plaster around a new well can crack if it is cut roughly, so the cutting is slow and careful, and the reveal is plastered to the finish in the quote. The treads and carpet are sheeted before anything is cut, and the dust is cleared before we leave.

If the loft has been boarded or converted, say so when you contact us, because that changes where the well can run. The position is marked out in the loft on the day we visit, set against the slope, the landing and the rafter spacing.

Reading the size code

VELUX codes use a letter and two digits. Take MK04 as an example: M stands for the width and 04 for the height. Other makers use their own codes, and some quote their sizes to the inner edge of the kerb where others use the outer edge. The written quote carries the full name of the unit.

Which way it opens

In a box room the furniture often has to go under the glass, so a centre-pivot window is the usual pick. If the ceiling slopes low on one side, a top-hung window swings out from its upper edge and leaves the space beneath it free. How the lining under the window shapes the light in a small room is explained under light wells and reveals.

Glazing for a bedroom

A small bedroom is slept in, so the glass matters. Part L 2021 allows a roof window 1.4 W/m²K, or Window Energy Rating band B. Sealed units with a coated pane reach that figure with a warm-edge spacer round the glass, which holds in more heat than an old single pane.

Where it sits on the slope

The window is placed so you can reach the handle from the floor, and the glass catches the sky, which settles how high up the slope it goes. We mark that position from inside the room and again from the roof before a slate is lifted.

A box room also tends to hold a wardrobe or a bed against the slope, so the opening is set where the glass clears them and the sash can still be reached. We check the lie of the furniture with you on the day we visit, so the window serves the room as it is used.

If the box room is the way through to a second small bedroom or a bathroom, a window over it can lift the landing as well, because the door can be left open.