Stone-slate roofs in Ripponden, lit by skylights and rooflights

24.2 road miles south-west of Leeds city centre

Rooflight installation in Ripponden for stone-slate cottages and converted mills up the Ryburn valley, bringing daylight to narrow stairs and to rooms that thick stone walls leave short of windows.

Get a free quote

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

What a Pennine valley village leaves out of its stone houses

Small windows set in thick walls were built to keep the weather out, and they leave the middle of the house short of daylight.

Steep cottage stairNarrow stairs climb to a landing with a small window at best, and none on the way up.
Converted barn floorIn a barn or mill conversion, windows sit low in thick walls and the floor beyond stays gloomy.
Bathroom from a cupboardA bathroom carved from a cupboard or part of a bedroom has no wall to the outside.

Units picked for Ripponden's weather and stone-slate roofs

Each is matched to the room beneath first, then to a roof that spends much of the year in wind and rain.

Roof questions from the Ryburn valley

An exposed roof and a stone-slate pattern worth keeping each raise questions, as does a tall barn ceiling.

How do rooflights cope with rain, wind and snow in the Ryburn valley?

Ripponden sits in the valley of the River Ryburn, with the Pennine slopes rising on either side. Roofs here take wind-driven rain and sometimes snow, and a homeowner thinking about skylight installation in Ripponden is right to ask what a hole in the roof does to that. The glass is the least of it. What keeps the weather out is how the frame is bedded and flashed into the roof around it.

The flashing

The metal surround steps under the roof covering along the sides and sits beneath it at the top, so that water running down the slope meets the flashing and is steered round the frame. At the foot, the covering below is lapped over it. Done well, water has nowhere to go but down the roof.

The frame

The frame is fixed to the trimmed rafters and sits square to the slope. A frame set out of true leaves a gap at one corner, which is where wind drives rain in. We check the fit against the rafters before the covering goes back.

Chimneys, verges and gables

Stone houses in the valley have chimney stacks and stone-coped gables, and the weather works at those junctions as much as at a rooflight. A frame is kept clear of them, with a clear run of covering on every side, so its own flashing never has to join someone else's. We measure that clearance from the loft.

Snow and pitch

Snow that settles on glass shuts the light off until it slides or melts. A steeper pitch sheds it sooner. Our note on whether opening rooflights leak covers the sealed edge of an opening sash.

Condensation in cold air

Cold air outside and warm, damp air inside meet at the glass, and a bathroom or kitchen makes the damp worse. Condensation on the inner face is the first sign that the glazing and the room do not suit each other. A frame with a thermal break and a sealed unit with warm-edge spacers keeps the inner face warmer, so less moisture settles on it. That choice is made with the room, because a bathroom needs more of it than a landing.

Exposure and pitch on a Ripponden roof

The pitch of the slope, how exposed it is to the prevailing weather, and the condition of the stone slates and verges around the planned position.

What will a roof window do to the look of our stone-slate roof?

Stone-slate roofs are some of the most distinctive in the Pennines, with their thick, uneven slabs laid in courses that shrink from the eaves towards the ridge. People are rightly wary of cutting into them, and the aim is to leave the coursing as undisturbed as possible. (We notify Building Control, which means Calderdale Council or a registered building control approver, once the position is agreed.)

Position and size do most of the work of keeping the roof looking whole.

Lining it up

A window that sits above a window in the wall below, or centred between two, looks planned. A window placed at random across the slope looks like an afterthought. We mark the position from the ground, then confirm it from the loft against the rafters, and adjust until the two agree.

Size and frame

A smaller unit lets more of the roof show, and several small units look better on a long slope than one large one. A slim, dark frame sits low among the stones. A conservation rooflight is made for exactly this, with a narrow frame and a central bar that echoes the glazing bars of the windows below.

Cutting the courses

Only the stone slates immediately around the frame are taken off. They go back in the order they came off, and any that has to be cut is cut square to the frame. Placing units in line with the windows below also leaves the coursing between them untouched. Because the courses grade in size, getting them back in sequence keeps the pattern of the roof.

A cracked stone

Old stone slates are brittle at the edges, and one near the opening may crack as it is lifted. A cracked slate is replaced with a matching stone, so the area does not read as a different colour afterwards.

Which side the neighbours see

On the valley sides some roofs are seen from above as well as from the road. A roof window may be visible from a hillside path or a house higher up, so we look at the roof from each place it is seen from. Whether a rooflight needs permission at all is set out in the planning rules for a new rooflight.

Roof words used in the valley

Coursing: The horizontal rows of slates, each row shorter than the one below.
Verge: The sloping edge of a roof where it meets a gable wall.
Glazing bar: A slim bar dividing the glass, used on conservation rooflights.
Eaves: The lower edge of the roof, where it overhangs the wall.

Our converted barn has a high ceiling. Can we have a rooflight that opens and that we can reach?

Some of the valley's old barns, mills and weaving sheds have been turned into homes, and they share a problem: ceilings that rise to the rafters, with windows set low in thick walls. The roof is the natural place for light, but a rooflight at the top of a tall ceiling is not one you can open with a pole.

That is where an electric opening unit is useful.

How an electric unit works

A small motor opens and closes the sash. A switch on the wall or a handheld remote operates it, which suits owners who would rather not climb to reach a sash, and many models have a rain sensor that shuts it automatically. It is the same kind of unit that suits a stairwell or a high landing, and our rundown of electric and opening rooflights covers the types.

Ventilation as well as light

Warm air collects under a high ceiling, and an opening rooflight at the top lets it out. In summer that helps a room that holds heat, and in a kitchen or bathroom it clears steam. The glazing can carry a solar-control coating if the slope faces south.

Power to the roof

An electric unit needs a supply, so we note where a cable can run to the opening. In a conversion with exposed timbers the route matters to the look of the room, and we plan it with that in mind. Where a cable run would spoil the old timbers of a conversion, a solar-powered unit, charged by a small panel on its own frame, needs no mains supply run up from the house below. The supply is part of the plan for the job, settled before the unit is ordered.

Where the unit goes in a barn

A barn roof is a long expanse of one slope with few landmarks, so the position comes from the room plan and the line of the trusses below. We mark it from the floor first, then confirm it from the roof so it lines up with the trusses. A unit centred between two trusses lights the room evenly and keeps the exposed timbers clear. On a long span, a pair of units spaced along the ridge can light more of the floor than one large one.

If the building is listed or protected

Converted agricultural and mill buildings may be listed or sit in a conservation area, and the permission for a conversion can limit later changes to the roof. We ask whether a new rooflight needs consent at the start.

Opening a rooflight you cannot reach

Type	Operated by	Suits
Electric	Switch on the wall, or a remote	High ceilings and stairwells
Manual with pole	Hooked pole	Rooms with a low sloping ceiling
Fixed	Does not open	Light only, no ventilation needed

Ripponden and the Pennine villages near it

We also work in Sowerby Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Elland and Halifax, and further afield in Hebden Bridge, Marsden and Slaithwaite. Our workmanship on the finished work is guaranteed for 10 years. To arrange a visit in Ripponden, send us a message on WhatsApp at 07880 284133.

Winter fitting and upland glazing in Ripponden

Can a rooflight be fitted in winter?

Work in the roof depends on the weather on the day, and we stop if wind or rain would leave the opening unprotected. The opening is covered each evening, and the roof is closed up before we leave the site.

Will a sun tunnel work in a bathroom under a pitched stone-slate roof?

A sun tunnel works where the roof sits directly above the bathroom and the loft has a clear line for the tube. The dome sits on the stone slate with its own flashing, and a rigid tube sends more light down than a flexible one that has to bend.

Is triple glazing worth having in an upland house?

Triple glazing adds a pane and a gas fill, which lowers heat loss but also lets in a little less light and weighs more. The choice depends on the room and the slope, and choosing the glazing compares the options in full.

Do I need to be at home during the work?

Someone needs to let us in and agree the position on the day. After that the work is on the roof and in the room beneath it, so you can carry on in the rest of the house. We cover the floor and furniture before cutting and clean up before leaving.

Get a free survey

No obligation
We survey before we price
WhatsApp or phone, whichever suits

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