Worsbrough skylights and rooflights for terraces, back kitchens and cellars

23.8 road miles south of Leeds city centre

Skylight installation in Worsbrough for the terrace kitchen in the back wing and the cellar below the house, with glass set in the roof or the ground above each.

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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.

Worsbrough rooms that sit behind the daylight

The windows at either end of a brick or stone terrace leave some rooms short of daylight, and these are the ones where it shows.

Back-wing kitchenA back-wing kitchen has one yard window, with walls closing in on the other sides.
CellarA cellar has little daylight beyond a small grating near the pavement, if any.
Attic bedroomAn attic bedroom under the slates takes the roof's heat and may have one small window.

What suits Worsbrough's terraces and estates

The room sets the choice first; the pitched slate, the flat extension roof or the yard above a cellar sets the rest.

Getting daylight and air into older Worsbrough houses

The answers cover a kitchen in a terrace's back wing and a cellar under the yard. They also cover cooling an attic bedroom under the slates.

Can the kitchen in a terrace's back wing be lit from the roof?

Victorian terraces in the Barnsley area can have a back wing, sometimes called an outrigger: a narrower part of the house reaching into the yard, with a kitchen or scullery on the ground floor and a bathroom or a small bedroom above. The kitchen in it has a single window facing the yard, and the walls of the main house and the neighbour's wall close in on the other sides. Skylight installation in Worsbrough often starts in that kitchen, because it is where the daylight stops soonest.

The roof above the back wing is lower than the main house, and usually simple: one pitched slope each way, or a lean-to against the neighbouring wall. That makes the position of a rooflight easy to read from the loft or from outside.

A pitched back wing

A roof window goes in between two rafters, and the daylight drops into the kitchen or the room above it. Over a worktop a top-hung unit leaves clear headroom, and a fixed pane does the same job if you do not need it to open.

A flat or lean-to roof

Some back wings gained a flat-roofed scullery or utility room at some point. A flat rooflight sits on an upstand in the roof covering and lights the room without needing a slope. Retrofitting one into an existing flat roof is the work that adding a rooflight to a flat roof already in place goes through.

Shared walls

A back wing often stands against the neighbour's wall, and the roof meets that wall at a flashing. Cutting an opening near the abutment needs care, because the lead or membrane there is a weak point on any roof. We look at it before the position of the glass is chosen.

The room above the kitchen

Where a bathroom or a small bedroom sits over the kitchen, the roof window is cut into the same slope but lights the upper room instead, with a short lined well down to the ceiling. In that case the kitchen below still depends on its yard window, and we tell you so. If both rooms are dim, two openings in the same roof may be the answer.

Permission and paperwork

Barnsley Council is the planning authority here, and the ordinary case, a rooflight in the rear slope of a house, is usually permitted development; the conditions are in the rooflight permission and building rules guide.

On the day

The kitchen is cleared and the floor sheeted, the roof is opened over the room, the frame is set and weathered, and the ceiling reveal is plastered.

Where the back-wing roof meets the neighbour

Whether the roof is pitched or flat, how it meets the neighbour's wall, and where the kitchen worktop sits under the opening.

Could a glass panel at ground level bring daylight to a cellar?

Some older terraces have a cellar under the front or the back of the house. It might hold the meters and the boiler, or it may have been made into a utility room, a workshop or a den. A cellar has little or no daylight because the only glass is a small grating near the pavement, if there is one.

A walk-on rooflight puts a pane of glass in the ground above the room, so people can step across it. A basement is the usual place for one, and walk-on rooflights for basements goes into the idea in more detail.

What the glass is

The panel is usually laminated and toughened glass, in a frame set level with the paving or floor. Each maker rates its panels for foot traffic, and we only fit one that its maker rates for the use you intend. A path you cross every day needs a different panel from a spot nobody walks on.

Where it can go

The panel needs a structure to sit on, and it must be set in the yard surface, an extension floor or a raised terrace slab. We look at the cellar ceiling from below and the surface above on the survey. Where the construction does not allow a panel to be set in safely, we say so.

Getting the glass in

Setting a panel into a yard surface means lifting a section of paving, cutting back to the structure and building a seat the frame can sit on. An extension floor is easier because the opening is made while the slab is being worked on. Either way the cellar below is protected with sheeting while the opening is formed.

Air for the cellar

A glazed panel gives light but does not by itself dry out a cellar. If the room holds damp, the cause is dealt with separately, so that a freshly lit room is not a freshly damp one. We tell you at the survey if anything we see needs attention before a panel goes in.

Keeping water out

A cellar is a place where damp matters. The frame is sealed into the surface and the surface falls away from it, so rain runs off the glass and across the paving without lying against the edge.

The slip question

Glass underfoot can be slippery when wet, and an outdoor panel needs a surface treatment that grips, and what to ask for is spelled out in walk-on rooflight load and slip ratings.

Myth: Glass in the floor is only for new builds.: Fact: A panel can be set into an existing yard or floor where the structure beneath will carry it.
Myth: A cellar window has to be at the front, by the pavement.: Fact: Light can arrive from a panel anywhere above the room, provided the structure allows it.

Which opening rooflight stops an attic bedroom turning stuffy in summer?

An attic bedroom under slates takes the heat of the roof. The ceiling is the underside of the roof itself, so the heat rises into the top of the room and stays there. Daylight comes in as well, which is what the owner wanted, but the room needs a way to breathe.

An opening unit gives the air a way out at the top of the room while the bed stays cool at the bottom. The same principle is described in opening rooflights for ventilation.

Pivot or top-hung

Over a bed or a desk, a centre-pivot sash turns on its midpoint and keeps furniture clear. Where headroom matters at the sill, a top-hung sash swings out from its head. In an attic with a low sloping ceiling the choice matters, because the pivoting sash swings inward at the top.

When the window is out of reach

A window set high in the roof over a stair or a tall room cannot be opened with a hand. An electric opening rooflight opens by switch or remote, and many models have a rain sensor that closes the unit when the first drops fall, as whether electric skylights close when it rains shows.

Cutting the heat as well

Opening is one way to deal with a hot room. A coating on the glass that cuts solar gain is another, and a blind inside or outside the glass is a third. A room that gets strong sun usually benefits from more than one of them.

Blinds for the afternoon

An attic window with the sun on it for much of the afternoon benefits from a blind. A blind fixed to the frame sits close to the glass, and an outside blind stops the sun before it reaches the glass at all. Which way the slope faces is recorded at the survey, and the blind is chosen with that in mind. Blinds are a separate purchase from the window, so the choice can wait until the glass is in and you have seen the light at different hours.

Sizing the unit to the room

A larger window admits more daylight and more heat. An attic bedroom with a single wide window can run warmer than one with a narrower unit and a gap either side, so the size is a balance. We measure the floor and the slope and agree the size with you before anything is ordered.

Power supply

An electric unit needs a cable. We plan the cable route on the survey, usually through the loft or down the reveal.

Around Worsbrough in South Yorkshire

We work in Barnsley itself, Birdwell, Hoyland, Dodworth, Wombwell, Cudworth, Barugh Green and Darfield, as well as Brampton across the border into Rotherham. The first survey is free, and you can arrange yours by phoning 0113 436 0654.

Slate wings, plaster ceilings and yard glass in Worsbrough

Can a rooflight go in a house with a slate back wing and a tiled main roof?

Each roof takes its own flashing kit, so we note the covering over the room you want lit. A slate back wing takes a kit made for slate, and a tiled main roof takes one made for the tile profile.

Will old plaster ceilings cope with an opening cut through them?

Older plaster is more brittle than plasterboard, so the cut is made with care and the area is sheeted first. The edges are made good and the reveal is plastered so the ceiling meets the frame cleanly.

Can a rooflight replace a small window that is already in the back wing?

The old window can stay or be filled in depending on the room. We look at what the wall window already gives, since the aim is to add daylight in the part of the room it does not reach.

Is a cellar rooflight safe where children play in the yard?

A walk-on panel is rated by its maker for foot traffic, and an outdoor one is given a slip-resistant surface. The edges are set flush with the paving so nobody trips on them.

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