Skylight and rooflight installation for the old streets and terraces of York
29 road miles north-east of Leeds city centre
Skylight installation in York, from houses inside the city walls to the Victorian terraces beyond them, with rooflights set where protected streets and deep plans leave rooms short of daylight.
What York's deep terraces and old town houses leave without a window
Narrow frontages and long plans put the middle of the house far from any glass, in old houses and Victorian ones alike.
Terrace middle roomParty walls take up the sides of a Victorian terrace's middle room, leaving it almost no outside wall.
Attic bedroomA bedroom in the roof of an old town house has one small window and sloping ceilings.
Narrow landingThe landing of a narrow town house gets daylight only from a stair window at the far end.
Units for York's clay tile and slate roofs
A protected street, a Victorian terrace and a rear extension each ask for a different unit.
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Conservation Rooflights
A slim black-framed rooflight, low in the slope, for a roof that is listed or sits in one of the city's conservation areas.
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Roof Windows
A roof window above an attic bedroom or a terrace stair, set between the rafters of a tiled or slated slope.
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Sun Tunnels
A sun tunnel brings daylight from the roof to a landing or bathroom that has no wall for a window.
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Flat Roof Rooflights
A flat rooflight on a rear outrigger or extension roof lights the room behind the main house.
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Misted Rooflight Replacement
An attic rooflight that has clouded has lost its edge seal, so we supply a sealed replacement unit or a replacement rooflight.
York questions about protected streets and clay-tile roofs
These questions come from the walled city and from the streets of brick terraces around it.
What is involved in putting a rooflight into a listed house in York, or one in a conservation area?
The historic centre of York is a conservation area, and others cover older streets beyond the walls. City of York Council holds the records for each address, listed or not, and we look yours up before a unit is chosen. With neither a listing nor a conservation area in play, no application is usually needed for a rooflight on a house, and our planning and Building Regulations explainer for skylights gives the conditions.
Inside the walls
A roof in the old centre is seen from lanes, from the walls and from neighbouring upper windows, so where a rooflight sits matters as much as what it is. We begin with the rear slope, out of view of the street, whenever the room beneath can be lit from there.
A listed house
Consent for a listed building covers its roof as well as its walls. An application names the unit, its size and where it goes on the slope. Conservation officers often ask for a slim conservation rooflight with a low black frame on an old roof.
Article 4 and ordinary houses
Where a conservation area has an Article 4 direction, permitted development is withdrawn, so a rooflight needing no application on one Victorian street in York may need one on the next. Flats are outside permitted development for roof alterations, which usually means permission is needed, so ask the council.
Choosing the slope for a listed roof
On a listed house the rear slope is again the first choice, and the unit is the smallest that does the job. A single rooflight above the stair serves landing and hall together, which can be easier to justify than several small ones. With the unit and its size named in the written quote beforehand, the application describes what will actually be built.
Replacing a rooflight already in the roof
Exchanging a unit in the opening it already has affects less of the roof than starting a new cut. The house is still checked, since a listed one can need consent for an exchange, and a replacement that matches the old one from the street draws fewer questions.
What we ask of a York address
Any listing, the conservation area boundary and any Article 4 direction, and the slope visible from a lane or street.
How is a roof window fitted into a York roof of plain clay tiles?
York's older roofs carry clay tiles, either small plain tiles or the wavy pantiles, and slate covers the roofs of Victorian houses. A roof window or rooflight is set through whatever covering lies above the room that wants light, and that covering dictates how the frame is weathered. The units are described on the roof window installation page.
Lifting and keeping the tiles
Old clay tiles are worth keeping, so we lift the ones round the opening by hand and stack them for laying back. Where a tile breaks, we match it to what is on the roof as closely as we can. Battens underneath are cut back to the frame line, and trimmers tie the rafters either side.
The flashing
The frame sits in a flashing kit made for the profile of the covering. On plain tiles it steps with the rows; on pantiles it follows the wave. Either way, water passes round the frame and returns to the roof. The tiles above are laid to lap over the flashing's top edge.
Pantile roofs
The wave of a pantile leaves a gap along each side, and the flashing is shaped to close it. A roof of pantiles asks for a kit that follows the curve, so a flat one made for slate would leave openings at the troughs.
Old rafters under old tiles
The timbers under a clay roof can be old and uneven, and the spacing between them is not always regular. The width of the opening follows the gap between two rafters, and the frame size is chosen to fit it. Where an old rafter has to be cut, trimmers carry its load and the roof is built back to its original line.
A frame colour that sits right
A black or dark grey frame suits clay tile, slate and the stone of the older houses. On a protected roof the slim conservation type lies lowest in the covering.
Keeping the weather out
An open roof is covered at the end of each day, so rain does not reach the ceiling. The room below is sheeted before cutting, and the tiles are laid back as soon as the frame is in.
Clay-roof words used on York roofs
- Plain tile
- A small flat clay tile that overlaps the ones below in even rows.
- Pantile
- A clay tile with a wavy profile, laid with each edge overlapping the next.
- Batten
- A slim timber strip laid across the rafters to carry the tiles.
- Trimmer
- A timber fixed between the cut rafters to carry their load past the opening.
How do you light the middle room of a Victorian terrace outside the York city walls?
A Victorian terrace in York is built in a long, narrow plan: a front room onto the street, a middle room behind it, a kitchen at the back and bedrooms above. The middle room has party walls on both sides and doors at each end, so the roof is the only outside surface above it.
What sits above the middle room
Over a through-terrace, the first floor and the roof lie above the middle room, and a tube or light well from the roof has to pass through the bedroom above. That works where the rooms upstairs allow it. Should the bedroom above block the way, the answer lies elsewhere: a window in the roof over the stair, or a rooflight in the back kitchen roof.
The back outrigger
Terraces often have a lower back wing, called an outrigger, with a kitchen or a bathroom in it. Its flat or low pitched roof takes a flat rooflight that lights the kitchen, and the daylight spills through the open door into the middle room. Our flat roof rooflights page describes these units.
A sun tunnel through the loft
Where the middle room has only a bedroom and a loft above, a sun tunnel runs from the dome through the roof space and the bedroom ceiling. Our sun tunnel installation page explains the parts. Rigid tubes pass more light along a given length than flexible ones.
Cutting the roof
Any new opening alters the roof structure. On York roofs the quote sets down the unit, how big it is and which room it lights, and we notify Building Control about the cut.
Bathrooms and the stair in the same house
A terrace that has a bathroom in the back wing and a stair against the party wall has two rooms that need daylight from the roof. One roof window over the stair can serve both landing and hall, and a rooflight over the back wing serves the bathroom. See roof window installation for the unit over a stair.
Keeping clear of the party wall
A shared wall runs between the roofs of a terrace, and a unit has to sit clear of it. The position is planned so the frame and its flashing stay on your own side of the roof.
- Myth: A room with no outside wall cannot be lit from the roof.
- Fact: A tube, a light well or a rooflight on a lower roof next door to the room can carry daylight into it.
- Myth: Only the top floor of a terrace gains from a roof window.
- Fact: A window over the stair carries daylight down through the house, so the landing and the hall gain as well.
Round the walls and out to Bishopthorpe
Out from York we also work in Bishopthorpe, Upper Poppleton, Copmanthorpe, Tadcaster and Boston Spa, with Selby and Wetherby further out. We guarantee the workmanship on every York installation for ten years, and the form on this site is the way to ask for a first visit.
York answers on lanterns and cloudy glass
Can a roof lantern go onto a York extension without disturbing the old brickwork?
A lantern stands on a kerb raised from the roof deck, and the kerb sits clear of the old wall by the width the flashing needs. Where extension meets house, a separate flashing is dressed into the brickwork. Whatever the roof covering, be it felt, EPDM rubber or GRP fibreglass, it climbs the kerb and is sealed.
Why has the rooflight in our York attic gone cloudy between the panes?
When glass clouds between the panes, the seal round the sealed unit has gone, and wiping the outside will not clear it. We supply a replacement glazed unit or a whole replacement rooflight, depending on the frame. On an older attic we also look at whether a unit with a lower U-value would suit the opening.
Will a roof window in a York terrace roof be heard in heavy rain?
Rain on glass can sound different from rain on tile, so the glazing is one of the points to raise when a unit for a bedroom under the roof is chosen. The insulation packed round the frame inside the roof is part of the installation, and the glazing options are explained when the unit is picked.
How is a sun tunnel dome kept watertight on a clay tile roof?
The dome sits on a base fixed through the tiles, and the base has a flashing shaped to the covering, so water runs round it and back onto the tiles. The tiles above the base are cut to lap over its top edge, and the sound ones are laid back around it.
Does an electric opening rooflight suit a high stairwell in an old town house?
An electric opening rooflight is operated from a switch or remote, which suits a stairwell ceiling too high for a pole. Many models carry a sensor that closes the unit when rain lands on it. Over a stairwell it lets warm air out as well as letting light in.
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