Alvechurch rooflight and skylight installation
Bordesley cottages to Rowney Green farmhouses.
Roof windows, flat rooflights and sun tunnels for Alvechurch homes, each quote setting the units that suit your roof next to one another. The survey is free.
- Distance
- About 11 road miles south of central Birmingham
- Planning
- Bromsgrove District Council
- Housing
- Brick cottages and tiled farmhouses, converted farm buildings, later estate homes
- Roofs
- Clay-tiled pitches, plus single-storey kitchen and garden-room extensions
Alvechurch roofs, and the rooflight each one suits
A tiled farmhouse roof around Rowney Green?
Long tiled slopes often take a roof window cleanly once the rafters are measured.
A cottage in the village centre?
Low eaves and old timbers mean we measure the roof before suggesting a size.
A flat-roofed kitchen extension on a later estate?
A flat rooflight, or else a compact lantern, with both costed on the quote.
What suits the roofs of Alvechurch
- Roof window
- Flat rooflight
- Sun tunnel
Set into the slope of a pitched roof, a roof window lights a bedroom, a landing or a study in the roof space. A flat rooflight sits on a kerb above a flat extension roof and spreads even daylight below.
Which one belongs on your house depends on the roof you have, so the written quote shows both on the same rows and leaves the decision with you.
Roof window
- Roof
- Pitched, tile or slate
- Light
- Angled and generous
- Fresh air
- Opens, by hand or motor
Flat rooflight
- Roof
- Flat, with a kerb
- Light
- Even and overhead
- Fresh air
- Fixed, or an opening unit
Older roofs in and around the village
Walk the lanes around the village centre and you will pass brick cottages with low eaves, tiled roofs that have settled over the years and the odd farm building that has been turned into a home. Roofs like these were not framed with a roof window in mind, so the first job at a survey is to look at what is under the tiles.
Rafters in an older roof are rarely spaced to suit a modern window. Where the gap is wide enough the window drops in between them. Where it is a little too narrow, a rafter can be trimmed and a new header fitted, and that is structural carpentry we agree with you before it goes on the quote. Beneath the tiles we also look at the condition of the battens and the felt around the opening, because a new flashing is only as good as what it sits on.
Sizes are chosen from inside as much as outside. A window set too high gives you sky and no view, and one set too low can sit behind a bed head. We stand in the room, mark the position and agree the height with you before ordering. For the opening types and sizes, our roof window installation page goes through the range.
| Item | Usual unit | What we check |
|---|---|---|
| Clay-tiled pitch | Roof window | Rafter gap, tile profile, flashing kit |
| Flat extension roof | Flat rooflight or lantern | Fall, kerb height, roof covering |
| Dark landing or bathroom under a pitch | Sun tunnel | Route between the roof and the ceiling |
Raised on a measuring visit
Our landing has no window and no room for one. What are the options?
A sun tunnel is a tube that brings daylight from a little dome up on the slope to a diffuser in the ceiling. It needs far less structure than a roof window, and we can quote the two together so you see the difference in light.
Converted farm buildings and big slopes
Where a barn or outbuilding has become a house, the roof slope is often long and uninterrupted, and a row of matching windows can look better than one large unit placed alone. A group of three at even spacing reads as a plan; a single large window mid-slope can look like an afterthought.
Exposed timbers inside change the choice too. A roof window with a deep splay, a lining that angles the daylight into the room, shows off a beam rather than cutting across it. At the survey we look at where the beams fall, so the quote shows how the light would meet the timber.
- Rafter spacing measured, not assumed
- Flashing matched to the tile profile
- Height of the window agreed from inside the room
Light, heat and a south-facing slope
A bedroom in a tiled roof can run warm on a sunny afternoon, and the slope that faces south catches the most of it. Glass with a solar control coating holds back part of the heat, and the price is a slightly cooler tint in the daylight. A plain clear pane lets in more of the winter light, which matters on a slope that faces north.
Blinds are the other half of the answer. A blind that fits the window frame, fitted on the inside or the outside, keeps the room cooler and darker when you want it, and the simplest course is to order it together with the window, in one go. Our solar control glass guide compares the coatings.
For a bedroom under a tiled slope
Clear glass
- Winter light
- Strongest
- Summer heat
- Needs a blind
- Tint
- None
Solar control
- Winter light
- A little lower
- Summer heat
- Reduced
- Tint
- Slight, cooler
Kitchen extensions behind the older houses
Where a later estate home has a flat-roofed kitchen or dining extension, the roof is the right place for a flat rooflight, a lantern or a pair of smaller units. A flat roof about to be re-covered is a neat time to fit one, because the same visit can form the kerb and the opening and lay the new covering. We can price the rooflight to fit around your roofer's work, or quote the whole roof as a single job, whichever you prefer.
The size of the unit follows the room. A galley kitchen takes a long, narrow flat rooflight along its length. A square dining room can carry a pyramid lantern. The shapes are set out on our pages for flat roof rooflight installation and roof lantern installation, and we can help you decide which makes sense for your room.
Planning, conservation and Building Control
- Planning
- Listed
- Notifying
Planning applications in Alvechurch are decided by Bromsgrove District Council. Permitted development allows roof windows and rooflights in plenty of cases, and the conditions, which are set nationally, are explained in our rooflight planning guide.
A listed building needs its own consent whatever that right allows, and a condition on its permission or an Article 4 direction may remove the right from a particular house. With older cottages and converted farm buildings, it pays to check the history of the property before ordering anything. We look at your address with the council's published information and tell you what we find, and the council decides.
If the house sits within a conservation area, the front slope and any slope that faces the road are the ones that attract questions. The quote usually includes a slim conservation rooflight among its options, one that sits low and has a dark frame with a single glazing bar. Our conservation area rooflight guide explains how those cases are handled.
| Item | Who | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Bromsgrove District Council | See where the property stands and draw up plans should an application be required |
| Building Regulations | Building Control | Notify where the work is notifiable |
| Listed buildings | The council, with its conservation officers | Tell you early if consent looks likely |
Raised while measuring up
Can the roof carry a bigger window than the one we have?
Sometimes, if the opening can be widened within the rafter layout. We measure it first and show a larger and a same-size option on one quote.
Replacing an old window with a new one
An older rooflight that has clouded up between the panes may need nothing more than a new sealed glass unit, as long as the frame is sound. A warped frame points to a whole new unit as the better route, and that is notifiable work, so we notify Building Control and you get the certificate after sign-off.
Our page on misted rooflight replacement sets out how to tell the two cases apart. The survey covers the frame, the seals and the roof around the unit, and the quote follows whichever route the condition of the window supports.
What the work is held to
As far as the Regulations are concerned, a roof opening cut afresh is building work, and a whole replacement rooflight is a controlled fitting needing notification. In an existing dwelling a rooflight has to stay at or under 2.2 W/m²K; a roof window is judged like any other window, by WER Band B or by 1.4 W/m²K. Every unit on our quotes is chosen to meet those figures, and our rooflight Building Regulations guide gives the detail.
Every unit we fit is covered by 10 years of our workmanship guarantee, with the maker's warranty for the unit itself added on top. Our area reaches 30 road miles out from Birmingham, and Alvechurch sits about 11 road miles south of the city, well inside it.
Around Bordesley, Rowney Green and Alvechurch
Surveys reach all of Alvechurch, from the village centre and Bordesley out to Rowney Green and Hopwood.
Nearby places we cover
Help with an Alvechurch skylight
Which authority do I apply to for a roof window on a village cottage?
Bromsgrove District Council. Permitted development covers many rooflights, within the conditions in our rooflight planning guide, though that can change for a listed building, or where a condition on its permission, or an Article 4 direction, bears on the house. We check your address first and the council makes the decision.
Will a roof window fit between the rafters of my old tiled roof?
It depends on the gap and the age of the timbers. We measure at the survey, and if a rafter has to be trimmed we explain the structural work and put it on the quote beforehand.
Can a barn conversion take several roof windows in a row?
A long clear slope usually can. We compare a matched run of smaller windows with one larger unit, and look at where the internal beams fall before settling the layout.
Do you notify Building Control for a rooflight?
Notifiable work covers a fresh roof opening and a complete replacement unit; either way we notify Building Control, and the certificate comes to you after sign-off. A job that only swaps the sealed glass, leaving a sound frame in place, is not notifiable.
Will a sun tunnel do for a dark landing in a village cottage?
It brings in softer daylight than a roof window and needs a smaller opening. We quote both, so the light each one gives you can be compared, and our sun tunnel installation page covers the rigid and flexible tubes.
Can I fit a roof window in my loft conversion?
A loft room is lit and aired by roof windows, and we fit them for builders and homeowners. Where the house has two storeys, the escape for a loft conversion is a protected stair, with the roof window serving daylight and fresh air only. See our loft conversion roof windows page.
Will a new window make my bedroom too hot in summer?
It can on a south-facing slope, which is why we quote solar control glass and an inside or outside blind as options. Shade, glass and ventilation together decide how the room feels, so we look at the slope's aspect at the survey.
Can you fit a flat rooflight when my extension roof is re-covered?
Yes, and it is often the neatest moment. We coordinate the opening and the kerb with the new covering, or quote the whole roof ourselves.
Do you travel out to Alvechurch from Birmingham for surveys?
Alvechurch lies south of the city centre, some 11 road miles off, well within the 30 road miles we cover. The survey itself happens in your house, wherever in the village you live.
What is in the written quote I get after the survey at my Alvechurch home?
A written list of the suitable units, with a line for each covering what the glass is, how the frame is made, how it opens, when the maker can supply it, and what it costs. Book a free survey and we will come to the house.
Book your free survey
It starts with a free survey and plain advice. No pressure, just clear options for your home.
Fill in the form and we will be in touch to arrange a convenient time.