Skylight and rooflight fitting in Castle Bromwich
Old village roofs to interwar semi streets.
Lanterns on rear extensions, roof windows in loft rooms and flat rooflights over kitchens, each set beside a second option on a written quote for your Castle Bromwich roof. Free survey.
- Distance
- About 7 road miles north-east of central Birmingham
- Planning
- Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
- Housing
- Interwar and post-war semis, later estates, a few older village buildings
- Conservation
- Listed buildings need listed building consent; we check your address
Starting from the roof you have in Castle Bromwich
An interwar semi with a long rear garden?
Room for a deep extension with a lantern or a pair of rooflights.
A pitched roof near the Hall Gardens?
We check the address for listing or conditions before suggesting a unit.
An older flat-roofed extension with a tired plastic dome?
A glass rooflight or lantern made to fit the existing opening.
Lanterns, frames and the garden room
- Aluminium
- uPVC
- Timber
A lantern is a visible part of the house from the garden, so its frame matters as much as its glass. Aluminium and uPVC are the two materials most lanterns are made in, and they differ in sightlines, upkeep and finish.
A written quote can put one of each side by side for the same opening, with the glass specification held constant, so the frame is the only thing you are choosing between.
Aluminium lantern
- Frame
- Slim, strong, many colours
- Upkeep
- Wipe clean, no repainting
- Look
- Crisp, contemporary lines
uPVC lantern
- Frame
- Wider, white or woodgrain finishes
- Upkeep
- Wipe clean
- Look
- Familiar, softer lines
Deep gardens, wide extensions
Streets of interwar and post-war semis run through Castle Bromwich, and the plots behind them give room for a deep rear extension. A kitchen and dining room built across the back of such a house can be broad enough to carry a lantern comfortably, and the room beneath often has a ceiling high enough to show it off. Where the extension is narrower, a pair of flat rooflights, or one long one, lights the room more evenly than a single lantern would.
We size the roof glazing from the room beneath it. An island or a dining table suggests a lantern over the centre, a run of units along the worktops suggests rooflights above them, and a window wall that already lets in light from the garden changes where the roof needs it most. The quote draws each option at whatever size suits the room beneath it. Our pages on roof lantern sizes and aluminium and uPVC lanterns go into the dimensions and the frames in detail.
| Item | Room beneath | Unit we would compare | What decides it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wide kitchen-diner | Open plan, high ceiling | Roof lantern | Ceiling height and the span the roof can carry |
| Narrow side return | Galley kitchen or utility | Long flat rooflight | Width of the opening and the fall of the roof |
| Garden room | Sofa and table | Lantern or rooflight pair | How much sun the garden takes |
| Loft room | Bedroom or study | Roof window | Rafters, covering and headroom |
Loft rooms under hipped and gabled roofs
Away from the extensions, the main roofs of the semis are the other place a rooflight earns its keep. Hipped roofs leave less flat slope to work with than gabled ones, because the hip eats into the length of each side, and that affects how many windows fit and how large they can be. A gable end can sometimes take a window of its own, and a conversion that squares off the hip gives a bigger slope to light the new room.
Before suggesting a size we check the rafters, the roof covering and how much height there is inside. In a VELUX code such as MK04, the letter gives the width and the digits give the height, which means a quote listing several codes compares real openings and not only names. Our page on roof window sizes explains how to read them, and the roof window installation page covers the opening types.
Where the house has two storeys, the loft conversion gets a protected stair for escape, so its roof windows are there for light and air. A bungalow or chalet whose rooms in the roof sit within 4.5m of the ground can rely on a roof window for the way out. We tell you which case yours is, so the windows on the quote suit their job.
Asked on a visit
How do we stop a lantern making the kitchen too bright or too warm?
Through the glass. Summer sun is tamed by a solar control coating, and a blind inside or a tinted pane suits a south-facing garden. We put the glass options on the quote beside the frame options, so you can see what each does.
Old plastic domes and tired rooflights
Extensions built a few decades ago often carry a plastic dome that has yellowed, or a polycarbonate lantern that has crazed or started to leak at the edges. A glass lantern or a flat rooflight can replace it in the same opening, with the kerb checked and raised if the new covering needs it. Notifiable work includes swapping a complete unit, and we handle the paperwork with Building Control for you.
If the glass alone has misted while the frame stays in good order, a new sealed unit may be sufficient. Our pages on replacing a polycarbonate dome and a misted rooflight sealed unit explain when one answer or the other applies.
Listed buildings, planning and signing off the work
- Listed
- Planning
- Sign-off
Listed buildings and permitted development
Castle Bromwich has older buildings that are listed, and Castle Bromwich Hall is the best known of them. Permitted development can only go so far: for a rooflight in a listed building, listed building consent must be obtained first. We can say whether your house is listed and what the consent route involves, but the council decides.
For an older house that is not listed, a slim conservation rooflight is the unit to weigh against a standard roof window, particularly on a slope that faces the road. Our page on rooflights on listed buildings explains the consent process.
For an older roof with a visible slope
Conservation rooflight
- Frame
- Slim, dark, one glazing bar
- Profile
- Low, close to the slates or tiles
- Cost
- Higher
Standard roof window
- Frame
- Wider surround, flush finish
- Profile
- Slightly raised above the covering
- Cost
- Lower
Who decides, and who we notify
For planning purposes Castle Bromwich belongs to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. Permitted development frequently applies to rooflights, on the conditions in our rooflight planning guide, and a house can lose those rights if a planning condition says so or an Article 4 direction removes them. Before we quote, your address is looked up, and if an application is the right route we supply the drawings for it.
The Building Regulations call for notification of a new roof opening, and of a whole replacement rooflight, and the notification goes from us to Building Control, either with the council itself or with a registered building control approver. The certificate is yours once the job has passed sign-off. If the frame stays and only the sealed glass unit changes, no notification is needed. Our page on rooflights and the Building Regulations sets out the rules.
Our 10-year workmanship guarantee protects each fitting, and the maker's own warranty applies to the unit itself.
- Listing and conditions checked for your address
- Kerb and covering inspected before a lantern is priced
- Two suitable units from different makers on the quote
- Building Control notification handled
Glass choices for heat and cold
Roof glass gets the full weight of the sun in summer and loses warmth fastest in winter, so the glass specification deserves as much thought as the frame. Under Part L (2021), a replacement rooflight in an existing home has to meet the 2.2 W/m²K limit, while roof windows are held to the ordinary window standard of Window Energy Rating Band B, or a U-value of 1.4 W/m²K.
Beyond the minimum, the quote offers double and triple glazing, solar control coatings and self-cleaning finishes, each on matching rows. Our pages on double and triple glazed rooflights and condensation on rooflights describe what each choice does and where it gives ground.
Questions to settle at the survey
- Which direction the roof or garden faces, and how much shade falls on it
- Whether the room below is used in the day, in the evening or both
- Whether you want to open the unit, and who can reach the handle
- Whether a blind is wanted, and if so inside or outside
- What the roof covering is, and when it was last renewed
Walk-on glass and flat-roof details
Where the flat roof of a kitchen extension or a garage doubles as a terrace, a walk-on rooflight can light the room below without losing the usable surface. It is a different product from an ordinary flat rooflight, with thicker laminated glass and often a non-slip finish, and it is priced and fitted differently. Our guide to walk-on rooflights compares the glass and the frames.
For an ordinary flat roof, the rooflight is only half the job, and the covering is the other half. EPDM, GRP and felt each need their own upstand and sealing details, so we identify the covering at the survey and quote the fitting that suits it. Our page on rooflights for EPDM, GRP and felt roofs describes the differences.
Covering Castle Bromwich: Buckland End and Castle Vale
We cover the whole of Castle Bromwich, from the streets around the Hall Gardens to the interwar and post-war roads beyond them, with Buckland End, Shard End and Castle Vale close by.
Nearby places we cover
Questions about rooflights in Castle Bromwich
Is Castle Bromwich covered by Solihull for planning?
Yes. Planning applications for Castle Bromwich go to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. Permitted development often applies; the conditions are in our rooflight planning guide, and your address gets looked up when we survey, before anything is ordered.
My house is listed. Can it still have a rooflight?
It may, with listed building consent, which the council decides. We look at the roof, the historic fabric and the slope that faces the road, and a conservation rooflight is often the unit to compare. See our page on listed building rooflight consent.
Can a lantern go on an older post-war extension?
Usually, once we have checked the roof structure and the kerb. A lantern is heavier than a flat rooflight, so we confirm what the roof can carry and say on the quote if anything needs strengthening or a new kerb.
Which lantern frame lasts longest?
Both aluminium and uPVC are made for long service, and neither needs repainting. Aluminium has slimmer sightlines and more colours, while uPVC usually costs less. The maker's warranty and our 10-year workmanship guarantee apply to both.
Can you replace the plastic dome on our flat-roofed extension?
We can fit a glass rooflight or lantern in the same opening, once the kerb and the covering around the opening have been checked. If the roof covering is due for renewal, doing the two together saves disturbing the roof twice.
Will a roof window work in a semi with a hipped roof?
It can, in the main slope or a gable end. Because a hip shortens the slope available for windows, we mark out the possible positions on the rafters while at the survey and compare more than one size.
What if the glass in my rooflight has misted but the frame is fine?
Then a replacement sealed unit can often be fitted into the existing frame. If the frame is worn or the seals have failed beyond saving, we quote a whole new rooflight and say so. Book a free survey and we will look at it.
Do you only fit lanterns, or can I have a plain roof window too?
Both, and rooflights for flat roofs besides. A house can suit a mix, such as a lantern over the new kitchen and a roof window in the loft, and a single survey covers all of them with one written quote.
Do you cover Buckland End and Shard End as well as Castle Bromwich itself?
Both are covered as well, as the village is roughly 7 road miles north-east of the middle of Birmingham, comfortably inside the 30 road miles we cover. Surveys are carried out in your own house, whichever part of the village you live in.
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