Skylight and rooflight work in Essington

A bungalow loft is a roof with a lot of floor space under it and no windows to the sides. Once the room is planned, the next choice is how the windows open, because a roof window sits above arm height in some positions and within easy reach in others.

A manual window has a handle and costs less to fit. Opening at a button, an electric window fitted with a rain sensor can shut itself when it rains, which suits a high or awkward spot. The quote lays the two side by side.

Using the roof of a bungalow

Essington has bungalows and chalet-style homes, and the roof space in them is often the easiest part of the house to turn into a bedroom or a study. A roof window in a house of that height can act as the escape for a room in the roof, so long as the floor of the room is inside the 4.5m height limit. A loft in a two-storey house calls for a protected stair, which makes it a separate case altogether.

At the survey we check the height, the stair and the drawings, and you hear which of the two cases your house falls into before any window is sized. If a conversion is planned with a builder, we look at the layout first so each window falls where a bed, a desk or a wardrobe will go, and not behind one.

Our page on roof windows as a fire escape explains the height rule in full, and the one on roof windows for loft conversions sets out sizes.

Garages turned into rooms

A flat-roofed garage that has become a utility room, an office or a playroom often has a roof that was never designed to admit light. The ceiling is low, the walls are bare, and one small window does the rest. A flat rooflight changes that room more than almost anything else you can do to it.

Because a garage roof is often low, the kerb height and the covering both matter. We check the deck, the fall and the covering, and the quote says whether the roof should be re-covered when the rooflight goes in. Our flat roof rooflight page compares the frame types.

Landings, halls and bathrooms in semis

A semi or a detached family house on the village roads can have a stair landing with no window at all, or a bathroom against the middle of the house. If there is a loft above and a short, straight run to the ceiling, a sun tunnel brings in daylight with the smallest opening on the roof.

A small roof window in a room that sits directly under the slope brings in more light, a view and fresh air. Our page on sun tunnels for a hallway shows how the two compare in a dark passage.

South Staffordshire Council takes the planning decisions for Essington. Many rooflights can go in under permitted development, with the conditions explained in our rooflight planning guide. Before any rooflight goes into a listed house, listed building consent is required, whatever permitted development allows, and the right may not apply to an ordinary house that carries a condition on its permission or lies within an Article 4 direction.

The survey includes a look at your address; the council makes the final call. A rooflight set into a new opening, or a whole unit swapped for another, must be reported to Building Control under the Regulations, and the notification falls to us. A sealed glass unit changed alone, in a frame that is sound, is not notifiable.

Choosing glass for a room in the roof

A bedroom in a bungalow roof is often the warmest room in summer, since the roof takes the sun all day. The glass you choose changes that. Coated solar control glass limits how much of the sun's warmth gets through, and a blind on the window helps further. The coating tints the view slightly, which some people notice and others do not.

Under Part L of the 2021 Building Regulations, a roof window in an existing home takes Window Energy Rating Band B or 1.4 W/m²K, while for a rooflight the Part L figure is 2.2 W/m²K. Good double glazing will usually meet this, and each option on the quote has its glazing listed, which keeps the comparison fair. Our page on solar control rooflight glass has more.

Rain on a roof window is louder than rain on a wall window. A laminated pane softens it, and we can quote one for a bedroom.

Extensions and conservatories with tired roofs

A conservatory or an extension with an old polycarbonate or glass roof can be too hot, too cold or noisy in the rain. A solid roof fitted with a lantern, or with two flat rooflights, often replaces it, keeping daylight while giving the room insulation overhead. The change is a bigger job than a rooflight alone, because the roof structure is altered.

We survey the room, measure the span and compare the options in writing. Where the work involves building a new roof, the Building Regulations and the planning position are checked first, and the quote says what applies. Our roof lantern page shows the shapes available.