Fazeley skylights and rooflights, surveyed and fitted
Bonehill extensions, Mile Oak semis.
Flat rooflights and lanterns for rear extensions and roof windows for loft rooms, with every option priced together in a single written quote. Free survey at your Fazeley home.
- Distance
- About 18 road miles north-east of central Birmingham
- Planning
- Lichfield District Council
- Housing
- Older terraces near the centre, semis and detached houses on later roads
- Access
- Surveys at your home; the roof is inspected from inside and out
Fazeley roofs and the rooflights that fit them
A terraced house near the town centre?
A narrow plan and a tiled slope, so a roof window or a long, slim flat rooflight.
A semi in Mile Oak with a flat-roofed kitchen?
A flat rooflight or a lantern, sized to the room and compared on one quote.
A detached house in Bonehill with a loft to use?
Roof windows set between the rafters, with the opening type matched to the room.
Lantern or flat rooflight over the new kitchen
- Lantern
- Flat rooflight
- Roof window
Many rooflight questions from a town the size of Fazeley begin with an extension. The back of the house has been opened up, a flat roof has gone on, and the new room is darker in the middle than anyone expected.
Two units answer that. The comparison here is the one we put on a quote when the roof is flat, and the table beside it shows how they differ on the measures that tend to decide the matter.
Lantern
- Shape
- Rises above the roof with glazed sides
- Light
- From above and from the sides
- Ceiling
- A tall feature over the room
Flat rooflight
- Shape
- Low, almost level with the roof
- Light
- From directly above
- Ceiling
- A neat opening, little visible from outside
Put to us at the quote stage
The extension roof is only just big enough. Is a lantern too much?
On a small roof a lantern can feel crowded from the garden, and a flat rooflight often looks calmer. We draw both at the size of your opening so you can see the proportion before you choose.
Sizing for a room, not a catalogue
A rooflight is measured from the room beneath it. The width of the table, the position of the kitchen island, the line of the bifold doors and the height of the neighbour's fence all change what the unit should do. A lantern directly over a dining table gives a pool of daylight that follows the sun round. A pair of flat rooflights set either side of the middle gives the same room two even bands of light and leaves a clear ceiling where the downlights go.
Sooner or later a flat extension roof reaches the end of its first covering. When yours is due, a single visit can deal with the kerb, the new opening and the covering over it, and our page on adding a lantern to an existing flat roof walks through the steps.
Houses from several periods
Around the centre of Fazeley you will find older terraced houses with steep tiled slopes and little depth to the plan. A roof window above a stair or a back bedroom brings daylight in without changing the street view, and where the slope faces the road, a slim conservation-style unit sitting low in the tiles is worth pricing next to a standard window. Our page on conservation rooflight installation sets out the finishes.
Mile Oak and the roads of later suburban building offer a different set of roofs: semis and detached houses with larger lofts, bigger rafters and a straight run to the ridge. Here the roof windows are usually about the room. A bedroom in the roof wants a window it can open fully for air, and a study wants a blind that cuts glare from a screen. We compare the opening types and the blinds on the same sheet.
Where a house in Bonehill or elsewhere in the town has a long rear garden, there is often room for an extension of some depth. A deep room needs light further back, which a lantern or a long flat rooflight can supply, while a roof window supplies it to the upstairs rooms. The common thread is that the right unit is decided by the room under it, and the survey is where we find out what that is.
Glass for the light you have
Glass is the other half of the choice. Under a large pane a south-facing extension can run hot in summer, and a solar control coating softens the sun yet leaves the room bright. A north-facing room has the opposite problem and does better with clear glass that lets in as much as it can. Our guide to solar control rooflight glass explains the trade, and we price both coatings when the orientation makes it a real question.
- Room measured below as well as roof above
- Orientation and shading noted for glass choice
- Kerb and covering inspected before a lantern is priced
Loft rooms and the way a window opens
A loft room is lit by roof windows, and the opening style decides how the room feels in daily use. A manual window is the simplest, with a handle you reach from the floor. An electric window is operated by a wall switch or a handset, a good fit for a slope you cannot reach, and a rain sensor, where one is fitted, shuts it when water lands on the glass. Both are priced where the slope calls for it, and our page on manual and electric rooflights gives the details.
A bedroom in a loft also raises the question of blinds. A blackout blind fitted to the window keeps summer mornings out, and an external awning blind keeps the heat off the glass before it reaches the room. We put the blind on the quote alongside the window so the full cost of a dark, cool bedroom is visible in one place.
Where a loft conversion is planned on a two-storey house, escape is by a protected stair, with the roof window supplying daylight and fresh air to the new room. We read the drawings with you before a size is chosen.
For a loft bedroom
Manual
- Operation
- Handle by hand
- Best for
- Windows within reach
- Extras
- Blind on a cord or pole
Electric
- Operation
- Switch or remote
- Best for
- Windows set high
- Extras
- Rain sensor, powered blind
Planning, conservation and the regulations
- Planning
- Conservation
- Control
| Item | Who | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Lichfield District Council | Review the planning position for your address and produce plans where an application is needed |
| Building Regulations | Building Control | Deal with the Building Control paperwork when the job is notifiable |
| Unit and glass | You, from the quote | Set the suitable options out side by side so you can choose |
Fazeley is in Staffordshire, and Lichfield District Council decides planning for the town. In Fazeley, permitted development takes in a fair number of rooflights and roof windows; the conditions that go with it are listed in our rooflight planning guide. Any rooflight on a listed Fazeley house would first need listed building consent, and the answer may also change if an Article 4 direction is in force or the original permission carried a condition.
Older streets and the conservation question
Older towns often have a conservation area around part of the centre, and a council can use an Article 4 direction to narrow the rights there, especially on a slope that faces the street. We check your address against the district council's published information before we suggest a unit, so you hear early whether a standard roof window is likely to be acceptable or whether a low-profile conservation rooflight is the safer option.
A rear-facing slope or a flat roof behind the house is usually a different matter from the front, and plenty of rooflights go in without any application. The point of checking is to avoid a unit being ordered and then held up, so it is done before the quote, not after the order.
Came up at the survey
Do I need to tell anyone before replacing my old rooflight?
Replacing the old rooflight in full, frame and glass, with a new one is notifiable under the Building Regulations, and the notification is ours to make. Fitting just a new sealed unit in place of a misted one, with the frame sound, is not.
Notification, certificate and guarantee
For notifiable work the notification is passed to Building Control, and that body may be the council or a registered building control approver. Once Building Control signs the job off, the certificate is sent to you, and it belongs with the house papers in case a sale comes up later.
For the Fazeley job itself there is our 10-year workmanship guarantee, and the manufacturer's warranty stands behind the unit. No single manufacturer is favoured, so where the roof can take them the written quote shows suitable units from different makers for you to weigh up. If an existing unit has gone cloudy, our page on why a rooflight mists explains the cause and what follows from it.
Covering Fazeley: Bonehill and Mile Oak
From Bonehill to Mile Oak, we survey houses across the town.
Nearby places we cover
Fazeley rooflight FAQs
Which council decides planning for a rooflight in Bonehill or Mile Oak?
Lichfield District Council. Permitted development reaches many Fazeley rooflights and roof windows, and its conditions are explained in our rooflight planning guide, although an Article 4 direction, a condition on the permission or listing can change the answer. Your address is checked during the survey, and it is the council that makes the decision.
Can a flat rooflight fit on a small kitchen extension?
A small roof usually suits a flat rooflight better than a lantern, because it sits low and keeps the proportions of the extension. We draw the options to the size of your opening, and sometimes a pair of narrower rooflights lights a long, thin room better than a single unit.
Is Two Gates inside the area you survey as well as Fazeley itself?
We survey in Two Gates as well as across Fazeley, which lies about 18 road miles north-east of central Birmingham, within the 30-mile area we work in. Surveys are at your home, so there is nothing to bring in and no showroom visit.
What happens to my existing flat roof when a lantern goes in?
The covering around the opening is cut back, a kerb is built or checked, and the new covering is dressed up the kerb. Where the roof is nearly worn out, the quote can include re-covering it in the same job, because that is the tidier moment to do it.
Can a terraced house with a narrow stair still take a roof window?
Often it does, because a window above the stair brings light down through the landing without taking any floor space. We check the rafter spacing and the position of the stair so that the opening lines up with the part of the hall you want lit.
Which makers do you compare?
No manufacturer is favoured, so wherever the roof can take them a quote lines up several suitable options, giving each one's price, lead time, opening and glazing. Our page on roof window makes compared shows how the comparison is built.
Is a lantern or a flat rooflight better over a dining table?
A lantern gives the more dramatic light and a ceiling feature to build the room around, while a flat rooflight leaves a plain ceiling and suits a lower roof. Our answer on a roof lantern or a flat rooflight goes through the trade-offs.
Do you fit rooflights in houses that back onto open land?
We do, and the survey adds a few questions. We look at exposure to wind, how far the glass is from anything that casts shade, and whether leaves or pollen are likely to settle on a low unit. Those answers feed into the glass coating and the pitch we recommend.
Can the old rooflight on our extension be replaced with a bigger one?
Sometimes. A larger opening means cutting back the roof structure, and on a flat roof that depends on the joists and what rests on them. We look in the roof void or at the ceiling below to see, then quote the size that the structure allows, with a larger option priced where it is possible.
How do I get a written quote for a Mile Oak semi?
Book a free survey, and we come to your Fazeley house, measure the roof and the room, then send a written quote laying out the options that suit the roof.
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