Rooflight and skylight installers for Redditch

Redditch grew into a new town, and the neighbourhoods built for it sit alongside the older streets near the centre. A rooflight that suits a Victorian terrace rarely suits a later estate house, so the quote starts from the roof in front of us.

Each house gets its own survey. The extension, the loft and the age of the covering are different on every plot.

From garage to room

A garage with a flat roof is one of the commonest conversions for a family that needs another room. The garage often has no window to the rear, and the flat roof is the natural place for daylight. Even light with no wall space lost comes from one flat rooflight centred on the room, or two set in a line along its length.

The conversion work decides much of the detail. A new ceiling and insulation reduce the height under the roof, so a lantern may be too tall for the room while a flat rooflight fits easily. We discuss the finished ceiling at the survey and size the opening for it, since a lined shaft between the ceiling and the glass spreads the light better if it is splayed.

Dark landings and internal bathrooms

A landing or bathroom in the middle of a house, with no outside wall, can be lit from the roof without a full window. A roof window brings a view and fresh air as well, though the ceiling directly below the slope has to be opened up for it. A sun tunnel takes daylight down a narrow tube, with a little dome in the roofing at the top and a diffuser set into the ceiling at the bottom, which suits a roof space that is awkward in between.

The tube comes in rigid and flexible versions, and the rigid one passes more light. Our page on rigid or flexible sun tunnels compares them, and we put a sun tunnel on the quote beside a small roof window when the room suits either.

Kitchen extensions with a lantern

A rear kitchen extension is where a lantern earns its place. It stands above the roof line, so light comes in from all four sides and reaches the centre of a room that otherwise has only the back wall to draw on. A flat rooflight, set lower, spreads a more even light and sits quietly if the extension is close to a boundary.

The size of the opening is worked out from the room and from the beams that carry the roof, and the quote shows each option drawn at a size the structure will take. Where a lantern is chosen, the kerb is built to a height that lets the covering turn up behind it, so the junction stays sound. Our lantern or flat rooflight answer compares the two for a kitchen.

Older streets around the centre

Away from the estates, the streets near Headless Cross and Crabbs Cross carry older houses with tiled roofs and narrower rafter gaps. In a Victorian or Edwardian house the roof window needs a flashing made for the covering, and its opening must either sit between two rafters or arrive with a plan for framing around a rafter in the way.

The opening types are listed on our roof window installation page, and rooms in the roof are covered in our guide to roof windows in a loft conversion.

Redditch Borough Council decides planning in the town, and it is the council to ask about a listed building or a conservation area. Under permitted development, plenty of rooflights and roof windows on a Redditch house need no application, provided they stay within the conditions explained in our rooflight planning guide.

Where the house is listed, the rooflight needs consent of its own, listed building consent, whatever rights would otherwise apply. A newer estate may carry a planning condition that removes those rights, and an Article 4 direction can do the same to a house, so we study the address ahead of recommending a unit; the final decision belongs to the council.

Heat in summer, warmth in winter

A rooflight over a south-facing room can warm it quickly on a sunny day, and a bedroom under the slope is where the effect is felt most. Solar control glass reduces the heat passing through, though the price paid is a slight tint in the light that reaches the room on a bright afternoon. An opening rooflight lets the warm air escape from the very top of the room, where it collects.

In winter the specification matters in the other direction. Under the 2021 Part L rules, an existing home's rooflight is held to 2.2 W/m²K; the roof window is judged on the window standard instead, which a Band B Window Energy Rating meets, as does 1.4 W/m²K, so each type has its own figure on the quote. Every unit on our quotes meets the limit that applies to its type. See rooflight U-values explained for the numbers.