West Bromwich skylights and rooflights, compared and fitted
Across Lyng, Charlemont and Stone Cross.
Roof windows, sun tunnels, flat rooflights and lanterns for West Bromwich houses, with each quote placing the options that fit your roof alongside one another. Free survey.
- Distance
- About 8 road miles north-west of central Birmingham
- Planning
- Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
- Housing
- Victorian terraces, interwar semis, post-war estates and bungalows
- Roofs
- Slate and tile pitches, lean-to kitchens, flat-roofed garages and porches
Three roofs we are often asked about in West Bromwich
A terraced house around Greets Green or Carter's Green?
A dark landing or back bedroom often does better with a sun tunnel or roof window than with a bigger lantern.
An interwar semi near Stone Cross?
A hipped roof can take a roof window on each slope, and the loft decides how many.
A bungalow with rooms in the roof?
Rooms in the roof can be lit by roof windows, and the escape rules for a bungalow are friendlier than for a two-storey house.
Which rooflight for which room
- Roof window
- Sun tunnel
- Flat rooflight
Plenty of West Bromwich houses have a room that never gets enough daylight: a landing with no window, a back bedroom under a low slope, a kitchen that was added behind the original house. The right unit depends on how much roof you can use and how much light the room needs.
A roof window suits a room with a sloping ceiling above it. A sun tunnel carries daylight down a tube to a hall or bathroom with no loft space to spare. Your written quote sets the ones that fit the roof next to each other.
Two ways to light a dark room
Roof window
- Daylight
- Wide, with a view of the sky
- Fits
- Rooms under a slope
- Opening
- Manual or electric
Sun tunnel
- Daylight
- Soft and steady
- Fits
- Landings, halls, bathrooms
- Opening
- Fixed, with a vent option
Terraces and their back kitchens
Around Greets Green and Carter's Green you will find older terraced streets, and a typical terrace has a main roof of slate or tile with a lower outrigger or lean-to behind it. The lean-to is usually the kitchen or bathroom, and it is often the darkest room in the house because the wall of the neighbouring property stands close beside it.
A lean-to roof is the easiest place to add daylight. A rooflight made for a shallow slope, or a long roof window in a steeper one, can bring light to a kitchen worktop without touching the main roof. Because the lean-to is a single storey, the work usually goes quickly and the opening is small enough that a builder can trim the roof timbers directly.
The main roof is a different job. Slate roofs from the Victorian period need a flashing kit made for slate, and the old rafters may be narrower than a modern roof window expects, so we measure the gaps between them before we suggest a size. If you are planning to convert the loft, our loft conversion roof windows page explains how the windows relate to the rooms.
A landing or a hallway at the top of a terrace with no window is a natural job for a sun tunnel. The tube runs between the rafters and through the loft, so it needs a clear route, and we look for that route when we come to survey. Our guide to a sun tunnel for a hallway covers the options in more detail.
Asked over the kitchen table
Can a roof window go into an old slate roof?
It can, with a flashing kit made for slate and a size that fits between the rafters or comes with a plan for trimming them. We check the slate and the timbers on the day, then quote the options that work.
Bungalows and rooms in the roof
A bungalow, or a chalet bungalow with rooms already in the roof, is one of the simplest houses to put roof windows into. Ceilings are lower, the roof is within reach of the ground, and the escape rules differ from a two-storey house, since Approved Document B lets a window serve as the escape from a room in the roof when the room is within the height it sets.
Roof windows also change a bungalow bedroom. A window in the slope lets you see sky and treetops from the bed, and a centre-pivot unit set low in the slope can be reached from a chair. We discuss where the window sits against the furniture before the quote, so the handle and the blind work from where you stand.
For a room in a bungalow roof
Opening window
- Air
- Fresh air on demand
- Cleaning
- Reached from inside
- Suits
- Bedrooms and studies
Fixed window
- Air
- None, light only
- Cleaning
- Needs reach from outside
- Suits
- Landings and high slopes
| Item | Usual unit | What we look at |
|---|---|---|
| Landing or hall | Sun tunnel or small roof window | A clear route through the loft |
| Back kitchen in a lean-to | Long roof window or flat rooflight | Rafters, wall plate and the covering |
| Bungalow bedroom | Opening roof window | Height of the sill and where the bed stands |
| Garage turned workroom | Flat rooflight | Age and fall of the flat roof |
Glass for a busy road or a sunny slope
Glass is the second choice after the unit. A roof facing south takes strong sun in summer, so a solar control coating can keep the room below more comfortable. A slope facing north gets steadier light and may suit clear glass with the best winter performance.
Rain on a roof window can sound louder than rain on a wall, and laminated glass quietens it. Our page on solar control rooflight glass explains what each coating changes.
Semis, garages and flat roofs
On an interwar semi near Stone Cross the roof is often hipped, with a rear extension or a garage added later under a flat roof. A rear extension under a flat roof is where a lantern or a flat rooflight does best, and the garage or porch roof may suit a small flat rooflight if the space below is used as a utility or a workroom.
A flat roof that is ageing can be re-covered at the same time as the new rooflight is set in, which keeps the opening, the kerb and the covering consistent. We can quote the rooflight alongside your roofer's covering, or price the whole roof as one job if that suits you better. Our page on flat roof rooflights sets out the kinds of unit.
- Route for a sun tunnel checked in the loft
- Rafter gaps measured before sizing
- Covering of a flat roof looked at first
Permission and sign-off in Sandwell
- Planning
- Regulations
Planning in West Bromwich is decided by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council. An application is often not needed for a West Bromwich rooflight or roof window, since permitted development covers them, and our rooflight permission guide sets out the conditions. Listed building consent is needed in its own right for a listed building, and other houses can be caught as well, by a past permission's conditions or by an Article 4 direction covering the area.
Before quoting we look at your address, and should an application be needed we supply the drawings for it. The final decision is the council's, so we report what we find at your address instead of guessing how it will rule.
| Item | Who | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council | Check the position and prepare drawings if an application is needed |
| Building Regulations | Building Control | Make the notification to Building Control when work is notifiable |
| Glass and frame | You, from the quote | Set the options side by side |
Sign-off and your guarantee
Under the Building Regulations a rooflight in a newly formed roof opening is building work, and a complete unit swapped out, glazing and frame together, is a controlled fitting needing notification. The exception is changing just the sealed glass while the frame stays in place. Our part, on notifiable work, is sending the notification to Building Control, and the certificate then reaches you as soon as the job is signed off. Keep it with the house papers, since when you sell, the buyer's solicitor may want it as proof that the opening was formed and glazed to the rules in force at the time.
The unit comes with the maker's own warranty, and our 10-year workmanship guarantee applies to the installation itself. If you have a misted rooflight or a worn plastic dome, our page on misted rooflight replacement sets out when a new glass unit is enough and when the whole rooflight should go.
West Bromwich, from Lyng to Greets Green
We survey across West Bromwich, from Lyng and Greets Green to Carter's Green, Charlemont and Stone Cross, and the streets around Dartmouth Park.
Nearby places we cover
What West Bromwich homeowners ask us
Which council decides planning for a rooflight in West Bromwich?
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council. A good number of rooflights need no application because permitted development applies, with the conditions given in our rooflight permission guide. A listing, an Article 4 direction for the street or a condition that came with a past permission can change that, which is the reason we look at your address first.
Would a sun tunnel suit the landing in my terraced house?
Often it does, because the tube needs only a clear route between the rafters and the ceiling below. We look at the route in the loft at the survey. If the loft is full of pipes or boarding, a small roof window or a fixed rooflight may be the better comparison.
Can you fit a roof window to the lean-to at the back of my terrace?
A lean-to roof is usually the easiest place to add light, since it is low and a single storey. We compare a long roof window with a rooflight made for a shallow pitch, and show how each lights the worktop.
Does a bungalow loft room need a special escape window?
A West Bromwich bungalow with rooms in the roof, chalet style or otherwise, can treat a roof window as the escape, within the height Approved Document B sets. With two storeys below, a converted loft needs a protected stair as its way down, and a roof window cannot do that job. We check the room and the height at the survey.
Will a new rooflight be notified to Building Control?
Where the work is notifiable, such as a rooflight in a new opening or the replacement of a whole unit, we handle the notification, and you receive the certificate. If just the sealed glass unit is swapped and the frame is sound, no notification is needed.
What can be done with a dark, windowless kitchen in an extension?
A flat rooflight or a lantern can bring light straight down over the worktop or the table. A lantern adds height, and a flat rooflight sits low. When the roof allows, both are priced on one quote, which lays the difference in glass, frame and cost in front of you. Our page on choosing a lantern or a flat rooflight covers it.
Is laminated glass worth choosing for a roof window over a bedroom?
Laminated glass dulls the sound of rain and holds together if it is struck, so it is a sensible item to compare for a bedroom. We list it beside the standard glass on your quote, and the quote also shows the effect on the price.
Can a rooflight go in a flat-roofed garage that we use as a workroom?
A flat rooflight can, once we know what the roof is made of and how it falls. A flat roof near the end of its life is best re-covered with the rooflight set in, so the kerb and the covering are done together. See our flat rooflight upstands page for how the kerb is built.
How far is West Bromwich from your base?
Lying north-west of central Birmingham by 8 road miles, West Bromwich is well inside the 30 miles we cover. The survey is at your home, so the visit costs you nothing.
Once my West Bromwich survey is booked, what comes next?
Book a free survey. Once we have visited, you get a written quote with the suitable units laid side by side, listing glass, frame, opening, the maker's typical lead time and the price of each.
Book your free survey
It starts with a free survey and plain advice. No pressure, just clear options for your home.
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