How long does a sun tunnel take to fit?
Half a day to a day for a straightforward one. It is one of the quickest jobs we do.
Part of our Sun Tunnel Installation guide
A straightforward sun tunnel is half a day to a day. It is among the least disruptive things we install, because there is no structural opening and no large glazed unit.
What happens
Position agreed from inside and outside, checking what is in the loft and what is in the ceiling below.
The roof opened. Tiles or slates lifted, an opening formed, the collector flashed in like a small rooflight.
The tube run through the loft, insulated where it passes through cold space.
The ceiling cut and the diffuser fitted, with the collar sealed to the vapour barrier and ceiling finish.
Make good around the diffuser, ready to decorate.
What extends it
A long or complicated run. Working through a full loft with several elbows takes longer than a short straight drop.
Obstructions. Water tanks, structural members, ductwork and cables all live in lofts, and the route is planned around them.
Access. Scaffold on a two storey roof adds time before anything starts.
A light kit, which needs an electrical connection.
Disruption inside
Modest. One neat opening in a ceiling, and dust from cutting plasterboard. We sheet up and clear up, and it helps to move what you can out of the room first.
Two at once
Usually a comfortable day. Doing a hallway and a bathroom in one visit shares the access and the roof work.
Half a day in most cases
A sun tunnel is the quickest daylight job in this trade. In a bungalow, where the tube drops straight from the roof into the ceiling below, half a day is normal. In a two storey house, where the run goes through a loft and then a first floor void down to a ground floor ceiling, allow a full day.
Most of that time is inside rather than on the roof.
The order of the work
Position agreed first. The ceiling position and the roof position have to line up as closely as possible, because every bend in a rigid tube costs light. We check the loft for purlins, water tanks, soil pipes, steels and cables before anything is cut.
Protection. Floors covered and a dust barrier at the door of the room below, because cutting a ceiling makes dust.
The roof. Tiles or slates lifted around the position, the opening formed, the flashing fitted to the correct profile for the covering, and the covering reinstated over it. On a pitched roof this is an hour or two.
The tube. Assembled from roof to ceiling, kept as straight as the route allows, taped and sealed at each joint, and insulated where it crosses unheated loft space.
The ceiling. Opening cut, ring fitted and sealed airtight so warm room air cannot get into the tube, diffuser fitted, and the ceiling made good.
Handover. How the diffuser comes off for cleaning, and where the optional light fitting is if one has been installed.
What can add time
An obstructed route. Where the ideal ceiling position and the ideal roof position do not line up, a rigid tunnel takes a bend. Working around a purlin or a tank is slower and it costs light, so it is worth discussing alternatives rather than accepting the first route.
A long run. Through a loft and a first floor void adds tube, joints and time, and it means working in two rooms rather than one.
A difficult covering. Handmade clay tiles are slow to lift and a proportion breaks. Concrete interlocking tiles lift cleanly and quickly.
Making good to a decorated ceiling. The cutting is quick; the plastering, drying and decoration are not, and where a ceiling is Artex or lath and plaster it needs more care.
Lead time
Sun tunnel kits are stock items in the common diameters, so the wait is usually days rather than weeks. That makes this one of the few jobs where the fitting date is genuinely the limiting factor rather than the order.
The exception is a listed building, where consent is required even for a sun tunnel because it is not exempt for being small, and that is measured in months.
Two in one visit
Where two tunnels are being fitted on the same day, the second takes considerably less time than the first, because the access, the protection and the setting up are shared. Two in a bungalow is comfortably a single day.
That is worth knowing, because two smaller tunnels spaced apart usually give a better result than one larger one in the middle of a ceiling.
Ask us
Send a photograph of the roof and one of the loft space showing what is between the roof and the ceiling below. That is usually enough to confirm the route and the timing without a visit.
What we leave behind
The ceiling made good and ready for decoration, the loft tidy, the old covering material taken away, and a demonstration of how the diffuser comes off for cleaning. Where a light fitting has been installed inside the diffuser, its switching is explained rather than left for you to work out.
One last point
Sun tunnel kits are stock items in the common diameters, so the wait is usually days rather than weeks. This is one of the few jobs where the fitting date is genuinely the limiting factor rather than the order.
Usually a single day
A straightforward tunnel with a short straight run, an accessible roof and a plasterboard ceiling is a day for a competent pair, frequently less.
The work is forming the roof opening, dressing the underlay collar, fitting the flashing and dome, running and insulating the tube, cutting the ceiling opening, fitting and sealing the diffuser, and making good.
What adds time
A long or bent run, particularly one that has to be routed around a tank, a chimney or a structural member.
Lath and plaster ceilings, which are brittle, crack beyond the cut, and make more mess.
A loft conversion, where the tunnel has to find a route through eaves storage or be boxed in through a finished room.
Access, where a scaffold is needed rather than a ladder, which adds days at either end.
Afterwards
Making good around the diffuser, and the ceiling repainted. Modest compared with a rooflight, which is part of why a tunnel is the cheaper option where it suits.
The dome and flashing are the part that must not be rushed, because that is where a leak comes from.
More on Sun Tunnel Installation
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