Rooflight and skylight installation in East Mersea

Exposure, which decides the specification

This is the most weather beaten position we work in and the specification should reflect it rather than repeat what would be fitted inland.

Stainless steel fixings throughout. Salt is in the air here most days of the year, and plated fixings corrode within a few years. Once a fixing has gone, the flashing it held is loose. The cost difference is trivial and it cannot be put right later without opening the work up.

A high durability exterior finish. Aluminium clad timber suits this position particularly well, because the cladding takes the weather and the timber behind it stays dry. Where a manufacturer offers a coastal grade coating, take it, and note that in some cases it is a condition of the warranty.

Weathering sized for driving rain. What matters here is not how much rain falls but how it arrives. Wind driven water is pushed under a covering rather than running down it, so gravity is doing very little of the work and the underlay collar and the flashing kit are doing almost all of it. A universal kit adequate in a sheltered position will let water past here within a couple of winters, and it is precisely where a low quotation saves money.

Wind loading checked against the site. Not assumed from a catalogue, particularly on larger units and anything that opens. An open sash is a sail and the stay and actuator have to hold it in gusts inland properties never see. A rain sensor on a motorised unit earns its keep here more than anywhere.

Realistic expectations on sealed unit life. Fifteen to twenty five years in an ordinary position, and toward the shorter end here, because the perimeter seal takes more thermal cycling, more wind driven water and more salt.

Farms and converted buildings

Most of the older property here is agricultural in origin or associated with it, and those buildings are their own category.

The first question is what the roof is actually made of, since historic timber, twentieth century lightweight trusses and steel frames all occur, and the answer decides whether a heavy unit such as a lantern needs structural work. It is not something to assume from the appearance of the building.

The second is what any conversion permission said, because conversions are frequently granted with conditions about rooflights, or with permitted development rights removed entirely by condition, and those conditions run with the property.

Where a property is listed, listed building consent is required for a rooflight on any slope, visible or not, with no small works threshold.

Access, and the causeway

The Strood floods on the highest tides, which is the one genuinely unusual logistical fact about working on Mersea. We check tide times when planning a delivery of a large unit or a scaffold erection. It sounds fussy and it prevents a wasted day.

On site, access is excellent. Space around almost every property to stand a tower or erect scaffold on private land, no highway licences, and generally room for a delivery vehicle. The practical constraint is more often the single track lanes than the working position.

Because the parish is small and remote, we plan East Mersea work as full days rather than short visits. Access and travel are fixed costs shared across everything done on the same visit, so if there is more than one thing that needs doing, mention it at the enquiry stage rather than one item at a time.

Doing more than one

The reliable saving. Access and travel are fixed costs shared across everything done on the same visit, and on an island parish that share is proportionally larger than in town.

Since units fitted at the same time fail at about the same time, and coastal exposure brings sealed unit life toward the shorter end of the fifteen to twenty five year range, a second replacement is usually coming whether it is planned or not. If two of three have misted, ask what the third costs while we are already there.

What the quotation itemises

The unit with manufacturer, model, size and glazing specification, including the coastal grade options. The flashing kit and which profile. The fixings, specified as stainless. The insulation collar as a named line, or on a flat roof the kerb detail including whether the outer face is insulated. Access. Making good and whether decoration is included. Disposal. Building Control where notifiable. And a stated contingency for decayed timber on older property.

A quotation with one number against roof window supplied and fitted is not comparable with anything, and on an exposed island site the differences that are not written down are exactly the ones that decide whether the installation lasts.

Guarantee

Ten years on our workmanship, covering the weathering, the flashing, the frame fixing, the insulation collar and the making good. Alongside that sits the manufacturer’s warranty on the product, which is separate cover from a separate party.

Most rooflight problems are installation problems rather than product failures, which is why the first matters more. Where a unit does fail under a manufacturer’s warranty on a job we did, we handle that claim ourselves rather than leaving you to argue about a product we chose and fitted.

What we would advise against

A universal flashing kit, which on this island is the single most consequential economy a quotation can make. Plated fixings, which corrode and stain and cannot be swapped without opening the work up. And triple glazing as a default, which adds weight and cost and reduces daylight for a modest thermal gain that solar control glass and an insulated kerb would deliver more usefully.

Getting here

We check tide times when planning a delivery of a large unit or a scaffold erection, because the Strood floods on the highest tides. It sounds fussy and it prevents a wasted day.