Rooflight and skylight installation in Little Horkesley

What we usually find

Older property predominates: cottages, farmhouses and converted agricultural buildings, several of them listed, with a small amount of twentieth century infill.

These roofs combine building periods. A house extended three times over two centuries has three different pitches, possibly three different coverings, and timber ranging from historic hand cut rafters to twentieth century repairs. Every dimension is measured off the building at the position the unit will occupy rather than assumed, because a rafter spacing in one bay may not match the next.

Where historic timber is part of a listing, an opening is positioned to avoid it rather than cut through it. The survey establishes where a rooflight can go before anybody discusses what it should be, and made to measure sizes are frequently the answer, with several weeks of lead time to plan around.

These buildings move seasonally too. Fixing allows for it rather than clamping a rigid modern unit into a frame that flexes, which is how a seal gets stressed and fails early.

Converted agricultural buildings

Common in a parish like this and worth their own consideration.

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.

The second is what the original permission said. Conversions are frequently granted with conditions about rooflights, or with permitted development rights removed entirely by condition, and those conditions run with the property regardless of who owns it now. Reading the permission first saves a wasted application or an enforcement problem.

Consent

Listed building consent is required for a rooflight on a listed building, always, on any slope, whether or not anybody can see it. The listing covers the whole building inside and out, there is no small works threshold, and doing the work without consent is a criminal offence rather than a planning irregularity, which surfaces on sale.

Where a property is unlisted and outside any designation, permitted development normally applies: no more than 150mm projection beyond the plane of the roof and not above the highest part of it.

Exposure

Properties standing in open ground take considerably more wind than a house in a street, and driving rain matters more for a roof window than total rainfall does, because wind driven water is pushed under a covering rather than running down it.

That puts almost the whole weathering burden on the underlay collar and the flashing kit. Specify the kit correctly for the covering and generously lapped rather than accepting a universal one, and use stainless fixings rather than plated, which cost very little more and do not stain an exposed roof.

Coverings

Handmade clay plain tile and peg tile on the older buildings, pantile on a number of the agricultural ones, and concrete interlocking tile on the later housing.

Handmade clay is the most demanding covering in this trade: small, double lapped, irregular and brittle, with a proportion breaking on removal whatever care is taken. Matching weathered tile is genuinely difficult, and the usual answer is to take sound tiles from a rear or hidden slope so the visible elevation stays consistent.

Pantiles need their own deep flashing profile and are unforgiving of a universal kit.

Access and how we plan the work

Access on site is excellent, with space around almost every property for a tower or scaffold on private land and no highway licences to arrange. The constraint is more often getting a delivery vehicle with a large unit down a narrow lane, which is worth establishing at survey rather than on the day.

Because the parish is small and we come out from Colchester, we plan work here as full days. Access is a fixed cost 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.

What moves the number here

Whether the opening already exists, because a like for like swap into a sound opening is the cheapest job in this trade. The covering, since handmade clay and pantile are slow and a proportion breaks while concrete tile lifts cleanly. Whether historic timber constrains the position, which can turn a stock size into a made to measure. And travel, which is a fixed cost worth sharing across more than one item.

Access, unusually, is not a factor here. There is space around almost every property for a tower or scaffold on private land and no highway licences to arrange, which removes the line that most often surprises people elsewhere.

What is found, and how we handle it

On a building of some age, decayed rafter ends, crumbling battens and absent underlay are realistic rather than remote. We name a contingency in the quotation with an indication of cost, so the possibility is stated in advance rather than presented afterwards.

Where we find something on strip out, work stops and we tell you what it means before continuing. On a listed building, where a historic timber turns out to be significant, we consult the conservation officer before anything is cut. That is slower and it is the correct sequence.

Guarantee

Ten years on our workmanship, covering the weathering, the flashing, the frame fixing, the insulation collar and the making good. Alongside it 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.