What happens on installation day?

Arrival and setting up

We arrive between eight and nine. Sheeting goes down in the room below, furniture is protected or moved if it has not been already, and access is set up outside.

Opening up

On a pitched roof, tiles are lifted around the opening and the membrane cut back. On a flat roof, the covering is cut back around the kerb.

This is the noisiest part and it is also when we find out whether anything unexpected is in the structure.

Fitting

The unit is set, fixed and levelled. Then the weathering: flashing kit fitted in sequence on a pitched roof, or the covering dressed up the kerb and terminated on a flat one.

Insulation collar and vapour control sealed to the frame.

Making watertight

Before we leave, every day, regardless of the stage. That is not negotiable and it is why weather rarely causes damage on our jobs.

Inside

The reveal is formed or made good to a decorator-ready finish. On a like for like swap this is a small job; where the opening changed it means boarding and skimming, which needs drying time before you decorate.

Tidying

Sheeting up, debris out, old unit taken away.

Handover

We show you how it operates, where the ventilation flap and filter are, how to clean it, and on an electric unit where the manual override is. Five minutes, and worth having somebody there for it.

What helps us

Clear the room beneath, park considerately for a van, and keep pets away from open doors.

The sequence, in order

A like for like replacement into a sound opening is a single day, and most of it is not spent on the roof. Knowing the order helps, because every step exists for a reason and the order itself is what keeps the roof dry.

Protection, first

Floors covered, furniture moved or sheeted, and a dust barrier at the door of the room. The making good produces the mess rather than the roof work, and containing it at the start is faster than cleaning it up at the end.

On a job with loft access, the loft is boarded where necessary so nothing goes through a ceiling.

Strip out and inspection

The internal lining comes off, the old sash is lifted out, and the flashings are removed along with enough of the covering around the opening to expose the frame.

This is the point at which the timber is inspected. Where we find decay we stop and tell you what it means before doing anything else, which is why our quotations name a contingency rather than pretending it cannot happen.

Frame in

The new frame is set, checked for square and level in both directions, and fixed. Square matters more than anything else here: a frame twisted by a few millimetres gives a sash that catches at one corner, and no amount of adjustment later fixes it.

Weathering

The underlay collar is dressed and lapped so that water running down the roof membrane passes around the opening rather than into it. Then the flashing kit goes on. Then the covering is reinstated over the flashing.

That order is the whole job. Nearly every roof window that leaks leaks because a step here was reversed, and none of it is visible once the work is finished.

Insulation collar and lining

The collar closes the gap between frame and structure, which is what stops the reveal running cold enough to condense. The internal lining goes back, plastered or trimmed depending on what was there.

Where plastering is involved, the room is finished but not decorated at the end of the day, and in a cold house the drying gap is longer.

What we show you at the end

Sash operation demonstrated, the cleaning position shown, the filter location pointed out, and on a motorised unit the manual override demonstrated rather than described. Guarantee paperwork and the specification left with you on the day rather than posted later.

Weather

An opening is never left uncovered overnight and a strip out does not start if the forecast will not allow the roof to be closed the same day. In this part of the country that occasionally costs us a day, and it has never cost a customer a ceiling.

Before anyone goes up

Access goes in first, whether that is a scaffold erected the day before or a tower assembled on the morning. Nothing starts until the working platform is right.

Inside, the room below the opening is cleared and sheeted. Dust travels further than people expect, and a rooflight opening rains debris into the room the moment the ceiling is cut.

The sequence on the roof

Covering stripped back around the opening position, and set aside carefully for reuse. On an old roof some will break, which is why matching material is sourced in advance.

Underlay cut and the opening formed. Trimmers fitted at head and sill, and any rafter that has to be cut is trimmed and the load carried into the neighbours.

The unit set in, squared and fixed. The insulation collar fitted around the frame.

The underlay collar dressed and lapped so water reaching the membrane passes around the opening.

Then the flashing, then the covering reinstated over the flashing rather than under it.

The internal work

Insulation carried around the reveal, the vapour control layer taped to the frame, plasterboard, then skim.

Plaster needs to dry before decoration, so the room is usable but not finished on the day.

What to expect of the day itself

Noise, dust, and the roof open for part of it. A competent crew works to keep the opening covered when they are not working on it, and no responsible installer opens a roof they cannot close by the end of the day.

Ask for photographs of the collar and the vapour control layer before they are covered. It is the only record that will exist.