Rooflight and Skylight Services

There are ten distinct pieces of work on this site, and they are not ten names for the same job. A roof window goes into a pitched slope between rafters. A flat rooflight sits on a kerb in a flat roof. A lantern stands above one. A sun tunnel is a light pipe. Which of them your house wants is decided by the roof you have and the room you are trying to change, and that is usually settled in ten minutes on site.

Start with the roof, not the product

It narrows the list faster than anything else.

A pitched slope over the room takes roof windows. A flat roof takes flat rooflights, lanterns and walk on panels. A room with neither takes a sun tunnel, and nothing else will reach it.

Roof window installation

The pitched roof product, fitted between rafters and flashed into the covering.

Loft bedrooms, landings, bathrooms and any room under a tiled or slated slope. Escape requirements, trussed roofs and purlins are what decide the size.

The detail is on the roof window installation page.

VELUX window installation

The same job named by the range most people already have.

Size codes, service parts, flashing kits and like for like replacement, which is what most enquiries under this heading actually turn out to be.

The detail is on the VELUX window installation page.

Flat roof rooflight installation

A pane on a kerb, sitting in the plane of a flat roof.

Kitchen extensions, utilities, hallways and anything under a flat roof. The kerb and its insulation matter more than the unit does.

The detail is on the flat roof rooflight installation page.

Roof lantern installation

A glazed structure standing above a flat roof, with faces meeting at a ridge.

Deep single storey extensions where the middle of the plan is dark, and where the ceiling height is worth having as well as the light.

The detail is on the roof lantern installation page.

Conservation rooflight installation

Steel framed units that sit flush in the covering.

Designated areas, listed buildings and any historic slope where a standard unit would be the objection rather than the solution.

The detail is on the conservation rooflight installation page.

Electric rooflight installation

Opening units, actuators, controls and rain sensors.

Kitchens that need venting, windows nobody can reach, and any rooflight that will be left open while the house is empty.

The detail is on the electric rooflight installation page.

Walk on rooflight installation

Load bearing glass in a terrace or a balcony.

Basements and lower ground rooms with nowhere to put a window, where the only available direction is up through a floor.

The detail is on the walk on rooflight installation page.

Sun tunnel installation

A reflective tube from a roof dome to a ceiling diffuser.

Internal hallways, landings, cloakrooms and windowless bathrooms, which no rooflight can reach because there is a room or a roof space in the way.

The detail is on the sun tunnel installation page.

Replacing a failed or misted rooflight

The work we do most, and the one people put off longest.

Misted sealed units, tired frames, leaks at a kerb, and old domes that have yellowed. Frequently a pane rather than a rooflight.

The detail is on the replacing a failed or misted rooflight page.

Rooflight repairs and servicing

Seals, mechanisms, drainage and flashings.

A good proportion of the enquiries we take turn out to be a gasket, a blocked weep or a room that needs venting rather than anything that needs replacing.

What all ten have in common

The perimeter.

Almost every rooflight failure we are called to is at the junction between the unit and the roof rather than in the unit itself, and that is a workmanship question on any product.

How we decide which you need

By looking at the roof and asking what the room is for.

The roof type, the structure, the access and what the room is used for between them narrow ten products to one or two, and the choice after that is specification.

Where the answer is a smaller job

More often than people expect.

Where a service part, a cleaned drainage channel or an extract fan would fix the complaint, we say so, because a replacement that does not address the cause repeats the problem.

Building Control

Notified by us, where the work is notifiable.

The route is established before the covering comes off, and the completion paperwork goes to the homeowner, because that is the document a buyer’s solicitor asks for.

Where we work

Worthing and about thirty miles by road.

The coastal strip, the Adur and Arun valleys, the Downs villages and the towns inland, each of which has its own roof stock and its own planning authority.

The full list is on the areas we cover page.

What a survey involves

A look at the roof, the loft and the room, and about half an hour.

Nothing is quoted from a photograph alone, because the covering, the structure and the access are what decide the figure and none of them can be judged from the ground.

How we quote

As separate lines rather than one number.

The unit, the construction, the access and the making good, so a homeowner can see what each part is and compare it with anybody else.

The whole of it is on the how we price and quote page.

Where to start

With the question rather than the product.

If you know what the room needs and not what to fit, the two hundred questions on the answers page are where most people begin.

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