Ask it the way you would say it

Two hundred questions, twenty under each of the ten kinds of work we do, each answered in the first paragraph and then explained. They are the questions people actually ask: does this need planning permission, will it leak, why is it misted, can it be repaired, is it worth it. Where an answer depends on something, the page says what it depends on rather than hedging.

How they are written

Answer first, reasoning after.

Every page opens by answering its own title in a sentence or two, so somebody who wants only the answer has it before they scroll.

Why that matters

Because most people are not reading for pleasure.

Somebody with water coming through a ceiling wants to know whether it is a leak or condensation, not a preamble about the history of glazing.

How they are organised

Twenty under each service.

The questions sit under the kind of work they belong to, so the replacement questions are together and the lantern questions are together.

Where the same question appears twice

Deliberately, and answered differently.

Somebody searching about planning for a roof window and somebody searching about planning for a lantern are different people with different roofs, so each gets the answer for their product.

How we avoid saying it twice

One page owns each mechanism.

The general explanation lives in one place and every other page names it and links, which is why so many of these pages send you somewhere else halfway down.

The questions about problems

Where most people start.

Misting, leaks, condensation, draughts and chalky frames, and a good proportion of those turn out to be maintenance rather than failure.

They are under replacing a failed or misted rooflight.

The questions about permission

The second largest group.

Planning, building regulations, conservation areas, listed buildings and the National Park, which across our area is a live question more often than people expect.

The questions about cost

Answered by anatomy rather than by number.

Each cost page sets out what actually moves a figure for that product, which is more useful than a range that would be wrong for most readers.

The general position is on the how we price and quote page.

The questions about whether it is worth it

Answered honestly, including when it is not.

Several of these pages say plainly where a product is the wrong choice, because a recommendation that is always yes is not a recommendation.

The questions about heat

Both directions.

Losing it in January and gaining too much of it in July, and the specification decisions that address each, most of which cannot be changed later.

The questions about light

How much, and of what kind.

What a roof window gives against a sun tunnel, what a lantern does that a flat pane does not, and why overcast days are where overhead glazing wins.

The questions about safety

Escape openings and walk on glass.

What an escape window has to provide, and why an ordinary rooflight must never be stood on.

That one is on can you walk on a normal rooflight.

The questions about maintenance

Small, and almost nobody knows about them.

Drainage channels, ventilation filters, gaskets and weep holes, each of which takes minutes and prevents most of what goes wrong.

What we do not answer here

What your particular roof needs.

These pages explain how the decisions work, and which one applies to your house is settled by looking at it rather than by reading.

Where a question is missing

Ask it.

Two hundred is a lot and it is not everything, and a question we have not covered is worth an email whether or not there is a job attached to it.

If you want the longer explanation

The guides go further.

Where an answer summarises a mechanism, there is generally a guide that sets it out properly.

They are on the guides page.

If you want to know what we do

Start at the services.

Ten kinds of work, what each suits and how to tell which your roof is asking for.

They are on the services page.

If you are somewhere specific

There is probably a page for it.

Sixty seven towns and villages, each describing what is actually on the roofs there.

They are on the areas we cover page.

How to find one

Search the phrase you would say out loud.

The titles are the questions rather than keyword phrases, so the thing you would type into a search box is generally close to a title on this site.

Reading two at once

Frequently necessary, and the links say which.

A question about a roof window and its equivalent about a flat rooflight are answered separately, and each names the other where the mechanism is shared.

Where the answers came from

Enquiries, mostly.

The great majority of these questions are ones we have been asked on a doorstep or in an email, which is why several of them are phrased the way people actually say them.

Where an answer changes

Regulations and products both move.

Thermal standards tighten, product ranges are revised and planning positions vary by authority, so anything on this site is worth confirming for your own property.

What we will not do

Answer a question with a sales pitch.

Several of these pages recommend doing nothing, doing something smaller, or fitting a different product entirely, because that is frequently the honest answer.

Why there are so many

Because the questions are all different.

It would be shorter to write twenty pages and repeat them, and it would not answer what anybody actually typed.