Walkden: lofts, landings and flat-roofed extensions

Walkden skylights and rooflights for terraces, estate houses and extensions

Walkden was dominated by coal mines and textile manufacturing, and the former British Coal workshop yard is now a housing estate. Each rooflight is matched to its room, and we show you how to open it, shade it and clean it.

Slate-roofed terrace lofts and landings: roof window or sun tunnel compared on site
Estate houses with concrete tiles: flashing and fixings matched to the tile
Parts of Walkden carry Article 4 directions, so every address is checked first

17 road miles north-west of Stockport

Walkden is a town in the City of Salford. It was dominated by coal mines and textile manufacturing, and small colliery shafts were sunk to the shallow Worsley Four Foot seams on Egerton land. The former British Coal workshop yard closed in 1986 and is now a housing estate. Today Walkden largely functions as a retail centre and a place people commute from.

Older brick terraces commonly have natural slate roofs, and later estates commonly have concrete tiles. Those two roofs raise different daily questions. A terrace has a loft that could be a room and a landing without daylight. An estate house may have a tiled roof and a flat-roofed extension at the back. We start with the people who use the room, then write a fixed written quote after we have seen the roof.

Rooflights for Walkden's terraces and estates

These four suit loft rooms, landings and flat-roofed extensions. Choose the nearest match to your room, then read the guide behind it.

Walkden questions: lofts, landings, extensions and Article 4

Four questions, from the slate loft to the flat extension and the planning check that comes before either.

Could the loft of our brick terrace become a room with a roof window?

Walkden was dominated by coal mines and textile manufacturing, and older brick terraces commonly have natural slate roofs. A terrace loft can be a plain space under a long slope, and a roof window brings it into use as a bedroom or a study. The first decisions are where the window goes and how it opens.

Position

The back slope is usually the simplest place, away from the street. Where a slope faces the side, extra conditions apply, which the planning guide describes. We confirm what applies at your address before any work is agreed.

On slate

Slate needs a flashing kit made for it, and the window width follows the rafters behind the covering. We measure both at the survey. See our page on slate and tile flashing for why the kit comes first.

Wiping the outer pane

Slate is not a roof to walk on, so the way the outer pane gets cleaned is settled before the window is ordered. Some windows turn so the outside faces into the room, and we check whether that suits your slope. If not, a long-handled brush from a ladder at the eaves is the fallback, and we say so plainly.

Opening and blind

In a sloping ceiling the top of a window can sit above head height. A solar or electric opening is easier for daily use, and a rod is fine for a window opened twice a year. A bedroom wants blackout on the same handset, and our page on blinds and controls shows what exists.

Making it a room

A loft converted to a bedroom is building work, and the upper floor needs a proper way out in an emergency. The Building Regulations guide explains the rules, and we make the notification for our own windows when one is called for.

Loft in one line

Put the window on the back slope, choose how it opens before its size, and fit the blind to the same handset.

The landing in our estate house is dark all day. What fixes that?

In an estate house the landing can be the room that loses out. It may sit between bedrooms with no window of its own. The roof above it is the only place daylight can come from.

A sun tunnel

A dome sits on the roof and a tube crosses the loft to a diffuser set in the landing ceiling. Daylight arrives through the ceiling, with no handle or blind, because nothing about it opens. Our page on sun tunnel planning and Building Regulations covers the paperwork, and it treats a sun tunnel as an alteration to the roof.

A roof window

Where the landing sits right under a slope, a small roof window can do the same job and open as well. Over a stairwell it is likely to be out of reach, so a handset or a switch matters. A window nobody can open turns into a fixed pane in practice.

On a concrete tile roof

On a roof of concrete tiles, the flashing for the dome or the window has to suit the tile profile. We read the profile at the survey and choose the kit before we settle on a size.

Who is on the stairs

Think about the household. A child on the landing, an older relative on the stairs and a teenager in the loft will each use the window differently. Tell us at the survey and we pick the opening, the restrictor and the blind around them, and explain the controls on the day of the fit.

Choosing between them

If the question is light and nothing more, the sun tunnel is simpler. If you want to open it, shade it and look through it, choose the window. See which rooms suit a sun tunnel for room-by-room advice.

We built out the back with a flat roof. How do we light the new room?

A flat roof over a rear extension is the place for light in an estate house. A flat rooflight sits on an upstand built into the roof and gives clean daylight from above. It suits a kitchen, a dining area or a utility room, and it can be fixed or have an opening section.

The roof underneath

A rooflight is only as good as the roof it sits in. If the covering is tired, it makes sense to deal with it before the rooflight goes in rather than lift the rooflight later. Our page on upstands and coverings says why.

Opening it

An opening flat rooflight is worked from a wall switch or a handset. That is easier in a kitchen than a pole. Some of VELUX's electric and solar models also carry a rain sensor that shuts the window when rain starts, handy when the house is empty all day.

The sun in the room

A glass roof over a kitchen warms the room in summer. A blind beneath it or solar control glass in it keeps things comfortable. Choose both with the rooflight, because the blind is fixed to the frame.

Keeping the outside clear

A flat pane is quick to wipe from a stepladder or a long-handled brush. We explain which suits your roof, and how to reach it, before we leave.

If you want a lantern

On a roof that is already there a lantern normally needs planning permission unless the council confirms otherwise. On a new extension it is assessed with the extension, and the position is confirmed with the council first. Our lantern sizes and kerbs page shows the structure.

Parts of Walkden have Article 4 directions. What does that mean for a rooflight?

planning.data.gov.uk records Article 4 direction areas in parts of Walkden. An Article 4 direction is a council order that takes away some permitted development rights in a defined area, so that an application is needed for work that would otherwise be allowed. What each direction restricts is a matter for Salford City Council, and it depends on the address.

What we do

We send every Walkden address to Salford City Council during the survey and report back in plain words. You do not have to read a map or a legal notice. Salford City Council is the local planning authority for every Walkden address, including the housing estate on the former British Coal workshop yard, which closed in 1986. The planning guide sets out the national position, and the council's answer tells us whether anything local changes it.

Conservation areas

Whether the address sits in a conservation area is part of the same Salford City Council check.

Churches, a farmhouse and a pub

Historic England lists the Church of St Paul and the Church of St Mary the Virgin, as well as Parrfold Farmhouse and The Ellesmere Public House, all at Grade II. For a house that is listed, listed building consent will almost always have to come first, and it decides the design. See rooflights and listed homes.

Words from the address check

Article 4 direction, in plain words: A council order removing some permitted development rights within a defined area, so an application is needed.
Householder permitted development: National rules that allow some work without an application, within limits.
Local planning authority: The council that decides planning matters. For Walkden it is Salford City Council.

Terraces, estates and the old workings

Walkden

Walkden falls inside the ring we draw around Stockport, so the terraces and the estates alike are within the area we survey and fit.

Check a Walkden postcode here

Walkden is 17 road miles north-west of Stockport, and our surveys cover homes across the town, terraces and estate houses alike. Type your postcode to check.

Nearest town pages

Walkden skylight queries, briefly

How do we choose a blind for a loft bedroom window?

Start with how early you wake and who sleeps there. Blackout shuts out dawn completely, while a pleated or roller blind only softens it. Either can run from the same handset as the window. We show the options at the survey and explain the controls when we fit.

Which council decides planning for a Walkden house?

Salford City Council. Your address goes to it as part of the survey. Building control can be Salford's own service or a registered building control approver.

Can we swap an old terrace roof window without touching the plaster?

It can be. A new window the same size as the old one fits the existing opening, so the lining inside is left alone. The size code on the old label tells us. Our page on new opening or same opening explains.

Will a sun tunnel work if my loft is partly boarded?

Yes, provided there is a clear route for the tube between the roof and the ceiling. Boarding can stay where it is. We check the route at the survey and choose a rigid or flexible tube. See sun tunnels.

Do I need a rod, a remote or a motor for a high landing window?

A rod suits a window opened now and then. A remote or a motor suits one opened daily, and solar needs no cable. We ask who uses the stairs, then recommend. Our page on electric and solar opening compares them.

Is the survey free?

Yes. We look at the roof outside and the room inside, ask how the room is used and explain what we would fit and why. A fixed written quote follows, and the survey commits you to nothing.

Free survey

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Tell us about the room and the roof. We visit, measure and send a fixed written quote for the job in Walkden.

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