Roof windows and sun tunnels for Audenshaw's lofts and landings

Audenshaw skylights and rooflights for loft rooms, landings and extended kitchens

Audenshaw grew as a textile town in the Victorian era. Whether yours is an old terrace with a loft room or a semi with a kitchen at the back, we start with who will use the room and how.

Your address checked with Tameside Council before any quote is written
Where the window sits on the slope, so you can see out of it
Flat rooflight or sun tunnel, matched to the room and the roof

7 road miles north of Stockport

Audenshaw is a town in Tameside, historically part of Lancashire, with about 13,000 people. Before the Industrial Revolution the main occupation was farming. Then the place grew into a textile centre, with people employed in hat-making, cotton-spinning, calico-printing and silk-weaving. In 1877 part of the original village was demolished to make way for the three Audenshaw Reservoirs, and today the town stands at the head of the Dane valley.

For a rooflight, we think about the rooms first. A loft room under an old slope asks who will open the window and where on the roof it should sit. A dark landing asks whether daylight is all you want. A semi with a kitchen added at the back asks about the blind, the glare and getting at the outside of the glass. The survey is built around those questions, and the fixed written quote follows.

Rooflights for Audenshaw's rooms

These five suit a loft room, a landing in need of daylight and a flat-roofed kitchen. Each page explains how the thing opens, how it is cleaned and what it asks of you every week.

A dining room with a long oak table under a flat rooflight, French doors open to the garden

What a rooflight asks of you in Audenshaw

A window in an old loft slope is often above arm's reach, so the choice of rod, remote or solar motor is made before the order.
A bedroom under the slope wants blackout. A landing or a bathroom usually wants no blind at all.
A flat rooflight on a kitchen extension and a window high on a pitch are cleaned in very different ways. We say which applies before you choose.
A free survey looks at the loft, the landing and the roof outside, then a fixed written quote follows.

Audenshaw lofts, landings and back kitchens

Three questions that come up when we survey in a town built on cotton, hats and silk: the loft window, the view, and the kitchen at the back.

In a house from the textile years, who will actually open a loft window?

Audenshaw expanded as a textile centre through the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian era, with hat-making, cotton-spinning, calico-printing and silk-weaving. Whatever the age of your own house, the same question applies once the loft is a bedroom or a study: who is going to reach the window, and how often?

Three ways to open it

A manual roof window with a handle at the top can be worked with a telescopic rod. That suits a window you only open from time to time. If it is your daily bedroom window, electric or solar opening is easier. Electric windows are wired to the mains, which is simplest while the ceiling is open for other work. Solar ones need no cable. Our guide to electric and solar opening compares them.

The blind goes with it

A blind you cannot reach is a blind you never close. A bedroom nearly always wants blackout, and on a high window it should run from the same remote or switch. Our guide to blinds and controls sets out the choices.

Two rooms, one slope

A teenager's loft bedroom and a spare room used for guests can sit under the same slope and still want different windows. The bedroom needs blackout and a window it is easy to open. The spare room may do well with a simple rod-operated one, and a lighter blind.

A child's room

If a child sleeps under the window, ask about a restrictor, a handle set out of reach and a rain sensor for days when nobody is in. Rain sensors come on the electric and solar roof windows from VELUX, and they close the sash as soon as drops hit the glass. Our guide to child-safe opening rooflights explains the options. A loft conversion is also building work in its own right, and means of escape is part of its design, which the Building Regulations guide covers. Permitted development does not remove the need for Building Regulations approval or other consents.

A daily-use loft bedroom

Opening: Solar or electric, so no rod is needed
Blind: Blackout, on the same remote
Child safety: Restrictor and a handle out of reach
Wet days: Rain sensor closes it when nobody is home

Where on the roof should the window go so we can look out of it?

Audenshaw stands at the head of the Dane valley, and when the three reservoirs were made in 1877 part of the original village was lost to them. Where a house has an outlook, a roof window can be the way to use it from an upstairs room. How well you can look out depends less on the glass than on where the window is placed on the slope.

Eye level matters

On a pitched roof the bottom edge of a roof window needs to sit low enough to see out while you are standing, and the top edge high enough to reach while you are sitting. Put it too high and you see sky only. Too low and the sash swings into the space where you stand. In a bedroom with a low eaves wall the answer is often to place the window a little higher and add a second below it, or to choose one sized for the slope.

Light across the day

A window on one slope lights the room differently from a window on another, and a rooflight in a small room can bring in more light than a wall window of the same size. Solar control glass cuts glare and heat when the sun is strong, though it changes the colour of the light slightly. Our solar control glass guide sets out the trade.

Side slopes

A roof window in a slope that forms the side of the house carries extra conditions, which the planning guide sets out. It is worth knowing before the layout is fixed, so we raise it at the survey.

Where it goes

Set the window for the person who stands under it, not for the tidiest line on the roof.

Our semi has a flat-roofed kitchen at the back. What do we need to know?

A rear kitchen with a flat roof is where a rooflight earns its keep, and it is also where daily habits count most. If your semi has had an extension, the flat roof is the natural place for the light. If you are only thinking about one, it helps to plan the rooflight while the roof is still being drawn.

Flat rooflight or lantern

A flat rooflight sits low on an upstand. It is neat from the garden and straightforward to clean. A lantern rises in a pitched glass frame, gives the room more height and suits a wider space. Planning differs where a lantern goes onto an existing roof, which the lantern planning guide sets out. The flat-roof rooflight guide compares the types side by side.

Cleaning and glare

The outside of a flat pane collects leaves and rain marks, and you will not see them until the sun comes through. We explain how it will be reached before you commit. A pleated blind softens a bright afternoon, and some makers offer a coating that helps the outer pane stay clear.

Checking the address

Planning.data.gov.uk records no conservation area for Audenshaw, but that dataset can be incomplete, so we check your address with Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council before we quote. Rights may also have been removed by a condition on the house's original or a later planning permission. If there is any doubt, the council can confirm, and a Lawful Development Certificate gives formal certainty that no planning application is needed. Historic England lists Ryecroft Hall at Grade II, and on a listed house a new or altered rooflight almost always needs listed building consent. The listed homes guide has the detail. We deal with the Building Regulations notification whenever a job calls for one.

Our upstairs bathroom sits in the middle of the house with no window. What lights and clears it?

Some houses are laid out with the stair and bathroom in the middle of the plan. A bathroom in that spot has no outside wall, so it is lit by a bulb all day and clears steam only with a fan. A rooflight is a way to change that, provided there is roof above it.

Daylight only

A sun tunnel is the lighter job. It needs loft space above the bathroom, a dome on the roof and a tube between. It brings in daylight, it costs little in daily effort, and there is nothing inside to wipe or open. Our guide to rigid or flexible sun tunnels explains how the tube is chosen for the run it has to make.

Daylight and air

If the bathroom steams up after every shower, a roof window that opens lets the damp out alongside the fan. It needs a roof slope directly above the room, or a short shaft down to it, and it sits high, so a rod or a switch will open it. A switch beside the door is the easiest habit to keep.

Looking after it

Either way, the outside needs a plan. A sun tunnel dome is small and can be cleared when you are on the roof for other jobs. A roof window is reached from outside or, on a centre-pivot model, from indoors. We talk through which suits the room before you commit. For the dampness side, our guide to condensation on rooflights explains what to expect on the glass in a steamy room.

Surveys across Audenshaw

Audenshaw

Audenshaw sits well inside the 30-mile area our surveys cover.

Check your Audenshaw postcode

Audenshaw is 7 road miles north of Stockport, and we survey across the whole town, including the streets near the reservoirs. Enter your postcode to check and book.

Nearest town pages

Questions Audenshaw households raise

Which council handles planning for an Audenshaw house?

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. Building Regulations sign-off goes either to the council or to a registered building control approver; we explain both at the survey.

Will a sun tunnel work on a landing under a pitched roof?

Usually, if there is loft space above. A rigid or flexible tube carries daylight from a dome outside to a diffuser in the ceiling. It does not open. See which rooms suit a sun tunnel.

Is it possible to replace an old roof window and leave the room alone?

Often, when the new window is the same size as the old. The label on the old window gives a size code. See finding your size code and new opening or same opening.

How is the outside of a flat rooflight kept clear?

It is wiped from a ladder or from a lower roof, and we agree the way in at the survey. Some makers offer a coating on the outer pane that helps. Our guide to living with a rooflight covers the routine.

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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 Audenshaw.

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