Failsworth rooflights in a redbrick mill town

Failsworth skylights and rooflights, chosen for a Lancashire mill town's houses

Failsworth grew as a Lancashire mill town of redbrick cotton mills, on land that slopes gently away from the Pennines. Whatever your house looks like, we start with the room and with who will open the window.

Failsworth Pole conservation area checked with Oldham Council before we quote
A child's loft bedroom window set up with a restrictor and a blind
Flat extension roofs looked at for how the outside glass gets cleaned

10 road miles north of Stockport

Failsworth is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester. Its humid climate, its labour and its coal made it a Lancashire mill town, with weaving at its heart and redbrick cotton mills along the way. The land slopes gently from east to west, away from the Pennines, with Moston Brook marking the north-west edge and Lord's Brook the south-east. The Rochdale Canal crosses the north-west corner of the town, and the earliest record of a place of worship is Dob Lane Chapel, dating from 1698.

The records we hold say little about the age or style of the houses today, so we do not guess at yours from a map. What we can say is what tends to matter once the window is in. Is the room a child's bedroom, a landing that never sees the sun or a kitchen with a flat roof over it? Who will open the window, and can they reach it? How will the blind work, and how does the outside glass get cleaned? Those answers shape the survey, and a fixed written quote follows from it.

Five fittings for Failsworth lofts, landings and kitchens

These suit the rooms a Failsworth house may need help with, whether the problem is a dark landing, a loft bedroom or a flat-roofed kitchen at the back.

Children, cleaning and the Pole: Failsworth questions

Four Failsworth questions, from the top of the house down to the planning check: the loft bedroom, the extension roof, the landing and the planning check.

Can a loft window be made safe for a child's bedroom?

A loft room can become a child's room as the family grows, because it is the space with a door and a view of the sky. That is a good use for it. It also means the window is the first thing a child will want to open, press or climb towards, so the way it works matters as much as the size of the glass.

Limiting how far it opens

A restrictor holds the sash open to a narrow gap until an adult releases it. The page on windows that suit a child's room sets out which options exist and how each behaves. Where this window is the loft room's way out in an emergency, an adult must still be able to open it all the way past the restrictor; we ask at the survey which window plays that part. Whichever you pick, the controls should be placed with the youngest user in mind: a wall remote high up, or a handset kept on the landing.

Light in the evening

A blackout blind is the daily-use answer to bright summer evenings and early mornings. One that runs in side rails stays put when a window is open a little, which matters for a child who sleeps with a gap for the cool. Choose it with the window so the two share one remote. Blinds and controls for VELUX windows explains how this is done.

If the room is new

Where the loft is being converted, the new floor needs its own safe route out of the house, and the Building Regulations guide explains how that is dealt with. Our own part is the roof window.

A parent's test

If a six-year-old could work the control, move it. If a teenager cannot be bothered to, put it on a remote.

How do we keep the glass clean on a flat extension roof?

Where a Failsworth house has a flat-roofed extension, the roof is the obvious place for a rooflight. The glass on top of it gets rain, leaf litter and the grime of a town, and the daily-use question is how, and how often, you want to deal with that. A rooflight you cannot reach soon looks tired.

Reaching the outside

On a single-storey roof the outside of the glass can often be wiped from a ladder at the edge or with a long-handled brush from the garden. A lantern has more to clean, because glazing bars hold dirt along their length. Some makers coat the outer pane so that rain rinses it, which stretches the time between washes without replacing them. We say plainly which of these suits a particular roof, and where the roof is too high or too wide to reach safely we say that too.

Fixed or opening

A fixed flat rooflight needs no opening mechanism and gives the cook a shaft of light over the worktop. An electric opening one lets steam out at the press of a button. Nobody has to climb anything to open it. The pieces on flat roof rooflight types and what a lantern asks of you are honest about the trade-offs.

The roof under the glass

If the felt or membrane beneath is near the end of its life, it is better renewed while the roof is open, which is why the upstands and coverings guide is worth reading before you commit.

Reaching the glass, roof by roof

Flat rooflight: From a ladder at the edge, or a brush from the garden
Lantern: A longer job, with bars to wipe along their length
Pitched roof window: A sash that turns or tilts, so the outside is reached from within
Sun tunnel dome: A quick wipe, if the roof can be reached safely

Sun tunnel or roof window for a landing that never sees daylight?

In some houses the stairs rise between two walls and the landing sits in the middle of the plan, away from any window. If yours is one of them, you already know the problem: a switch on at breakfast time and the lamp still needed at noon. Which fitting solves it depends on what is above the landing.

When the roof is directly overhead

A landing under the roof slope, with a stair continuing up to a loft room, is a natural place for a roof window. It lights the stairwell, it can open, and the person on the top step can see the sky. The cost to daily life is the reach: the window sits high over a stairwell, so the choice between a pole, a handset and a motor decides whether it is ever opened. Decide that before the glass is ordered.

When there is a loft in between

If a loft sits between the ceiling and the roof, a sun tunnel carries daylight down the gap. A dome on the outside gathers the light, a tube runs through the roof space and a diffuser in the ceiling spreads it. It has no moving parts, no blind to draw and no handle to lose. What it does not give is a view, and nobody will mistake the glow for a window. The survey shows whether the loft has enough clear room for the tube to run, and whether a bend is needed around a beam.

Which suits which house

We ask who uses the stairs, whether the loft is used for storage and whether a conversion is planned. If a loft room is likely in a few years, the roof window is the one to think about first. Our page on where a sun tunnel works best and the one on roof windows in converted lofts compare the two.

Words on a landing quote

Dome: The clear cap on the roof of a sun tunnel that gathers the light.
Diffuser: The frosted panel in the ceiling that spreads the daylight into the room.
Rod: A telescopic pole that works the handle of a window you cannot reach.

Does living near Failsworth Pole change what we can fit?

The planning.data.gov.uk dataset records Failsworth Pole, Oldham, as a conservation area designated in 1988. A house inside the boundary keeps the freedom to add a rooflight unless something else removes it. What matters is the address, any condition attached to earlier planning permissions on the house and, if the building is listed, the listing. We check those with Oldham Council before we put a figure on anything.

Earlier permissions

A house that was extended a few years ago can carry a condition on that permission which removes permitted development rights. Owners can overlook it because the paperwork sits in a drawer. If you have the decision notice for your extension, bring it to the survey; if not, we look it up. The planning guide explains the general position.

Listed buildings in the town

Historic England lists Regent Mill, Firs Hall and Walmsley's House and Warehouse among other buildings in Failsworth. A rooflight on a listed house almost always requires listed building consent, and the design is settled by that consent. Our note on listed homes and rooflights shows how that works.

A low profile where it helps

On an older roof close to a protected area, a rooflight that sits low and has a slim bar tends to disappear from the street. We bring a sample so you can judge it in your own light, held up against the roof from the road if you like. Nothing is ordered until you have seen it and the position on your address is clear.

Across Failsworth, brook to brook

Failsworth

On the map Failsworth lies well within the ring drawn around Stockport, which is a straight-line radius, so the road mileage is what counts for our cover.

Does our survey area take in your street?

Surveys run across Failsworth, 10 road miles north of Stockport, between Moston Brook and Lord's Brook. Add your postcode and we will confirm your street, then arrange a free survey.

Nearest town pages

Failsworth points before a survey

Is Oldham Council the one to ask about a Failsworth rooflight?

Yes. Failsworth sits in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, so Oldham Council handles planning and is a route for building control, alongside registered building control approvers. We check your address with the council before we quote and tell you what we find.

Can a lantern go on a Failsworth extension that already has a flat roof?

It can be done, but a lantern usually stands well proud of the roof, which normally means a planning application where a flat unit may not need one. Read the lantern page for existing roofs, then ask us at the survey for the position on your house.

Can an old roof window be swapped without disturbing the room inside?

Where the new window matches the old one's size, it goes into the same opening and the inside lining can usually stay as it is. A label on the old sash gives the size code. The page on keeping the opening or moving it explains the difference.

Could a condition on our extension stop a new rooflight?

It could. An earlier permission can have come with a condition that takes permitted development rights away. If you hold the decision notice, bring it to the survey; if you do not, we look the history up with the council.

What do we get when the job is done?

A 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing, and a run-through at handover of the controls, the blind and how to clean the outside glass. Any notification to building control that the job calls for is filed by us.

Can we see a sample before choosing a blind?

Yes, at the survey we show fabrics and the controls, so you can judge the colour of the light in your own room and check that whoever uses the remote can work it comfortably. The guide to living with a rooflight covers the everyday side.

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 Failsworth.

Fixed written quote
We handle the Building Regulations notification where the work is notifiable
10-year workmanship guarantee

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