Hazel Grove rooflights for a road-side village

Skylights and rooflights for Hazel Grove, the old Bullock Smithy road village

Hazel Grove began as Bullock Smithy, a village that grew up along the road, so the houses come from different periods. We ask which one is yours, then fit the rooflight to the room and the people in it.

Stockport Council checked for your address before the quote is written
The age of your house asked at the door, never assumed from the road
Loft window, extension rooflight or landing sun tunnel, chosen by daily use

4 road miles south-east of Stockport

Hazel Grove is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, formerly Bullock Smithy, which gradually grew up along the road. In 1836 the villagers held a public meeting and resolved to adopt the name Hazel Grove. A Mechanics' Institute was built in 1871 at the corner of London Road and Hatherlow Lane, and became the village's main place for public events. In 1890 a tram line opened from Stockport along London Road, ending near the Rising Sun public house.

A village that grew along a road adds houses wherever the road gave room, which means one street can hold homes from different decades. So we do not guess. At the first visit we ask when the house was built, what has been added and which room needs the light. Then the usual daily questions: who opens the window, how far up the slope it sits, how the outside glass is cleaned, and whether a blind belongs on it. The planning side is checked with Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council before any quote.

Rooflights for houses of every period

Five fittings cover the jobs we are asked about here: a converted loft, an extended kitchen and a dark landing.

A village on a road: Hazel Grove rooflight questions

Four questions that start from what the village is, an old road lined with houses of mixed ages, and end in the rooms you use.

Why do you ask what year our house was built?

Hazel Grove has no single housing style to point to, and we would rather say that than pretend otherwise. What a road village gives you is a mix. So the first question at the door is the year, and the answer shapes everything that follows.

What the year tells us

A house from the Victorian or Edwardian years is likely to have tall rooms, which puts a loft window a long way up and makes the opening method the main decision. A 1930s semi may have a hipped roof, where the slope runs down at the side as well as at the front and back, which leaves less roof for a window. A later house tends to have a simpler roof and a lower pitch. None of these is a promise about your house. They are reasons to look before we recommend.

The covering

Slate, clay tile and concrete tile each take a different flashing kit. We look at yours on the survey, and at where the rafters fall, because the window size follows them.

A word on extensions and conversions

If your house has had a loft conversion, a rear extension or both, each addition has its own roof, and each can take a different rooflight. We look at every roof on the survey, because the best place for the new window is sometimes the older roof and sometimes the newer one.

Then the room

With the roof understood, the choice turns on use: a bedroom wants blackout, a study wants easy opening, and a landing wants only light. The guide to blinds and controls shows what is on offer.

Hazel Grove, first question

Tell us the year, the roof covering and which room needs light. The rest follows.

We have extended the back of our semi. Flat rooflight or lantern over the kitchen?

A flat-roofed kitchen or dining extension is an obvious place for a rooflight, and a good one. The choice between a flat rooflight and a lantern comes down to the room and how you live in it.

Two shapes, two habits

A flat rooflight is low, neat and a narrow room's natural fit. You reach the outside with a long-handled brush from the garden or a ladder. A lantern is a glazed box that gives a wider room real height, and it suits a table in the middle. It takes longer to clean because there are more bars and more panes. Either can be fixed or opening, and an electric one opens from a switch, which matters in a kitchen where steam builds up.

What goes under it

Think about the furniture as well as the roof. A dining table under a lantern gets the light where people sit. A worktop under a flat rooflight gets it where they cook. A sofa gets glare on a screen in the afternoon unless a blind is fitted. We ask where things will stand, because a rooflight is positioned for the room's use, not the roof's convenience.

Summer sun

An extension that gets the afternoon sun can run warm. A pleated blind on the inside, or solar control glass chosen at the start, gives you a way to manage it. Our page on solar control glass covers what that glass does.

Planning

Whether a rooflight on an existing extension, or a lantern on one still to be built, needs an application is set out in the planning guide, and we check the answer for your Hazel Grove address with Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. The roof under the new rooflight is covered in upstands and coverings.

Extension rooflight, at a glance

Narrow room: Low and neat, a flat unit
Wide room: Lantern, taller and brighter
Opening: Fixed, or electric by switch or remote
Outside glass: Brush or ladder; a lantern takes longer
Sun: Pleated blind or solar control glass

Who in the family should be able to open the loft window?

A loft room starts life as a plan and ends up as someone's bedroom, study or hobby room. The person who uses it is the person who opens the window, so that is where the choice begins.

One person, one habit

A teenager's bedroom needs a window that can be left ajar, closed from the bed and shaded for sleep. An older relative's room wants a handle that does not ask for a stretch. A study wants the window open on a warm afternoon and shut again with the minimum of fuss. Manual, electric and solar suit each of these differently, and a remote can run both the window and the blind.

Rain with nobody home

Some VELUX electric and solar windows have a rain sensor that closes the sash when rain falls. If the household is out in the day, that is the feature to ask about. Read more in our guide to rain sensors.

A room that changes

A loft room will probably have more than one user in its time. A nursery becomes a play room, then a teenage bedroom, then a spare room. A window that can be operated at several heights of person, by a pole, a remote or a motor, will suit every one of them better than one tuned to a single user. We favour controls that can be changed later.

Sides, steps and paperwork

A window set in a side-facing slope brings extra conditions, which the planning guide sets out. A loft conversion counts as building work, and how people leave it safely is covered in the Building Regulations guide. If the job is notifiable, we handle that notification as part of the work, and the sizes and positions are covered in roof windows for loft conversions.

What do you check with the council before you quote?

Public planning records can be incomplete, so we do not rely on them. Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council is asked about your address before the quote, and you hear the answer in plain words.

What the check covers

Four things matter. A direction that removes permitted development rights in your street. A condition on the original permission for your house or a later one. Any listing on the house. And whether the house is a flat, because flats have no householder permitted development rights and a rooflight on one needs planning permission, with the freeholder's consent usually needed as well. The planning guide explains each.

If the house is on the list

The national list includes the Church of St Thomas and Beech House in Hazel Grove, both Grade II. For a listed house, the council will almost always want listed building consent first, and that consent decides the design. See listed houses and rooflights.

If the council says yes

You get a fixed written quote from us, and the free survey that came before it has already told us the roof's measurements and covering.

What a council check turns up

Direction: A council order for part of an area that takes away some permitted development rights.
Condition: A rule attached to the permission under which a house was built or altered.
Lawful Development Certificate: A formal council statement that a proposed job needs no planning application.
Flat: A home in a building divided into flats. It has no householder permitted development rights, so a rooflight needs planning permission and usually the freeholder's agreement.

Along the road and off it

Hazel Grove

Hazel Grove falls deep inside the ring on the map, which is drawn 30 miles out from Stockport as the crow flies.

Is your Hazel Grove address inside our area?

Hazel Grove is 4 road miles south-east of Stockport, close to home for us. Type your postcode and we confirm the address is covered.

Nearest town pages

Answers for Hazel Grove households

Which council deals with planning for a house in Hazel Grove?

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. Building control can be done by the council's team or else a registered building control approver. The council gets your address from us ahead of the quote.

Our house is on a corner of an old road. Does that matter for a rooflight?

It can matter for planning if the window would go in a side-facing slope, which brings extra conditions set out in the planning guide. We check the slope at the survey and tell you which one the window would go in.

Can a dark landing be lit without a loft conversion?

Often yes, with a sun tunnel, if there is roof space above it. A dome on the roof, a tube across the loft and a diffuser below carry the daylight down. It has no sash and no outlook. See sun tunnels.

Is a blind worth having on a rooflight in a kitchen extension?

If the room faces the sun, yes. A pleated blind takes the edge off afternoon glare and can be worked from a pole or a remote. A shaded kitchen may not need one, and we say so at the survey.

Will the bedroom be dark enough for a child to sleep?

With a blackout blind, yes. VELUX makes blackout blinds that run in side channels to cut the light leaking round the edge, and a remote or pole works them. A landing or a study may not need one. Our guide to blinds and controls shows the types.

Is there a guarantee on the fitting?

Yes. A loft window, an extension rooflight or a landing sun tunnel fitted in Hazel Grove has our 10-year workmanship guarantee behind it. Makers' guarantees on their products differ, and we say which applies to your window. See our guarantee.

Free survey

Book your free survey

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

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

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