Red-brick terraces and mill-town lofts in Oldham

Skylights and rooflights for Oldham's red-brick terraces and former mill streets

Oldham is a town of 19th-century red-brick terraces and the former cotton mills that mark its skyline. Each rooflight is chosen for the loft, the landing or the yard extension, and for whoever has to open it.

Terrace loft rooms: roof window sized and opened for daily use
Dark landings: sun tunnel or roof window, chosen by what lies above
Yard-side extensions: flat rooflight with cleaning planned from the start

11 road miles north of Stockport

Oldham lies among the Pennines on high ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, roughly 220 metres up at its centre. Its built environment is characterised by 19th-century red-brick terraced houses, the infrastructure built to support them and the former cotton mills that mark its skyline. Oldham became the world's cotton-spinning centre in the second half of the 19th century, with more than 360 mills at its peak, and the last mill closed in 1998.

Victorian brick terraces in Lancashire mill towns commonly have Welsh slate roofs on a modest pitch. Under them can sit a loft room or a dark landing, and at the back there may be a kitchen extension. Each of those asks a different question about who opens the window, how high it sits and how the outside glass gets cleaned.

Rooflights for terrace lofts, landings and yards

Five choices cover the terrace: roof windows for the loft, a sun tunnel for a dark stair, a flat rooflight for the yard extension, and a fresh unit when an old one has misted.

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

Living under an Oldham terrace rooflight

A loft window in a terrace roof can be just out of reach from the floor, so we plan the pole, handset or motor before the window is ordered.
A loft bedroom wants blackout. A kitchen under a flat rooflight may want a pleated blind that pulls across when the sun comes round.
A flat pane over a yard extension wipes clean easily. A window high on the slate slope needs a different plan, which we talk through first.
Certain VELUX electric and solar windows carry a rain sensor, which suits a house that is empty all day while people are at work.

What Oldham's terraces ask of a rooflight

A loft room, a yard extension, a dark landing and a window that has misted: four questions an Oldham terrace raises.

Can the loft of our brick terrace take a roof window that someone will really open?

A terrace roof on a modest pitch leaves a loft room with a low, sloping ceiling, and a roof window set into it sits closer to hand than one on a steep Edwardian roof. That helps. It still pays to decide who opens the window, and how, before the position is marked.

Pole, handset or cell

A manual window has a handle at the top. A pole reaches it, which is fine for a spare room. A bedroom window opened each morning is easier on a handset, either mains-powered or solar. Solar models carry their own cell and need no cable run, which helps when the ceiling is finished. The electric or solar comparison sets the two side by side.

The hillside question

Oldham stands high among the Pennines, so a shower can arrive with some force. That is a reason to think about a limited opening or a rain sensor for a window that might be left open, and we raise it only where it is relevant to the room.

A bedroom for a child

If a child will sleep in the loft, the handle height and a restrictor matter more than the glass, and any restrictor on the room's escape window, if it has one, must still let an adult open it fully (the Building Regulations guide covers escape). Our child-safe opening guide explains the options.

Near a conservation area

The planning data records conservation areas in Oldham, and they include Oldham Town Centre and Alexandra Park. Living in one is not, on its own, a bar to a rooflight on a house in England. The planning guide covers what is. Whichever street you live on, we check your address with Oldham Council before quoting.

A terrace loft bedroom, planned for use

Roof: Welsh slate on a modest pitch, covering noted at survey
Window: Roof window sized to the rafters
Opening: Pole for occasional use, handset for every day
Blind: Blackout, worked by the same handset
Paperwork: Building Regulations notification handled where the work is notifiable

Our kitchen extension fills the back yard. How do we light it and keep the glass clean?

An extension that fills a terrace yard can end up deep and dim, because the only windows face the garden wall or the back of the next house. A rooflight puts the daylight in from above, and a flat roof makes that easy.

Flat or tall

A flat rooflight on an upstand suits a narrow room and keeps a low profile. A lantern, which stands up as a small glass roof, suits a room wide enough for a table and gives more height. We weigh them at the survey, with the shape of the room and the roof in front of us. The flat roof choosing guide goes through the types.

Reaching the outside

Wiping the outside is easy to leave out of the plan. On a single-storey roof the glass can be within reach of a ladder from the yard, and some makers offer coatings that help rain wash the pane. Ask us how yours would be cleaned before you commit.

Heat under the glass

A south-facing rooflight can make a small kitchen warm in summer. A blind under the glass helps, and so does a glass that cuts down the sun's heat. The solar control glass page explains what the coating does.

Sorting out the blind

Under a rooflight in a kitchen, a blind earns nothing if it is awkward to pull. Pleated blinds that run on side tracks stay put at any angle, and a handset-driven blind does the whole job at the press of a button for a roof you cannot reach. In a room that is bright all day anyway, you may choose no blind and rely on the glass.

The roof under it

We look at the state of the flat roof at the survey, because the rooflight's upstand is sealed into it, and the upstands and coverings guide shows how the two meet.

For a yard extension

Plan the cleaning at the same time as the glass. A rooflight nobody can reach soon looks neglected.

The landing is dark and there is nowhere for a window. What are the choices?

In a terrace the landing can sit in the middle of the house, with a bedroom either side and no outside wall. The roof is the only route for daylight, and there are two ways to use it.

The sun tunnel

A sun tunnel takes daylight from a dome on the roof, along a tube through the loft, to a diffuser in the landing ceiling. We cut a clean round opening in the ceiling for the diffuser, and the dome is flashed into the slates. It cannot be opened and offers no view of the sky. It suits a landing, a hall or a bathroom with loft space above. Our guide to suitable rooms says where it falls short.

A roof window

If the loft above the landing is a room, a roof window can be placed to throw light down the stair, or the stair can take borrowed light from the room. A roof window opens, which helps in a warm house, but it needs reaching. Over a stairwell the handle can be out of arm's length, so a pole or a motor comes into the discussion.

Which suits your landing

A tight landing with only loft space above suits a sun tunnel, and the diffuser can be placed to spread light down the stairs as well as across the landing. A wide stair under a converted loft may suit a roof window. We choose at the survey, once we have seen what sits above the ceiling.

Regulations

A sun tunnel is an alteration to the roof, and the sun tunnel regulations page explains how the rules apply.

The old roof window has misted. Is it worth replacing now?

A window that has clouded between the panes has lost its seal, and the room under it pays for it in a dull view and in warmth. A replacement can be less disruptive than it sounds.

Glass only, or the lot

Sometimes the sealed glass unit can be changed and the frame kept. Sometimes the frame, the flashing or the opening mechanism is as tired as the glass, and a whole window is the better answer. The misted rooflight guide shows how we decide.

Same opening

A new window with the same frame size as the old one can drop into the existing opening, and the lining inside stays put. The code on the label tells us, and the size code guide explains how to read it.

Change how it works

A replacement is a good moment to fix what annoyed you about the old window. A heavy handle can become a pole or a handset. A room that overheats can get a blind. Listed buildings, such as 7 and 9 Church Lane, are a different matter: listed building consent would almost always be required before a rooflight was altered, and our listed buildings guide explains it.

Terms from an Oldham survey

Sealed unit: The double-glazed glass panel in the window, sealed around its edge.
Diffuser: The frosted panel in a ceiling that spreads the daylight from a sun tunnel.
Upstand: The raised edge on a flat roof that the rooflight sits on.
Size code: The letters and numbers on a window label that tell us the frame size.

Oldham, street by street

Oldham

Oldham sits inside the circle on the map, which is a straight-line radius from Stockport.

Is your Oldham road on our list?

Oldham lies 11 road miles north of Stockport, among the Pennines between the rivers Irk and Medlock.

Nearest town pages

What Oldham homeowners want to know

Who decides planning questions for a house in Oldham?

Oldham Council. For building control, choose the council or a registered building control approver. Your address goes to the council before we write the quote.

Is a conservation area a barrier to a rooflight?

Not by itself. In England, a house inside one can still have a rooflight added. An old planning condition can remove that right, and a listed house brings in listed building consent, which is almost always needed, so we check both. The planning guide has the detail.

Do you quote before you have seen the roof?

No. We survey first, and then give a fixed written quote, because the roof, the opening and the room below all affect the work. The replacement cost guide explains what moves a price.

Can a rooflight go on a flat I own in an old mill building?

A flat is different: its rooflight needs planning permission, and the freeholder normally has to agree as well. Once they are in place, we survey the roof and the room below as for any other job.

Does replacing a window need scaffolding?

Not always. A replacement can sometimes be done from inside and from a roof ladder, and we say at the survey what yours needs. See replacing without scaffolding.

Our loft window sticks in winter. Is that the window or the roof?

It can be either. A swollen frame, a worn hinge or a warped lining can each make a window stiff. We look at the window and the flashing together at the survey and tell you whether the window should be swapped for a new one. See replacing an old VELUX window.

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