Rochdale skylights and rooflights for stone and brick terraces and Toad Lane's conservation streets

On a Pennine-edge terrace the roof is commonly Welsh slate or stone slate, and from the street the two can look alike, but stone slate is thicker, heavier and more irregular, and it behaves differently when a window is cut in. A roof window arrives with a flashing kit, and the kit has to match the covering around it.

What you notice at home

You will not see the flashing from the room. What you notice is whether the window opens smoothly and the roof stays dry around it. On Welsh slate the flashing tucks neatly under and over the slates. On stone slate it needs more care to bed in, and the slates round the opening are relaid by hand. Our answer on flashing for slate and tile explains the principles.

A flush rooflight on stone slate

A conservation rooflight sits close to the covering, with a slim central bar, and suits an older stone-slate roof where you want the window to disappear from the street. Our guide to choosing a conservation rooflight sets out what to weigh.

Why the old roof is worth keeping in view

Rochdale was a woollen centre with wealthy merchants by the early eighteenth century, and a mill town in the nineteenth. Its stone and red-brick terraces date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, set among housing types and commercial buildings from several other periods. A window sized to the rafter spacing sits comfortably, and the survey tells us whether the timbers under your slates are as even as the roof looks from the road.

Using it every day

Whichever roof you have, the daily question is the handle. A window set low opens by hand, and one set high wants a rod, a remote or a solar motor. We settle that with you at the survey, before we settle the flashing.

A steep slope is not a place to send a ladder, and both questions are best settled before the window is chosen.

Cleaning from the room

Many roof windows turn on a pivot, so the outer pane swings to the inside and you wipe it with a cloth. That is the plainest answer on a steep roof. A top-hung window does not turn, and the outside is reached with a long-handled tool or from the roof, so ask which design suits your slope. Some makers coat the outer pane so that rain carries off the dirt.

Rain and the open window

VELUX makes electric and solar roof windows with a rain sensor that closes them when it starts to rain. That helps when you leave a window open and go out, and our rain sensor guide explains how it behaves. A manual window can be left on a restrictor, which holds it open a small way only.

The first week

The first week with a new window is when habits form. You find out whether the handle is where your hand goes and whether the blind drops smoothly. If anything feels wrong, say so, because a small adjustment now makes the window easier to use for good. We would sooner hear about a stiff handle in week one than have you put up with it for a year.

Getting up there

Replacing an old window does not always mean scaffolding. Our answer on replacing a skylight without scaffolding explains when the job can be done from inside and from a safe position on the roof.

Shown before we leave

At handover we show you how the window turns, how to wipe it and how the blind and the controls work, so the first time you clean it is not a surprise. Keep the cloth by the window if it helps, because a rooflight that is easy to clean gets cleaned, and one that is awkward does not.