Salford rooflights for terraces, flats and rebuilt streets

Skylights and rooflights for Salford's terraces, flats and rebuilt streets

Salford's housing has been through slum clearance and regeneration since the 1930s, so its roofs are far from all of one kind. We choose the rooflight for the roof in front of us and the people under it.

Flat roofs on apartment blocks: who owns the roof is settled before any quote
Terrace lofts and landings matched to who can reach the window
Salford City Council checked on your address, including any Article 4 direction

13 road miles north-west of Stockport

Salford is a city in Greater Manchester, on the bank of the River Irwell, and a city in its own right, separate from Manchester. The Industrial Revolution turned a small market town into a major industrial metropolis, and Victorian terraced housing followed. Housing here has been through slum clearance and regeneration since the 1930s, and Salford Quays was established in the 1980s on former dockland. The land use is overwhelmingly urban, with green space such as Kersal Dale country park. About 108,000 people live in Salford.

The result is a mix of roofs. Some are pitched roofs over terraces, some are flat roofs over blocks of flats and some belong to newer homes. A rooflight has to suit its own roof and the household beneath it. In a terrace that means reach, the blind and the outside glass. In a flat it also means finding out who owns the roof. We start each survey with how the room is used, and a fixed written quote follows.

The rooflights Salford's mixed housing asks for

Flat roofs on blocks, loft rooms in terraces, landings and tired units that have misted: these five cover them.

Using a rooflight in a Salford home

A terrace loft window is high on the slope, so settle the rod, remote or solar motor before the window is ordered.
A flat roof over a living room may want a blind for the afternoon, while a landing sun tunnel needs none.
Ask how the outside glass is reached, because on a block roof you may not be allowed up there at all.
Where the work is notifiable under the Building Regulations, we handle that notification.

Four questions from Salford's roofs

Who owns the roof, when a walk-on unit suits, what a terrace needs and how Salford's protected streets are checked. These are the points a Salford survey has to settle.

Who has to agree before a rooflight goes into the roof of a flat?

In a house, the roof is usually yours. In a flat, it is often part of the building as a whole, and the lease sets out who owns it and what you may change. A rooflight is a hole in the roof, so it is a change the owner of the roof will want to approve.

Ask before you design

Start with the lease and the people who manage the block. If your flat is on the top floor, with a flat roof over your own rooms, the owner may be willing to agree in writing, with conditions about who does the work and who looks after the roof afterwards. Our survey can describe the job clearly enough for that conversation, but we cannot give consent on the owner's behalf.

What the owner will ask

Expect questions about the roof covering, the guarantee on the roof and who is responsible for leaks around the new unit. The page on fitting into an existing flat roof shows what is involved, including how the roof is dressed around the upstand.

Planning and regulations

Flats have no householder permitted development rights, so putting a rooflight into a flat means a planning application, as the planning guide explains. The Building Regulations still apply to the work, and where it is notifiable we deal with the notification.

Daily use

Think about the room before the product. A living room that gets the sun may want solar control glass or a blind. In a bathroom, think about who will open the window and how often, because steam is a daily thing. And the question of who cleans the glass is a real one, because a block roof may not be somewhere residents can go.

Before the survey

Read the lease and speak to the roof's owner first. A rooflight nobody has agreed to is a rooflight that cannot go in.

When does a walk-on rooflight make sense, rather than an ordinary flat one?

A walk-on rooflight is a flat rooflight whose glass can carry a person. The question is whether anyone will actually stand on it, and for a plain flat roof the answer is usually no.

Where it earns a place

It is chosen when the glass sits in a floor, a terrace or a path. Typical cases are a roof terrace over a room that wants daylight, or a lightwell where the glass is part of a walkway. If you only need light into the room, an ordinary flat rooflight does the job and is simpler. The page on walk-on rooflights for terraces and lightwells goes through the cases.

Living with it

A walk-on unit has to be cleaned, and that is the part people forget. Dirt shows on glass you walk on, so you will see it from below. Ask how the outer surface is cleaned and whether it is slippery when wet. The page on whether walk-on rooflights are slippery answers that.

On a block or a house

On a block roof, a terrace may belong to one flat and the glass below it to another, which brings us back to the owner. On a house, a rear extension with a terrace over it is one setting. In both, the flat roof underneath should be sound before the glass goes in.

The simple option

If nobody will step on it, choose the plain flat rooflight and put the thought into a blind or a better opening method. That is the kind of advice a survey should give, and we would rather give it than sell the heavier unit. Either way the guide above shows how each is built and what it asks of the roof beneath.

Walk-on or plain flat rooflight

Someone will stand on it: Walk-on
Only light into the room: Plain flat
Cleaning: Ask before choosing either
Roof under it: Sound before the glass goes in

For a Victorian terrace, is a loft roof window or a landing sun tunnel the better buy?

Salford built Victorian terraced housing on a large scale, and where terraces still stand, the roofs over them raise two kinds of job: the loft room and the landing.

The loft room

If the loft is being used, a roof window lights it and gives a way to let air out. The window ends up high on the slope. A pole is fine for a room opened now and then, and a motor suits a bedroom opened daily. See electric or solar opening. The blind goes with it: blackout in a bedroom, run from the same remote.

The landing

Terrace stairs tend to sit in the middle of the house, away from outside walls, so the landing is dim. A sun tunnel is the lightest answer where there is loft space. It carries daylight down a tube and has nothing to open. If the loft is in use, a roof window over the stair does the work of both light and air. See rooms that suit a sun tunnel.

Replacing a tired unit

An older roof can carry a window that has misted between the panes. The question is whether the glass unit alone can be replaced or the whole window. The page on glass unit or whole window sets it out. A window that was hard to open is worth replacing whole, since the new one can be chosen to be easier to use, with a motor or a remote, instead of repeating the old problem.

Conversion paperwork

If you are converting the loft, the extra floor needs a safe way out, settled with the stair design, and the roof window positions follow from that layout. Tell us early if there is a plan for a bathroom up there, because wet rooms want a window that opens and a blind that copes with steam. The Building Regulations guide explains it.

Parts of Salford are protected. How do you check our street?

Crescent and Cliff are among the conservation areas the planning data records in Salford. Parts of Salford also carry Article 4 directions, which withdraw some of the usual freedoms in a defined area. Whether either touches your roof depends on the address, so the look-up with Salford City Council comes first, and the quote follows it.

What a conservation area changes

Standing inside one, in England, does not in itself take away the right to fit a rooflight. An Article 4 direction can, and a listing is a different matter again. The planning guide sets out the ordinary route.

If a home is listed

Historic England's list includes Salford Lads Club and the Church of St Luke at Grade II*. If your home is listed, the rooflight almost always hinges on listed building consent, and the consent governs the design. See listed homes: the rooflight route.

A low-profile choice

On an older street, a conservation rooflight sits close to the slope with a slim bar, and reads quietly from below. It is worth comparing at the survey even where nothing forces it. Our page on choosing one lists what to look at.

Terms from a street check

Roof owner: The person or company with the right to say yes to a hole in the roof, usually set out in a lease.
Article 4: A council order that takes away some of the usual freedoms in a defined area, so an application is needed.
Low-profile: A rooflight that sits close to the slope, made for older roofs.

Salford, street by street

Salford

On the map a straight-line ring of 30 miles surrounds Stockport and Salford is inside it. We count our service area in road miles instead.

Is your Salford address in range?

We cover Salford, 13 road miles north-west of Stockport, from the Victorian terraces to the blocks of flats and the newer streets. Enter your postcode to confirm, then book a free survey.

Nearest town pages

Salford rooflight questions

Which council looks after planning in Salford?

Salford City Council. For the building control side, choose between the council and a registered building control approver.

Our flat roof rooflight has misted between the panes. Is it a big job?

Often it is a glass unit swap, not a new rooflight, depending on how the frame is built. See why rooflights mist between the panes.

Can I fit a rooflight to the roof of a new-build flat?

Only with the agreement of whoever owns the roof, and a flat has no householder permitted development rights, so it needs planning permission as well. Start with the lease and the managing agent, then contact us for a survey. We can describe the work clearly for that conversation with the owner, so the request is easy to answer.

Do I need a blind on a flat rooflight over a living room?

If the sun lands on a sofa or a screen, yes. A blind or solar control glass keeps the room usable in the afternoon, and the choice depends on whether you want the light dimmed, the heat reduced or both. See solar control glass.

What do you leave us with at the end?

An explanation of the controls, blind and cleaning at handover, and our written 10-year workmanship guarantee on whatever we fitted to your roof.

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 Salford.

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

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