Skylights and rooflights for Tyldesley's steep brick terraces and post-war infill

Steep terraces branch off the main streets in Tyldesley, and houses in a row can step up or down the slope. That can put the back roof of one house higher off the ground than the next, and a roof window at the back of an upper house can be out of reach of anything but a long ladder.

Why the roofs step

Tyldesley sits at the edge of the Lancashire Plain, north of Chat Moss, on a sandstone ridge known as the Banks where the Pennine foothills begin. Steep terraces branch off the main streets on that ground. It is not a hill-country town, and weather is not the theme. The slope matters for a more everyday reason: it puts one back roof above another.

Reach from inside and outside

Inside, a window high in a sloping ceiling is out of arm's reach, so a telescopic rod works a manual one and a remote works an electric or solar one. Outside, the height of the back roof decides how the glass is cleaned. A window on a low back roof can be washed from a ladder in the yard. On a high one, a window that tilts or turns so the outer pane can be reached from inside is the kinder choice. We look at the roof from the back garden at the survey, since a front view does not show you this.

Brick, slate and the flashing

Victorian and Edwardian terraces in Lancashire mill towns are typically red brick under Welsh slate, so the flashing kit is chosen for slate. Our page on roof window flashing for slate and tile explains what the kit does.

Planning and the safe way out

A rooflight on a Tyldesley house is usually permitted development, within limits the planning guide sets out. A loft that becomes a living floor needs a safe route out, covered in the Building Regulations guide. If the work is notifiable, the notification is ours to handle.

Tyldesley Town Centre is a conservation area, and Tyldesley Chapel and the Church of St George are both listed Grade II. Whether your house is inside the boundary is worth checking before a roof is touched. Sitting inside a conservation area leaves your right to add a rooflight to a house in place, within limits set out in the planning guide. What else an address carries is a matter for Wigan Council, and we ask it before we quote.

If your house is listed

Where the house itself is listed, Wigan Council will almost always have to grant listed building consent for any rooflight job on it, and that decides the design. Our page on conservation rooflights and listed homes explains the process.

Why we ask the council

An earlier planning approval for a house may carry conditions that remove the usual rights. A new estate house can have one just as an old terrace can. We find out at the start, so that the quote does not rest on a guess. The council answers house by house, and we pass its answer on. Building control may go through Wigan itself, or through a registered building control approver.