Fitting skylights and rooflights to Abram's colliery rows and outrigger kitchens
Long brick rows built for pit families still define Abram, with their slate roofs, rear outriggers and yards, and newer estates now cover much of the ground the collieries left behind. Rooflight installation in Abram is about lighting those narrow terraces and plain post-war houses without disturbing a roof that has carried weight for a century.
21.2 road miles north-east of Liverpool city centre
What keeps an Abram terrace dark right to the middle of the house?
- The colliery row stairsUp the stairs of a nineteenth-century brick row, where the landing sits between two bedrooms, the walls are shared with neighbours and the only light has to come from above.
- The outrigger kitchenAt the back of a terrace, in the narrow outrigger kitchen or scullery, where a lean-to roof and a high yard wall have left the sink area in permanent shade.
- The estate box roomInside a small box room or an upstairs bathroom on one of the interwar and post-war estates, where the window faces a fence and the loft above sits unused.
Row stairs, outrigger kitchens and estate box rooms
Skylight installation in Abram has to deal with colliery terraces, interwar council semis, post-war estates and the newer houses built on reclaimed land, so the services below follow those roofs from oldest to newest.
- Lanterns for the bigger rear extensions on the newer detached houses, built to the opening and the load the roof structure can take.
- Flat rooflights for the extended kitchens and single-storey rear additions that crowd the yards behind the old rows.
- Roof windows for the slate terraces, set between rafters that were laid by hand and flashed to the covering as it actually lies.
- VELUX and equivalent roof windows for the loft rooms that many Abram families have added above their upper floor.
Terraces built round a colliery, and the estates built after it
Abram is a mining village at heart. Rows of brick houses went up in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for the families who worked the local pits, and the grid of those streets can still be read on the ground. Each house is narrow, two up and two down, with a front door onto the pavement, a yard and wall behind, and a slate roof that runs the length of the row. Many have a rear outrigger, a two-storey or single-storey projection at the back that holds a kitchen or bathroom.
The pits have gone, and the land around the village has changed with them. Parts of it were reclaimed and built on, and groups of newer homes now stand where the workings once were. Between the old rows and the new estates sit the interwar council houses: semi-detached, brick or roughcast, with hipped tiled roofs, generous front gardens and loft space that has been waiting for a use ever since. After the war came larger estates of plainer houses and bungalows, and later still the modern developments with their pitched concrete tiles and shallow gables.
Platt Bridge, Bickershaw, Hindley and Westleigh all lie close, and the roofs there share the same families of house. So the question for any rooflight in Abram is often which of these generations the roof belongs to. A colliery row has a slate surface laid on timber that may be very old. A 1930s semi has clay or concrete tile and a loft with good head height. A post-war bungalow has a low pitch and little attic. A modern house has trussed rafters and a membrane. Each wants a different approach to cutting, framing and flashing.
The same is true inside. A colliery terrace tends to have a steep, narrow stair with a ceiling just under the slates, so a roof window above it lights the whole run of steps. A semi has a wider landing and a loft hatch that opens straight above it, which makes a sun tunnel or a small window easy to route. A bungalow hall sits in the centre of the house, away from every outside wall.
| House | Roof | Good fit |
|---|---|---|
| Colliery terrace | Slate, hand-laid | Roof window over the stair |
| Interwar semi | Clay or concrete tile | Sun tunnel or loft room window |
| Rear outrigger | Flat or lean-to | Flat rooflight over the kitchen |
| Modern estate house | Concrete tile, trussed | Roof window or lantern |
Low ground, open weather and roofs that have moved
Abram sits on low, fairly flat land on the edge of Wigan's built-up area, with open ground and the subsidence flashes close by. There is no hill to shelter a roof, and rain arrives on a westerly wind with nothing to catch it before it strikes the slope. The land has also settled in places because of the old workings underneath. You see this above all in the long colliery rows, where a ridge that was once straight may now show a small dip or a gentle lean.
That matters when a roof window is being fitted. A fitting designed for a flat plane will not sit properly on a slope that has moved, so we measure the actual roof and cut the flashing to what we find. Where a row has been re-roofed in the past, the covering may be Welsh slate, a lighter artificial slate or concrete tile laid over the original battens. Each reacts differently when it is lifted, and the lap at the top and sides of the new window is built with the particular covering in mind.
Behind the terraces, the yards are small and the access is awkward. A scaffold may need to stand in the back lane or across a neighbour's yard, and there is often no room for a skip. In a row of identical houses, the party wall sets a clear limit on how wide a window can be, because the rafters either side of a chimney stack or a party wall are not ours to move. We plan the opening around those fixed points, and we say plainly if the best position in the room is not possible.
On the flat roofs of rear extensions, the main enemy is water that cannot get away. Felt, rubber and single-ply coverings all require a proper upstand, and an old roof with ponding is no place for a new kerb until the fall has been dealt with. We tell you what we see on the survey and what the roof needs before any glass goes in.
Loft conversions on the semis are a different matter again. The roof structure may be cut rafters with purlins rather than trusses, and the choice of roof window, and whether the loft is a candidate for conversion at all, depends on how much head height there is at the point where it will sit. A bungalow loft is shallower still, and a sun tunnel may suit it better than a window.
- Any dip or lean in the ridge of a long colliery row
- Whether the covering is Welsh slate, artificial slate or concrete tile
- Room for a scaffold in a back lane or shared yard
- Purlin position in a semi that has not yet been converted
- Ponding on an older flat roof at the back
Wigan Council, the planning route and Building Control
Abram falls under Wigan Council, which is the local planning authority and also runs a building control service. For most houses in the village the planning question is a simple one, because the older rows are ordinary terraces rather than protected buildings. If you think your property might be listed, or that the council has restricted the permitted development rights on your street, the council can tell you. A listed building would need listed building consent, and flats and maisonettes do not share the usual house rights.
What is allowed on your street depends on the shape of the roof more than on the address. To test your own slope against the conditions, read what a terrace owner can fit without applying. Where a window would face the street, putting a roof window on a street-facing slope explains what usually matters.
- Survey We measure the slope, identify the covering and look at the structure from the loft side.
- Price The figure reaches you in writing, covering unit and fitting, before anything is booked.
- Fitting The opening is cut and framed, the flashing is lapped into the slates, and the mess leaves with us.
- Handover You are shown how the unit opens and cleans, and the house is left as we found it.
Wigan Council's building control hears about the work from us before the unit goes in, and why a new rooflight falls under the Building Regulations has a page to itself.
Lofts are the other thing worth knowing before you call. Colliery rows usually have a roof space too shallow to stand in, so the gain from a window is light on the stair rather than a new room, while the interwar semis often have the height for a proper bedroom. A bungalow sits between the two, with a hall that needs light more than the roof void needs a floor. We can tell you which of these you have once we have seen the roof from inside, and we will say so if the answer is that a sun tunnel does the job better than a window.
Before the slates come up in Abram
Can a rooflight go on the back slope of a colliery terrace in Abram?
The back slope of an ordinary terrace is the usual position for a roof window in Abram, and the practical checks are the rafters, the covering and any party wall limit, which we make on the survey. Your street's planning position can be confirmed with Wigan Council.
Our extension roof out the back is flat felt. Is a rooflight possible?
A flat rooflight can be fitted to a felt roof if the roof is sound and the fall is enough to shed water. We examine the covering first. If it needs work before a kerb can be built on it, we explain what and why before we quote.
Does the work stretch to Platt Bridge, Bickershaw and the neighbouring streets?
We work in Abram and across the neighbouring streets of the Wigan area, Platt Bridge and Bickershaw among them, including terraces, semis and newer estates. Each house is surveyed on its own merits because the roof matters more than the postcode, and a row of identical-looking houses can hide very different lofts and coverings. Give us your street and we will confirm.
Will a roof window work in the loft of an Abram semi that was never converted?
An unconverted interwar semi in Abram can take a roof window when the ridge leaves enough standing height beneath the point where the glass will sit. We measure from the landing hatch, note where the purlins run and check the covering, then tell you whether a window, a sun tunnel or leaving the loft alone is the better choice. Message us on WhatsApp or phone and we will fix a day.
Will the old workings under Abram stop a rooflight going in?
Settlement from the old workings shows up in some colliery rows as a dip or lean in the ridge, and it does not rule out a rooflight; it changes how the roof is measured. The flashing is cut to the slope as it actually lies, and where a rafter has dropped we say so on the survey and pack or strengthen it before the frame goes in.
The old mining villages of the Wigan borough
The old mining villages of the Wigan borough sit shoulder to shoulder with Abram, so the same terraces and the same weather carry on in each direction.
Free survey
Get a fixed quote in Abram
- No obligation
- We survey the roof before we price
- WhatsApp or phone, whichever suits
What happens next: we arrange a survey at a time that suits you, measure the roof and the room, then send a fixed written quote. Nothing is booked until you say yes.