Bringing skylights and rooflights to Burtonwood's estate semis and converted lofts
Old airbase land, a brick village core and estates of tiled semis give Burtonwood a roofscape that is mostly plain, wide and open to the sky. Most rooflight installation in Burtonwood comes down to two jobs: a roof window in an estate loft, or a skylight over a rear extension, with flashings made for open and level ground.
18.8 road miles east of Liverpool city centre
What leaves a Burtonwood landing without any daylight at all?
- The estate semi landingA post-war estate semi, first floor: the stairs rise between two bedrooms and the one window sits at the far end of the hall, too distant to reach the landing.
- The village terrace back roomIn the back room of an older brick terrace in the village core, where a lean-to kitchen was added and the original rear window now opens into the extension.
- The converted loft stairUp the stairs to a loft room in a newer estate house, where a plain pitched roof with no dormer leaves the top flight dark even at midday.
Estate landings, village back rooms and loft stairs
Skylight installation in Burtonwood stretches from brick cottages and terraces in the older village to post-war council semis and the newer family houses built on and around the former airbase.
- Owners of estate houses have been converting garages and building single-storey additions ever since the first houses went up, and flat rooflights suit both.
- Roof windows go into the concrete-tiled rear slopes of the estate semis, where a loft is usually deep enough for a room and the slope faces open ground.
- VELUX and equivalent roof windows in standard sizes suit the plainer, repeated roof shapes of the estates, so one survey often covers a whole street's pattern.
- Better-insulated rooflights for owners replacing tired units on older roofs, chosen to meet the thermal figures that apply when an existing dwelling is altered.
Airfield, brewery village and the housing that came after
Burtonwood is a village in the Warrington borough, with St Helens to the west and Warrington itself to the south-east. It is flat country, and for much of the twentieth century a large part of it was taken up by RAF Burtonwood, the airbase that later served the American air force before it closed in the early 1990s. That history explains why the housing looks the way it does: a small older core, and a great deal that was built to house people connected with the base or added once the land was released.
The older village houses are brick, often in short terraces or semi-detached pairs, with slate or older clay tile roofs and modest lofts under steep pitches. Their back rooms are small, and many have a single-storey extension at the rear that blocks the one window the room had. Usually the answer is a flat rooflight above the extension, or a roof window in the rear pitch of the main house.
After the war came council-built semis and short terraces, followed by later estates of private houses. Their roofs are the commonest in the village: concrete interlocking tiles on a moderate pitch, a ridge running parallel to the road, and a loft that is deep enough in many cases for a bedroom. The shapes repeat from street to street, which makes the planning of a roof window straightforward once the first survey is done.
The newest houses are the likeliest to have a loft room already, usually lit by a window in the gable or not at all. A rooflight on the back pitch is a quiet way to bring a stair or landing up to the level of the rest of the house.
Converted garages on the estates leave a deep room with no window of its own, roofed low, sometimes flat and sometimes pitched. That room is a natural place for a lantern or a flat rooflight, since the ceiling height is already limited and the roof is easy to reach.
Extensions in the older streets follow a different habit. A rear extension built out into the yard turns the original back wall into an internal wall, and the rooms that lose daylight are the ones that used to look onto the garden. Opening the roof gives them some of it back and leaves the walls alone.
Loft rooms in the newer estate houses raise a question of their own. A gable window lights the room but not the stair that climbs to it, so the top flight stays dim whatever the weather is doing outside. A roof window or a short sun tunnel over that flight lights the stairs as well. The opening is small, the rafters either side stay in place, and the room keeps its ceiling height. Older village houses mostly have no loft room at all, only a void under steep slopes, and there the first question is whether the headroom under the ridge justifies a roof window.
Older village streets
- Brick terraces and pairs under slate or clay tile
- Steep pitches and shallow lofts
- Back rooms shaded by lean-to extensions
- Flat rooflights and small roof windows
Estates and newer streets
- Concrete tile semis with repeated roof shapes
- Moderate pitch and deeper lofts
- Garages and rear additions with flat roofs
- Roof windows, sun tunnels and lanterns
An open plain, a long fetch and a calm inland roof
Burtonwood is well inland, so it takes none of the salt that the Wirral coast does. What it has instead is open ground. The land around the village is flat and mostly farmed, and the south-westerly wind blows across the Cheshire and Lancashire plain straight onto the roofs. Rain here does not arrive sideways off the sea, but it comes at an angle across an unbroken field of view, and a house on the edge of the village takes it straight onto the flashing.
That leads to a quieter set of problems than on the coast. On a roof window, the weak points are the lower flashing and the corners of the apron, where slow, repeated wetting finds any gap in the seal. On a flat rooflight, they are the upstand and the point where the roof membrane meets the kerb. The membrane on many Burtonwood extensions is felt that has aged under moss and shade, and a kerb on aged felt needs a proper base, which is often the first thing we look at.
Moss is the other local detail. Concrete tiles on the shaded north slopes of the estate roofs carry moss and algae, and when a window is cut into a mossy slope the surrounding tiles need cleaning back to a sound surface before the flashing goes on.
Access is easy in nearly all cases. The estates have wide roads and driveways, so a tower or a mobile platform can usually stand on the drive, with no pavement licence needed. Houses in the older core are a little tighter, with terraces that open directly onto the street, and for them we sometimes fit from inside, working through the loft with only light access outside.
The one limit on access is the age of the loft itself. Some older village roofs have pegged or hand-cut timbers that were not designed for an opening, and a trimmer has to be added with care so that the load carries to rafters that are sound. We check this at the survey by looking from inside the roof space, not by assuming.
Inside, the lining decides how much light the room actually gets. A splay angled towards the room throws daylight across the ceiling, where a squared-off reveal leaves a dark frame around bright glass. Where loft insulation is fitted tight to the rafters, the lining is built out so that the insulation carries on unbroken round the opening.
Summer heat is a separate question. A loft room under a plain tiled slope warms up in summer, and a roof window that opens at the top lets that heat out. Electric and solar-powered units can open and close without anyone climbing the stairs, which helps in a room that is used for sleeping or working.
- Look in the roof space We examine the rafters, purlins and any earlier alterations before choosing a size.
- Set the opening The trimmers go in to carry the cut rafters, sized to the span.
- Prepare the slope Tiles around the opening are lifted, cleaned and relaid, or replaced where moss has damaged them.
- Fit and flash The window or rooflight sits in its frame, with flashings lapped to the tile profile.
- Finish inside The lining, insulation and plasterwork complete the room.
What Burtonwood needs from the planning desk
Warrington Borough Council is the authority for Burtonwood. We know of no conservation area covering the village and name none here, so for most houses the only question is whether the rooflight counts as permitted development. Exceptions exist: an Article 4 direction can withdraw the rights, and a listed building needs consent of its own. Before anything else, read the conditions that make a roof opening permitted development.
Flats sit outside those rights. Whoever owns a flat or maisonette, in a block of any age, should ask the council before ordering anything.
Warrington Borough Council receives the Building Control notification, and we complete it for you; what an inspector looks for at a rooflight is explained in its own guide.
The thermal standard sits alongside it. For glazing, Table 4.2 of Approved Document L, volume 1 limits an existing home to 1.4 W/m²K (or Window Energy Rating band B) in a roof window and 2.2 W/m²K in a rooflight, and the units we specify sit inside those figures.
A bedroom in the roof is the usual reason a Burtonwood owner finds the rules reaching beyond the rooflight. Under Approved Document B a roof window qualifies for escape only if the storey is within 4.5m of the ground. A bungalow can therefore rely on one, whereas a loft above two storeys cannot. Settle that before the design is fixed.
- The roof covering and its age, noted for the notification
- A sketch of the opening against the rafters
- The manufacturer's U-value for the chosen unit
- Whether the room below is habitable, a hall or a store
- The address and the name of the person who owns the property
A few things Burtonwood owners check before they order
I live in one of the estate semis. Is my loft likely to take a roof window?
Frequently the loft will take one. Concrete-tiled semis from the post-war and later estates usually have a loft deep enough for a bedroom or a study. We measure the headroom and look at the rafters on the survey, then give a fixed written quote for the size that suits.
Do you cover the old part of the village and the newer streets by the airfield?
The brick terraces of the older streets and the newer houses built on and around the old airbase are both within our work in Burtonwood, and so is the rest of the Warrington borough.
The loft stair in our estate house is dark. Could a sun tunnel reach it?
In an estate house a sun tunnel will light a loft stair. The tube drops from a small cut in the roof, through the loft, to a diffuser on the ceiling below. The tube is flexible, so it bends round a purlin or a water tank, and the rafters that carry the roof stay as they are.
The felt on my rear extension is old. Can a rooflight go straight on it?
It depends on the condition of the felt and the deck below. We look at both on the survey, and if the surface cannot carry a kerb we plan the work with a sound base so the finished rooflight keeps out the water.
Our estate roof faces open fields at the back. Does that change how a rooflight is flashed?
Open fields at the back mean rain and wind arrive with nothing in their way, so the lower flashing and the apron corners get a generous lap on a roof like that. Concrete tiles around the opening are cleaned of moss first, so the flashing sits on a sound surface, and an opening unit gets a reliable seal when closed.
St Helens west, Warrington south-east
St Helens lies to the west of Burtonwood and Warrington to the south-east, with Newton-le-Willows a short way to the north.
Free survey
Get a fixed quote in Burtonwood
- 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.