Rooflights or skylights across Cadishead's terraces beside the Ship Canal
Rows of Victorian and Edwardian brick terraces built for industrial workers, interwar council semis and flat-roofed rear kitchens give Cadishead its roofline, on low ground beside the Manchester Ship Canal. Rooflight installation in Cadishead usually comes down to getting daylight into narrow terrace rooms, and the lofts over them, while the slate stays put.
26 road miles east of Liverpool city centre
What leaves a Cadishead terrace so short of daylight?
- The middle terrace roomThe dining room of a long brick terrace, where the front window gives one end of the house a little light and the back kitchen gives the other, but the middle gets nothing.
- The loft above the bedroomA shallow loft over an interwar council semi, where a hatch and a single gable slit are all that connect the roof space to the outdoors.
- The rear kitchen lean-toThe lean-to or flat-roofed kitchen added behind a terrace, with a high boundary wall on one side that blocks the sun from the neighbouring yard.
Terrace middle rooms, bedroom lofts and lean-tos
Skylight installation in Cadishead takes in everything from workers' terraces to interwar semis, later estate housing and homes built on former industrial land, and the work listed here covers each of those roofs.
- Flat roof rooflights
- Roof windowsRear-slope roof windows for terraces
- VELUX windows
- Energy efficient rooflights
- Rooflights for felt or single-ply rear kitchens behind the terraces, with an upstand tall enough to sit clear of ponding on a roof with a modest fall.
- Rear-slope roof windows for terraces, where the plain roof is not overlooked by any neighbour.
- VELUX and equivalent windows sized to the rafter spacing of an interwar semi's roof, so no more timber is cut than the opening needs.
- For owners who want a rooflight that holds heat as well as passing light, glazing picked to clear the Part L limits on existing homes.
Terraces for the works, estates for the war's aftermath
Cadishead is part of Salford, about 26 road miles from Liverpool city centre to the east, and industry made it. The older streets are brick terraces put up for the people that heavy industry and the Ship Canal drew in, each with two rooms up, two down, a slate pitch and commonly a back kitchen or outhouse behind. Those roofs are plain and regular, with long unbroken slopes and few dormers or valleys to work around, which suits roof windows, but the slate may be old and the battens beneath it may be tired.
After the terraces came the council estates and the interwar semis, built on more generous plots. The houses are brick below and tile above, often with a hipped roof and a chimney stack at the gable. The loft in a house of this type is usually shallow, with a low ridge, and the hatch opens on to bare joists. Where a loft has been boarded and used for storage, a roof window is the simplest way to make it a room, though the headroom has to be measured before anyone promises that.
More recent building has filled gaps in the street pattern and spread on to land freed by closed works. Those homes carry concrete tiles on trussed roofs, and their rooms are bright enough already, so the work there is typically a lantern or a flat rooflight on an extension, or a roof window in a converted loft.
Neighbouring Irlam shares much of the same housing, and the two places blur into one at their boundary. If you live there, you will find our page for the town next door useful too, since the roofs are similar and the Salford rules are the same.
Terraces here often share a roof line with the house next door, so the opening is set well clear of the party wall and its flashings, and we mark that position from inside the loft ahead of the first cut. Not every house needs a rooflight. If a bathroom already has a window, a good extractor will do more for it than glass in the roof. We say so when that is the honest answer.
- Slate terrace with a plain rear slope: roof window at the back
- Interwar semi with a boarded loft: a pair of roof windows, one each side of the ridge line
- Terrace with a dark middle room: sun tunnel from the loft
- Felt-covered kitchen behind the terrace: low flat rooflight or compact lantern
- Estate house with an old rooflight: whole-unit replacement
Open land, a long canal, and slate that has done its time
The Manchester Ship Canal runs close to Cadishead, and the land around it is flat and low. The wind is felt directly on a roof here. Open ground and water lie to the south-west and west, so the prevailing wind comes straight at these roofs. West-facing slopes take the worst of the rain, and the ridge and the verge tiles take the worst of the gusts. Where we cut into a roof on that side, the flashing is lapped carefully and the new window is fixed to the rafters, not just the battens.
Slate is the covering on most older terraces, often with a ridge of clay tiles and a lead-dressed chimney flashing that must be left undisturbed, and it deserves a patient approach. Old slates are hard but brittle, and each is held by a nail or two through the head. To fit a roof window, the slates around the opening come off one course at a time, are set aside, and go back on over the new flashing with the broken ones replaced. This is slow work, but a lift-and-relay done properly leaves a roof tighter than it was before.
Flat roofs behind the terraces have their own characteristics. Many were built as lean-tos with a very small fall, and the covering has been patched or overlaid several times. A new rooflight on such a roof needs a firm deck around the opening, so the kerb is not carried on soft or sagging boards. We check the deck from inside the kitchen first, and if the timber is not sound we say so and include the work in the written quote. The glass sits on a kerb, and the kerb stands above the membrane on its own upstand.
Access in a terraced street is the practical question, because the front door opens straight on to the pavement and parked cars can fill the kerb outside. Many streets have a back alley or an entry between the houses, and the yard behind is small. A scaffold tower may need a licence if it stands on the pavement, and where there is a rear entry we can often carry the units through and work from the back. Heavy glass is lifted in by hand or by a small hoist, and the dust sheets are laid from the front door to the stairs, so the house you live in stays tidy while the roof is open. A roof window can often be installed largely from inside, with only the flashing needing a short time on the slope.
Which of the two roof types you have decides most of the method.
Slate terrace roof
- Slates lifted by course and relaid around the new frame
- Battens checked for soundness before we cut
- Flashing sized to the profile of the slate
- Good light from one window on the rear slope
Flat or lean-to roof
- Deck checked from inside before the upstand is built
- Kerb height set to clear any pooling water
- Membrane dressed up the upstand and sealed
- Daylight from above for a room with walls on three sides
Salford City Council, and the paperwork that follows the glass
Cadishead lies within Salford City Council's area, so it is the council that deals with planning and, if you choose, with Building Control. The other choice for Building Control is a registered building control approver. Either route takes the same information, and we make the notification where the work needs one. Salford's own pages on planning and building control are at salford.gov.uk.
Most rooflights on an ordinary house can go in without a planning application, as permitted development. Where that right applies, and where it stops, is set out in the rules on cutting a new opening in a roof, so it is not restated here. One point that matters here is that a flat or maisonette has no such rights. In an area with a number of converted houses, it is worth asking the council before you commit. We ask for you if you prefer, and we will not quote for a unit that the council might refuse.
Historic England keeps the National Heritage List of buildings of national interest, and a listed building needs consent for changes to its roof. Cadishead's terraces are ordinary workers' housing and not typically listed, but a chapel, a school or an older farmhouse might be. If you suspect yours is, the council can tell you, and our listed building consent answer sets out what happens next.
We send the notification for this work to Salford City Council's building control, and what that sign-off checks on a rooflight is laid out separately.
Loft conversions raise one more issue. In a two-storey house the escape route from a loft room has to be a protected stair, since a roof window will not do. Only a bungalow or chalet bungalow can count one as an escape window, and then only within a set height from the ground; the window sizes that qualify are given separately.
Between the council, the approver and us, each part of the paperwork has an owner.
| Matter | Who decides | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Salford City Council | Check before we quote |
| Building Control | Council or approver | Make the notification |
| Listed buildings | Salford City Council | Advise on consent |
| Sign-off | Completion or final certificate | Pass the copy to you |
Cadishead roofs, questions answered
Can a roof window go into the old slate of a terrace without disturbing the whole roof?
A sound slate roof takes a roof window without fuss: the slates round the opening come off course by course, the frame and flashing go in, and the slates are relaid with any broken ones replaced. If the slate or battens are tired across the whole slope, we tell you at the survey and the written quote reflects it.
My terrace has a lean-to kitchen. Will a rooflight work on such a low roof?
Generally it will, but the fall matters. On a roof with little slope, we build an upstand and set the kerb so water leaves the glass rather than sitting against it. We check the deck from inside the kitchen first, and the quote includes any timber that needs replacing.
Do you work in Irlam and the rest of the Salford edge as well?
Irlam adjoins Cadishead and shares much of the same housing, and we cover both, along with the streets between them.
Does the open ground beside the canal change how a rooflight is fixed?
On west-facing slopes, which take the worst of the rain and gusts, the flashing is lapped carefully and the new window is fixed to the rafters, not just the battens. Nothing on the flat, low land slows the wind, so we treat the ridge and verge tiles near the opening with the same care.
Who signs off the work with Salford City Council?
Salford's building control team or a registered approver, whichever is notified, checks the job, and we make that notification where the work is notifiable. You get the paperwork from them when the job is closed.
Free survey
Get a fixed quote in Cadishead
- 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.