Adding a rooflight or skylight to deep-roofed bungalows and tiled hips at Greasby
Greasby is deep-roofed bungalows, 1930s semis with a landing that has no window and 1960s estates on shallow pitches, and rooflight installation in Greasby starts from that mix. Every skylight here goes onto open, level Wirral ground, so the flashing is chosen with the wind in mind.
9.7 road miles south-west of Liverpool city centre
Why does daylight stop at the top of the stairs in so many Greasby semis?
- The semi's middle landingThe first-floor landing of a 1930s semi near Arrowe Park sits in the middle of the house, so no outside wall reaches it and daylight stops at the top of the stairs.
- The dormer bungalow loftOut towards Frankby, a dormer bungalow has a single dormer facing one way, and the bedroom under the slope behind it stays gloomy at the far end.
- The extended back kitchenBehind a 1960s house near the village centre, a flat-roofed rear extension built as a store that became the kitchen and never got any glass above it.
Semi landings, dormer lofts and back kitchens
Older properties by the village centre, inter-war semis, 1960s estates, bungalows and later detached homes each call for slightly different skylight installation in Greasby, and the list that follows matches the roof to the service.
- Lanterns for the wider rear extensions on detached houses and enlarged bungalows, where the opening can be matched to the room underneath.
- Flat rooflights over the kitchens and utility rooms added to the backs of 1960s and 1970s houses, standing on a kerb raised clear of the roof covering.
- Roof windows for the pitched tiled slopes of semis and dormer bungalows, set between rafters and flashed to the concrete or clay tile around them.
- VELUX and equivalent units sized to the rafter gap of a 1930s loft, so a landing or loft bedroom gets daylight without cutting more timber than needed.
Tiled hips, long bungalows and a small old core
Most Greasby roofs are tiled, and most belong to the twentieth century. The older houses sit around the village centre; everything beyond was laid out on a looser plan, with wide plots, front gardens and drives. That suits rooflight work, because the roofs here seldom share a ridge with a neighbour on both sides and there is usually room to get at them.
Between the wars the Wirral's suburbs spread outward, and Greasby filled with semi-detached houses of a pattern known across England: a hipped roof, a bay or two on the front and a staircase that rises from the hall to a landing set in the core of the house, away from any outer wall. That landing is the dimmest spot in the house. Above that landing the loft is usually roomy enough to take a sun tunnel, or else a roof window, reaching down, and many have already been converted, with a rear dormer and a second flight of stairs fitted above the first.
Bungalows are the other defining type. Greasby has them in every size, from small post-war ones to broad 1960s and 1970s examples with an integral garage and a hall running down the middle. A bungalow is all roof, so a sun tunnel can light the hall, the bathroom or an inner room directly. Once the loft is converted, the back pitch takes a roof window for the new room. Dormer bungalows already have some height under the slope, and the rear pitch is normally the place to add glass.
The 1960s and 1970s estates bring shallower pitches, concrete interlocking tiles and flat-roofed garages or extensions. Many of those flat roofs began as a store or utility room and have since become part of the kitchen, still under felt or single-ply with no glass above. Those rear rooms are natural candidates for a flat rooflight or a lantern.
One structural question comes up in nearly every loft. A house from the 1930s usually has cut timbers with a purlin and a ridge board, and a roof window fits between two rafters with a trimmer above and below. Later houses are often built from factory-made trussed rafters, which are designed as a set and are not cut without an engineer's detail. Which of the two you have decides whether a unit can go where planned or has to move, so that gets settled before a price is given.
Bungalow and dormer bungalow
- Sun tunnels for the hall and inner rooms
- Rear-slope roof windows for a loft room
- New units kept clear of the dormer valley
- Flat dormer roofs flashed on their own
Two-storey semi
- Sun tunnel or roof window over the landing
- Hip and chimney positions mapped first
- Cut rafters or trusses established early
- Rear flat roofs suit a rooflight or lantern
Open ground, concrete tiles and the flashing at the side
Greasby stands on the narrow Wirral peninsula, with the Dee estuary to the west, the Irish Sea to the north and the Mersey to the east. The ground is low and fairly level, and the estate roads are open enough that wind runs straight down them onto the roofs. Rain blown in off the Dee and the Irish Sea reaches the west-facing slopes of semis and bungalows first. Mature garden trees give shelter on some plots, but not on the new-build corners where the planting is still young.
That exposure shows up at the edges of the opening, not in the glass. Most roofs here carry concrete interlocking tiles, with plain clay tiles on some of the older houses. Both tile types need a flashing kit made for their profile. The courses beside and below the opening are lifted, relaid and sealed onto the kit, which leaves wind-driven rain with no route underneath. On a west-facing slope we give the side channels and the top apron the most attention.
Pitch is the second thing to measure. Shallow roofs are common on bungalows and 1960s houses, and each roof window and flashing kit comes with a minimum pitch from its manufacturer. A slope that is too flat for a standard roof window may suit a different kit, or a flat rooflight on a kerb, so we read the angle with a level at the survey and say which route the slope allows before we quote.
Dormer bungalows add a detail of their own. The cheeks and roof of an existing dormer meet the main roof in a valley, and a rooflight placed too near that junction fouls the valley flashing. New units go well clear of it, either higher up the slope or on the other pitch.
Mature trees along some of the older Greasby roads drop leaves into valleys and behind upstands, so a unit near one is placed with that debris and the clearing of it in mind. Plot layout helps with access. Many Greasby houses have a drive or front garden, so a tower or a small scaffold can stand on your land rather than a public pavement, and we plan around parked cars and the garage. A sun tunnel is mostly interior work: the loft insulation is lifted aside, the tube is run between the joists, the ceiling collar goes in the room below and the insulation is laid back around the tube.
- Measure the roof. Pitch, tile type, rafter spacing and insulation depth are noted, along with the position of valleys and hips.
- Set the position from below. The opening is placed against the room underneath, so the light lands where it is wanted.
- Build in the unit. The tiles come up around the frame, the flashing is built in course by course and the tiles go back over it.
- Line and finish. The shaft is boarded and insulated, the room is cleaned out and the dust sheets go.
Wirral Council, a few checks and the Building Control route
Wirral Council decides planning matters in Greasby, and it also runs the building control service that signs off the work. Most pitched house roofs can take a rooflight as permitted development, and the conditions are on the planning page for skylights.
Greasby is mainly a place of ordinary family houses, so Article 4 directions and listed buildings are the exceptions. We still check, because either one changes the answer. Wirral Council publishes its conservation areas and any Article 4 directions on wirral.gov.uk, and the National Heritage List on historicengland.org.uk shows listed buildings by address. A house on either list is a different case: how conservation rooflights are judged explains what councils look for, and the front-slope planning page covers the road-facing side.
Flats and maisonettes are the other group to check. They carry no permitted development rights for rooflights, so a first-floor flat in a block starts with a conversation with the council and, if the property is leasehold, with the freeholder. Houses, bungalows and dormer bungalows are the common case here, and their position is simpler.
Any rooflight we fit is notifiable work, with the paperwork going to Wirral Council's building control service, with the Building Regulations page explaining what is asked of the unit.
- Whether the house is freehold or part of a leasehold block
- Whether the address appears on a listed building or Article 4 map
- Which slope faces the road, and whether the unit could sit at the back instead
- Whether a loft room brings in the escape and stair rules of Approved Document B
- Whether the rooflight is part of a wider run of building work
Greasby questions, settled before the survey
Our semi near Arrowe Park has a landing with no window at all. Which lights it better, a tunnel or a roof window?
It depends on the loft above and what you want from the space. A sun tunnel is the lighter job and needs only a small opening through the ceiling, while a roof window gives a view and some ventilation but needs more room between the rafters. We look from the loft and from the landing, then explain both in the written quote.
Our dormer bungalow already has a roof window at the back. Could a larger one replace it?
A larger unit can take the old one's place if the rafters either side allow the wider opening and the valley by the dormer stays clear. We measure the existing frame, count the rafters it spans and work out how far the gap can grow. Where the structure says no, we suggest a second unit alongside or a different position.
Our 1960s house has a shallow roof. Can a standard roof window go in?
On Greasby's 1960s houses and bungalows the pitch is read with a level first, because each roof window kit carries a minimum pitch from its maker. Where the slope is too flat for a standard unit, a different kit or a flat rooflight on a kerb takes over. Send a photo of the slope on WhatsApp and we can say which route looks likely.
The back kitchen of our 1960s house near the village centre has felt overhead and no glass. What goes on a roof like that?
A felt or single-ply roof over a converted store takes a flat rooflight or a lantern on a raised kerb, tied into the existing covering. The width of the room beneath decides which of the two looks right, and the fall of the deck is checked with a level before either is chosen. If the felt is worn out, it is renewed round the kerb on the same visit.
Does a loft conversion in a Greasby house change what a roof window can do?
Approved Document B asks for a protected stair in a converted loft over a two-storey Greasby house, so a roof window cannot serve as its escape route. A bungalow loft is different: a roof window within the height set out in that document can serve as the escape window, provided its opening is at least 0.33m² unobstructed and 450mm wide and high, with the bottom of the opening no more than 1100mm above the floor.
Free survey
Get a fixed quote in Greasby
- 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.