Fitting a skylight or rooflight to terraces and garage conversions in Irlam
Working on low roofs over very flat ground is what rooflight installation in Irlam involves: brick terraces beside the canal and railway, council semis from the mid-twentieth century and plenty of newer estates. The wind crosses flat ground here, and every skylight is fitted with that in mind.
28.5 road miles east of Liverpool city centre
What leaves a house in Irlam short of daylight?
- Terrace stairsA canal-side brick terrace has two rooms to each floor and a stair squeezed against the party wall, so the landing and the top step get daylight from nowhere.
- The new-build box roomIn a modern estate house the small third bedroom and the landing sit at the heart of the plan, under a loft of trussed rafters and far from any outside wall.
- Garage conversionsRound Cadishead and the older estates, a garage knocked into a living room or office has lost its door and gained a blank, flat-roofed ceiling.
Terrace stairs, new-build box rooms, garage rooms
Most of Irlam's housing is ordinary and well kept, running from late Victorian terraces to council semis to the closes of recent decades, so skylight installation in Irlam is mostly about matching the right unit to a low, practical roof.
- Detached houses at the edge of town with wide rear extensions suit lanterns, which can light a whole family room from one glazed roof.
- Flat rooflights for converted garages and rear kitchens, with a raised kerb that matters on roofs that drain slowly across level ground.
- Where a terrace or an estate semi has a loft room, the roof window goes between ordinary rafters and is flashed into the covering already there.
- Opening rooflights for upstairs rooms that overheat under a low roof, with a rain sensor that closes them if a shower comes through.
A canal-side town that kept growing in layers
The Manchester Ship Canal runs along the southern edge of Irlam, and the town's oldest streets sit close to it and to the railway. Brick terraces from the late Victorian years line those streets, with slate roofs and small rear yards. Industry shaped the place for much of the last century, with the steelworks and the canal wharves close by, and housing followed the work.
Beyond the terraces, the pattern shifts to semis and short rows built by the council and by private developers in the decades after the war. Their roofs are plain, low-pitched and usually tiled. Many have since been altered with porches, side extensions and lofts. Irlam and Cadishead run into each other, and the housing on either side of the boundary is much the same.
The newest layer is the estate housing built in later decades on land that was once industrial or farmed. Those houses are often roofed with factory-made trusses, which changes what is possible in the loft. A trussed roof does not have the open rafters of an older house, and a standard roof window needs the rafters trimmed with a new header; for that work the structure has to be assessed first, and sometimes a sun tunnel is a better answer. What a loft needs before a window goes in is covered in fitting roof windows into a loft conversion.
Every era has left flat roofs behind. They cover terrace back kitchens, garages and side extensions on semis, and the large modern rear additions on bigger houses at the edge of town. Flat rooflights and lanterns suit them well, though a shallow fall invites ponding.
Terrace stairs deserve a note of their own. In a canal-side house the staircase usually rises straight from the front room against the party wall, and the landing at the top is a small square with a door to each bedroom. Over the landing, a rooflight is rarely possible when a second floor sits above it. Where the bedroom ceiling follows the roof pitch, a back-slope window can be placed over the stair head to light the whole flight. Closely spaced ceiling joists in a shallow-loft terrace favour a sun tunnel or a small window between them over a big opening.
- Trussed rafters or a traditional cut roof
- Slate, concrete tile or felt as the covering
- Whether the hatch or stair lines up with the dark landing
- How the flat extension roof drains
None of these questions is hard to answer once we are standing in the loft, and each one decides which unit makes sense.
Flat ground, open sky and weather with room to run
Irlam sits on low, level land. To the north lies Chat Moss, a broad area of former peat bog that is now mostly farmland, and the ground is flat for a long way in nearly every direction. No hill or tall building on that flat skyline stands in the way of the wind. Rain and gusts cross the Cheshire and Lancashire plains and reach the rooftops in the newer parts of town, where there are no mature trees.
On a pitched roof that exposure puts the pressure on the top and sides of a roof window. The upper flashing must sit tight against wind-driven rain, and the side gutters need to carry water well clear of the frame. On a flat roof it puts the weight on the kerb and the seals. Low fall roofs are common on garages and extensions, and the standing water that gathers on them in a wet spell will find a weakness. A kerb that lifts a rooflight well above the deck, with the membrane or felt dressed up the sides, keeps the glass clear. How that is done is covered in putting a rooflight into felt or rubber. A roof that has lost its fall over the years may need it put right first, and the reason is set out under how much fall a flat rooflight wants.
Wind and low roofs also affect an opening rooflight. A unit that vents a hot room in summer needs to shut quickly when the weather turns, and a rain sensor gives that peace of mind. Our guide to whether electric skylights close in rain explains how the sensors behave.
Newer estates come with a different worry. The roofs are low, so the room below the glass can run warm in summer, and the sun lands directly on a flat rooflight. We look at the orientation and, where it helps, suggest a glass specification that limits solar gain. Our note on rooflight overheating covers the options.
Access is generally easy. Most streets have drives and verges, rear plots are open, and a ladder or tower reaches a low roof without much fuss. Terraces near the canal are tighter, and there we plan the access carefully at the survey.
Roofs here are also being changed in a way the surrounding streets rarely show. Owners are adding solar panels, rear dormers and loft rooms, and each change competes for the same slope. We lay out where a rooflight sits against any panels or existing vents at the survey, so the new unit does not shade or crowd what is already up there. Where two things want the same stretch of roof, we say which suits it better.
Pitched roofs
- Top apron and side flashings take the wind
- Trussed roofs may limit unit size
- Sun tunnels for landings and bathrooms
Flat roofs
- Kerb height keeps the glass above standing water
- Fall checked before the unit is ordered
- Sun and heat gain on south-facing glass
Planning, listed buildings and Building Control in the City of Salford
Irlam is in the area of Salford City Council, which is the planning authority. Salford is a city, and Irlam is one of the towns within it. Permitted development normally covers a house rooflight on a pitched roof, which means no application as long as the conditions in the planning position on skylights are met. We check each condition against your roof at the survey. Front-slope roof window planning deals with the special case of a slope that faces the road.
We do not name conservation areas in Irlam because we are not certain where the boundaries run. Salford City Council publishes its conservation area information on salford.gov.uk, and an Article 4 direction on a street or a listed building would change what you can do without an application. Flats and maisonettes do not carry the rights a house has.
Building Control applies as well, and we handle the notification to Salford City Council for you; how rooflights meet the Building Regulations sets out the rest, including the energy standards for an existing house.
A flat-roof job in Irlam often involves more than one regulation. A lantern over a new kitchen extension has its own thermal requirement as a rooflight, and the surrounding roof is part of the wider extension work, which the builder may already be notifying. We can fit into that notification or make our own. Our guide to roof lantern Building Regulations explains how the two fit together.
Converted garages catch people out in Irlam. A garage turned into a room has changed use, and the conversion itself has Building Regulations of its own, covering insulation, ventilation and electrics. A rooflight set into the new ceiling has to be considered within that work. If a builder is already handling the conversion, tell us at the start so the paperwork lines up and nobody notifies the same job twice.
A loft conversion changes the position once a stair is involved. In a two-storey house, bedrooms in the roof are reached by a protected stair, because escape through a roof window is limited to storeys within 4.5m of the ground and it cannot be sold as that route.
Before a survey in Irlam
Will a roof window fit between the trusses of our Irlam semi?
Often it can, although a trussed roof needs the structure assessed ahead of any cutting. Roof windows between trusses need trimming and sometimes strengthening, so we survey the roof first. If the trusses make it impractical, a sun tunnel to the landing can be a neater solution, and we explain either choice in the written quote.
Can a flat rooflight go on our garage conversion near the canal?
A garage roof can take a flat rooflight, subject to our check of the deck, the fall and the covering. It has to carry the kerb and the unit, and the room below needs to meet the Building Regulations for the change of use. The conversion has its own rules for insulation, ventilation and electrics, so tell us early if a builder is already involved.
Is Cadishead part of this page, and what about Irlam's newer estates?
The page covers Irlam and its estates, and the neighbouring town of Cadishead is covered separately. Housing on either side of the boundary is much alike, so the same approach to a survey applies in both.
Solar panels already cover the back slope of our Irlam house. Is there room for a rooflight as well?
A slope shared with panels can still take a rooflight, provided the unit sits clear of the panel rails and out of their shade. At the survey we mark where the panels, vents and the new opening go, and where the slope is too crowded we suggest the other pitch or a sun tunnel instead.
A builder is already converting our garage in Irlam. Will the rooflight be notified twice?
It need not be. When a builder or an approver already holds the conversion's Building Control file, we fit into that notification, and where there is none we make our own to Salford City Council. Either way nobody has to chase paperwork on your behalf.
Free survey
Get a fixed quote in Irlam
- 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.