Adding a rooflight and skylight above Prescot's brick frontages around Market Place
Brick frontages around Market Place and Eccleston Street, 1930s semis on the roads beyond and later estates at the edges all call for rooflight installation in Prescot done differently. Because slate, concrete tile and felt can sit a few streets apart, every skylight here is picked to suit its own slope.
7.6 road miles east of Liverpool city centre
Where does the daylight stop in a Prescot house?
- The old town-centre shopAbove a shop near Market Place, where a long, narrow upper floor was built to a deep plot and the only windows face the street at one end.
- The 1930s semi's landingAn interwar semi off Warrington Road has one window at the half-landing, and the stairs and the upper floor beyond it get no daylight at all.
- The estate house's back extensionBehind a post-war or later estate house, where a flat-roofed kitchen or garage conversion was added to the back and now sits in the shade of its own wall.
Town-centre shops, 1930s landings, estate extensions
Skylight installation in Prescot follows the town's houses, which run from Georgian and Victorian brick round the old centre, through interwar semis, to post-war and newer estates.
- Lanterns for the wider single-storey extensions on newer estates, where the room below is big enough to take the extra height.
- On the estates, rear kitchens and converted garages take a flat rooflight, with a kerb that lifts the glass clear of standing water.
- Roof windows set into the slate and clay tile of the older centre, cut between the party walls and stacks that divide each roof into narrow bays.
- Terraced back kitchens in Prescot whose old rooflights have misted inside get new sealed units.
A market centre in old brick, ringed by semis and estates
The roofs of Prescot show its age, since the town is older than most places around it. Market Place and Eccleston Street still hold brick frontages from the Georgian and Victorian periods, with shops at street level and rooms above, and behind them runs a close grain of yards, passages and outbuildings. The parish church tower stands over the lot. The roofs here are pitched, covered in natural slate or older clay tile, and chopped into narrow bays by chimney stacks and party walls. A rooflight in one of those bays has little margin. The opening has to sit between a chimney breast and a party-wall upstand, and the rafters may be hand-sawn and not quite regular.
The town made watch parts and later cable, and the terraces that housed the workforce are the next layer out. Roads leading out of the centre carry plain brick rows, two rooms up and two down, and many have had a single-storey kitchen built on at the back. Their upper floors are small. Where an attic has been boarded and plastered, a roof window gives the room headroom and daylight it never had from the gable alone. Then there are the back kitchens: flat-roofed, deep, and lit by a single small window onto a yard.
The interwar suburbs come next. Semi-detached houses with hipped roofs, bay windows and a stair window at the half-landing line roads such as Warrington Road, and their upper landings are dark. Roof windows suit the loft rooms. Sun tunnels suit the landing itself, because the loft above is usually open enough to take a tube, and the tube can be angled round a water tank or a run of cabling.
The post-war and later estates fill the edges. They are brick houses under concrete interlocking tiles at shallow pitches, with flat-roofed garages and porches. Rear extensions and garage conversions are the usual reason for a call, and a lantern or flat rooflight is the usual answer. Each layer of the town needs a different covering handled at the flashing, and we price from what the survey finds rather than from the name of the street. A home in the older streets may also have been extended twice, once in the Victorian period and again in the last fifty years, so the roof you see from the road can hide two different structures. The survey walks both.
Roofs in the old centre often carry a shared stack at the party wall, and the slope either side of it is the only part wide enough for a unit. We measure from inside the attic as well as from the street, because a stack that looks central from below can sit a rafter off line, and the opening is set to clear it with a trimmer on each side.
| Where | Typical roof | Good fit |
|---|---|---|
| Market Place, Eccleston Street | Slate or clay tile, narrow bays | Conservation rooflight or small roof window |
| Terraces off the centre | Slate, small attic | Pitched roof window, flat rooflight behind |
| Interwar semis | Hipped clay or concrete tile | Sun tunnel, loft roof window |
| Estates | Concrete tile, flat extension | Lantern or flat rooflight |
Weather without the estuary, and the flashing it calls for
Prescot is inland, a good way from the estuary, so it does not take the full force of the wind off the water that the Wirral coast does. What it does get is open weather on south-westerly winds across low ground, and rain that arrives in bursts and then sits. That is a drainage problem more than a wind one. A flat rooflight on an estate extension needs a kerb tall enough that standing water never reaches the seal, and a firm fall on the surrounding felt or single-ply so the roof sheds into the gutter rather than around the glass.
Pitched roofs bring their own details. Around a roof window on old slate, the flashing is lead or a lead-free equivalent; it goes under the slates above and over those at the sides, and the courses beside the opening are lifted and relaid to suit. Concrete-tiled roofs on the estates use a deeper profile, and a flashing kit has to match the tile or it will never seat. Clay tile in the older centre breaks easily, which is why we allow spare tiles and a careful hand when we work the roof.
The roof is only half of what shapes the job; access is the other half. The yards behind Market Place and Eccleston Street are tight, and a narrow passage cannot always take a tower. A scaffold on the public pavement needs a council licence, so the date is booked ahead. Estate houses mostly offer a drive or lawn for the setup, and a ladder tower often does the job. Some lofts allow the roof window to be fitted from inside, which keeps the street clear, and dust sheets and a clean-up afterwards hold the dust down.
Flat roofs on garages and back kitchens deserve a look of their own. Many were built in felt decades ago and have since been over-covered, so the deck beneath may be thicker than the plan suggests. We measure the build-up before choosing an upstand height, because a rooflight sitting too low on a layered roof is the commonest reason a kerb ends up wet.
Roof windows on the estates meet a different snag, the shallow pitch of concrete tile. The manufacturer sets a minimum slope for each flashing kit, so we measure the pitch at the survey and, if the roof is too low for a pitched unit, offer a flat rooflight on a kerb instead of forcing a kit that will not shed water.
- Whether a party wall or stack leaves enough clear slope for the size you want
- Hand-sawn rafters that may sit at uneven spacing in the older roofs
- Roof tile profile, so the flashing kit matches
- Gutter and downpipe position under a flat extension, for the fall
- Whether an attic floor has been boarded and can take a ladder
Knowsley Council, Prescot's old centre and the road to sign-off
Knowsley Council's planning team is the one that rules on Prescot, which has a conservation area around its old centre, taking in the streets near Market Place and the church. Inside the conservation area the usual right to fit a rooflight on a house stays unless the council has made an Article 4 direction that withdraws it, so your address is checked with the council before we quote. The council's website, knowsley.gov.uk, lists its planning and building control teams.
Listed buildings are a separate matter. Some buildings in the centre are listed, and for those consent has to be granted before work begins. How consent for a listed roof is applied for is covered in its own answer, and the wider conservation area question has the rest. Flats and maisonettes do not get a house's permitted development rights, so a flat above a shop in the centre needs an application first. Ordinary houses are covered by the rules for a house with a pitched roof, which are not repeated here.
Knowsley Council's building control team receives our notification for a Prescot rooflight, on your behalf, and the Building Regulations route in full is set out in the guide. Approved Document L caps heat loss in an existing house: 1.4 W/m²K (or Window Energy Rating band B) applies to roof windows and 2.2 W/m²K to rooflights, under Table 4.2 of volume 1.
The order of the work is the same for every house type here, and every job carries the ten-year workmanship guarantee in writing.
- Survey We check the roof, the access and which rules apply to your address.
- Quote You get a fixed written price for the work.
- Notification We tell Building Control where the work is notifiable.
- Fit The roof is opened, flashed and finished, with the house cleaned afterwards.
Prescot homeowners ask about old brick, estates and sign-off
Can I fit a rooflight on a house in the old centre of Prescot?
Inside the conservation area a house keeps its usual rooflight rights unless the council has made an Article 4 direction, and a listed building always needs consent. We look up your address with Knowsley Council before we quote, so you know the route before you commit.
My 1930s semi has a dark landing and a loft that is not converted. What suits it?
A sun tunnel is usually the neatest answer for the landing, because the loft above is open and the tube runs through without structural work. If you plan to use the loft as a room, a roof window brings light into that space as well. The survey will say which fits your roof and your plans, and the quote lists the unit by size and type so you can see exactly what goes in.
Do you cover Whiston, Rainhill and Huyton as well as Prescot?
Whiston, Rainhill and Huyton all sit inside our 30-mile radius of Liverpool and are written up separately. This one is about Prescot and its estates. For an address on the edge of town, send the postcode by phone or WhatsApp and we will confirm whether it is covered.
Can a flat-roofed back kitchen in Prescot take a rooflight if the felt is old?
A back kitchen with old felt can take one, but the build-up is measured first, because layers of over-covering make the deck thicker than the plan suggests. The upstand height is chosen from that measurement, and worn covering around the kerb is renewed in the same visit.
Whose certificate closes the job once a Prescot rooflight is in?
The job is closed by Knowsley Council's building control team or by a registered approver, whichever you prefer, and we notify the one you pick. What they send is your record that the work met the regulations, so file it with the house papers.
Free survey
Get a fixed quote in Prescot
- 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.