Adding rooflights and skylights to steelworks terraces beside the Dee at Shotton
Shotton grew around its steelworks, and the terraces built for that workforce now sit beside inter-war council houses and later estates on flat ground by the Dee. Rooflight installation in Shotton begins with the covering and the exposure, and the Welsh Building Regulations govern the work.
17.8 road miles south of Liverpool city centre
Where in a Shotton house does daylight give up?
- The terrace stairOff Chester Road, the workers' terraces have a narrow staircase between two party walls, and it carries the dark of the whole house up to a landing without a window.
- The kitchen at the backA rear kitchen added to a terrace or a council house in the decades since, where the flat roof was built for cover and not for light, and the room has stayed gloomy.
- The inter-war landingPlanned around the bathroom and airing cupboard, the middle landing of an inter-war council semi relies on one small half-landing window to light the whole upstairs.
Terrace stairs, back kitchens and inter-war landings
Skylight installation in Shotton ranges from steelworkers' terraces and inter-war council semis to post-war estates and newer homes, and these are the rooflight services the town's roofs most often call for.
- Roof lanterns
- Flat roof rooflights
- Roof windows
- Energy efficient rooflightsHigh-performance glazing for a Shotton extension
- Larger rear extensions on post-war and newer houses get roof lanterns made to the opening the structure already provides.
- Flat rooflights on a raised kerb for the rear kitchens and garage extensions that terraces and council houses have gained over the years.
- The rear slope of a terrace or semi takes a roof window flashed for rain that sweeps in from the estuary across open ground.
- High-performance glazing for a Shotton extension, chosen to meet the Welsh energy standards for work on an existing home.
Terraces for the steelworks, and what came after them
The steelworks is the reason Shotton looks the way it does. When the works expanded around the turn of the twentieth century, the town needed homes for a workforce that arrived faster than the village could house it, and rows of brick terraces went up in straight lines close to the plant and the roads leading to it. Plenty still stand as homes, slate-roofed and two up, two down, with the yard behind often built over by a kitchen or bathroom.
Between the wars, public housing added a second layer. The inter-war council semis and short terraces are larger than the old rows, with roomier gardens, tiled hipped or gabled roofs and the stair and landing at the heart of the house. They were built with dignity but not with generous light, and a landing without an outside wall is a common complaint. Post-war estates followed, plainer again and often laid out with bungalows beside the family houses, and the most recent homes in the town are modern builds on former industrial or open land.
Because the housing arrived in waves, an extension in Shotton can be almost any age. Plenty of terraces have a rear kitchen from the 1960s or 1970s with a flat roof that has been re-covered more than once. Council semis often have side garages turned into rooms. Newer estates have conservatories replaced with solid roofs and lanterns, a job owners choose when they want a garden room that is usable in all weather.
The loft is the other place the eras meet. A steelworker's terrace has a narrow, steeply pitched loft with limited head height, and a conversion there depends on a rear dormer or roof windows with a taller frame. An inter-war semi has more space, and the wider roof gives room for a pair of roof windows side by side. Where the roof is a post-war bungalow, there is seldom enough height for a room, and the sun tunnel becomes the practical choice.
Post-war bungalows and chalets sit in the gaps between the older streets, and their ceilings tell a different story from the terraces. Low pitches, shallow lofts and plain tiled roofs leave little room for a conventional roof window, so the choice is usually between a sun tunnel for the inner hall and a flat-profile unit set as high up the slope as the rafters allow. The deciding measurement is the clear height in the loft, taken at the survey with a tape rather than estimated from the street.
Terraces near the works
- Slate on a steep pitch
- Narrow stair, dark landing
- Back kitchen under flat felt
- Roof window to the rear slope
Council and estate houses
- Tile on a lower pitch
- Central landing or inner hall
- Garage rooms and extensions
- Sun tunnel, lantern or flat rooflight
Flat ground by the Dee and the wind that crosses it
Shotton lies low on the Welsh bank of the Dee, where the estuary has left a broad, flat plain open to the wind. Houses on the open edges of the town, close to the industrial land and the water, meet whatever blows across the plain. Rain driven in on the prevailing south-westerly, and on north-westerly gales off the estuary, lands on the most exposed slopes, and that is usually where a rooflight is most likely to fail if the flashing is wrong.
Slate and tile behave differently under that weather. On the older terraces, slate is thin and the nails that hold it have often rusted, so a slate roof that has stood for a century can lose pieces when the opening for a roof window is cut. We allow for that with matching slate and renew any batten that has softened. On the tiled council houses, the profile of the tile decides which flashing set we use, and the underlay under the tiles tells us how much protection the roof already had.
Flat roofs call for another kind of attention. A kitchen extension on a terrace is often open on all sides, so the roof is lifted by wind as well as loaded by rain. Water must not be able to creep back under the glass, so the upstand round a flat rooflight is tall and the covering is carried up and over it without gaps. A lantern also needs fixing to a kerb that is truly level, which is why we check the deck and the joists before ordering anything.
Reaching the roof is mostly straightforward. Terraces have a lane or a yard behind them, and the estates have drives and open fronts where a tower can stand. On a tight terrace a ladder in the yard may be enough, and some roof windows go in from inside the loft, which needs no scaffold at all. Newer houses have lower eaves and are simpler still.
Open ground brings plenty of sun as well as wind. A south-facing rear slope on a terrace takes it for much of the day, so a roof window over a loft room can run warm in summer, and our guide to rooflight overheating explains the glazing and blinds that keep the room comfortable.
Salt carried on the estuary wind is the quiet enemy of anything metal on an exposed roof. Near the water, fixings and flashings that look sound after a few winters can corrode early, so we specify coated or aluminium flashing parts for houses on the open edge of Shotton and look at the condition of old nails before we trust them to hold a new frame.
| Roof | Weak point | Care taken |
|---|---|---|
| Old slate terrace | Brittle slate, rusted nails | Matching slate, sound battens |
| Tiled council semi | Tile profile at the flashing | Flashing set made for the tile |
| Flat kitchen roof | Wind lift, standing water | High kerb, covering dressed over |
| Newer estate house | Shallow pitch | Unit chosen for the minimum slope |
Welsh rules, Cadw and Flintshire's planning officers
Across the Dee boundary the paperwork follows Welsh law, and Shotton is on that side. The Welsh Government sets permitted development, and Flintshire County Council takes the planning decisions. English limits do not apply here, so your roof is checked against the Welsh rules published on gov.wales, and the questions that decide a skylight's planning position, such as flats, front slopes and local directions, have a page of their own.
Cadw looks after listed buildings in Wales, and a listed house needs listed building consent before any rooflight is cut. The workers' terraces and council housing described here are not the sort of buildings we expect to be listed or in a protected area, but we check and do not guess. Whether your street lies in one of Flintshire's own conservation areas is something the council can tell you. If it does, what a council looks for on a protected roof is covered separately.
The front slope of a terrace is where a rooflight draws a neighbour's eye, and when a street-facing roof window becomes a council question is answered in full elsewhere. On a rear slope the question seldom comes up, which is why we usually start there.
Building control in Shotton is Flintshire County Council's, working to the Welsh form of the regulations, and we handle the notification; how those rules touch a rooflight is explained separately.
A loft bedroom brings its own checks, and we cover the escape arrangements and the stair at survey, using the Welsh approved documents. That is much easier to settle before the opening is cut than after.
- Survey the roof and the loft, and confirm which rules apply to the house.
- Quote with the unit, flashing and finish all named.
- Notify building control ahead of the first cut.
- Sign-off follows the inspection, and the paperwork joins the house papers.
Shotton houses, roofs and the Welsh paperwork
Our Shotton terrace has a dark stair. Can a roof window really light it?
Set above the stairwell in the back slope, a roof window can throw daylight down the stairs of a Shotton terrace to the landing. A short lining shaft links the loft hatch to the ceiling below, and its size is measured during the survey. The quote names the unit, the lining and the finish.
The flat roof on our back kitchen is old. Is it worth fitting a rooflight now?
It depends on what is under the covering. Deck, joists and the fall under the covering are what the survey examines. A sound roof takes a flat rooflight on a new kerb, with the covering lifted to meet it. If it is tired, the quote says so, and you can choose to re-cover at the same visit.
Do you also cover Connah's Quay and Queensferry, or only Shotton itself?
We cover both, as well as the rest of the Flintshire side of the Dee within our service area. Both share Shotton's mix of terraces and estates. Queensferry is surveyed from this page, while Connah's Quay is written up separately.
Our Shotton terrace stands on open ground near the Dee. Does the exposure matter for a rooflight?
Open ground by the Dee gives wind-driven rain a clear run at the most exposed slope, which is where poor flashing fails first. We start on the rear slope where we can, and lap the flashing fully on any face that takes the weather.
Does a rooflight on the front of our Shotton terrace need the council's say-so?
A front slope is the one passers-by notice, so it can become a question for Flintshire County Council where a rear roof window would not. We usually propose the rear slope first, and a front slope is checked against the Welsh permitted development rules before anything is offered.
Free survey
Get a fixed quote in Shotton
- 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.