Rooflights or skylights for terraces built for glassworks families across St Helens
Brick terraces built for glassworks and colliery families, inter-war council semis and estates laid over old industrial land give rooflight installation in St Helens a mix of slate, concrete tile and felt. We choose and flash every skylight for the slope it goes into, on roofs that stand open to the weather.
14.6 road miles east of Liverpool city centre
What leaves a St Helens landing in the dark when the sun is high?
- The terrace back bedroomIn a brick terrace around Parr or Sutton, where a narrow back bedroom and a boxed-in staircase leave the whole upper floor leaning on one small window.
- The semi's inner landingA landing halfway up an inter-war semi in Thatto Heath or Eccleston has no outside wall, and the doors off it are all that ever lend it a glow.
- The extended kitchenInside a rear kitchen widened in Rainhill or Rainford, where a flat roof now sits where the garden light used to arrive.
Back bedrooms, inner landings and extended kitchens
Skylight installation in St Helens covers narrow Victorian terraces by the old works, 1930s semis, bungalows and newer estates on the edges, and the services below suit each of them.
- Lanterns over wide newer extensions on semis and detached houses, cut to whatever opening the joists will really allow.
- Flat rooflights over rear kitchens in Rainhill and Eccleston, on an upstand that raises the glass above the water lying on a shallow roof.
- Roof windows for the slate and concrete-tile pitches of the terraces and semis, flashed to suit the covering and the rafters behind it.
- New units for stairwell and loft-room rooflights whose glazing has fogged, or which have begun to weep at the frame.
Glassworks, collieries and the streets built between them
St Helens made its living from glass, coal and the chemical trades, and its roofs still read like a map of that work. The town did not grow from one old centre. Brick terraces went up beside the works and pits wherever space allowed, so many of the districts you pass through now began as housing for the employer at the end of the road. Much of it survives in Parr, Sutton and the streets near the centre, as two-up two-downs under pitched slate with shallow lofts, their back yards later covered by a single-storey kitchen or bathroom.
Out from the centre the housing loosens. Suburban Thatto Heath and Eccleston took the inter-war semis built as the borough spread, with hipped roofs in concrete or clay tile and a windowless landing at the heart of each house. Rainhill sits on the Liverpool side of the borough and mixes Victorian houses of some size with the same semis. Rainford, to the north, is more village than town and has its own older cottages alongside later infill. Haydock and Billinge are covered separately, so this page concentrates on the heart of the borough and the suburbs around it.
After the war the council and private builders filled in the gaps. Many of those estates sit on land that once held industry, and their houses have plain concrete-tile roofs, low pitches and rear extensions added by successive owners, some well built and some not. Bungalows and dormer bungalows are common in the quieter outer streets, and they often have a good deal of roof but very little light reaching the centre of the floor plan.
What a rooflight needs on each of these roofs is quite different. A terrace slope in slate wants a roof window that lines up with the existing courses. For a concrete-tile semi the window must suit the tile profile and span rafters laid to a standard spacing. A bungalow can take a larger unit, because the roof is wide and the loft is rarely used. Before we price any job we look at what is actually up there, because the age of a street tells you less than the state of its roof timbers.
Lofts are where the town's building history becomes practical. A terrace loft is narrow, and a rear-pitch roof window is what makes a usable room of it. Semi lofts have more floor but a hipped end that limits where a window can go. Bungalow lofts may already be converted, with a small old unit sitting above the stair that is ready to be replaced.
| Area | House type | What suits it |
|---|---|---|
| Parr and Sutton | Brick terrace with slate roof | Roof window on the back slope |
| Thatto Heath | Inter-war semi in tile | Sun tunnel to the landing |
| Eccleston | Suburban semi with extension | Lantern or flat rooflight at the back |
| Rainhill | Larger Victorian house | Stairwell rooflight, attic roof windows |
| Post-war estates | Low-pitched tiled house or bungalow | Wide roof window, lantern on an extension |
Open ground, low pitches and the flashing that has to cope
St Helens is inland and mostly flat to gently rolling, and from many of its higher streets the land can be seen rising towards Billinge Hill to the north. There is no estuary to funnel the wind here, and the survey checks the covering on the slopes that face the weather. The prevailing wind comes from the south-west, and the rain it carries has crossed the Mersey plain before it reaches the roof. Rows of houses on the open newer estates take that weather on the long side, and a roof that has never had a neighbour taller than itself is a roof that gets tested.
That matters at the edges of the opening. On a plain-tile or slate roof the rain that gets under a poor flashing does it through the side gutters and the top apron, so we pay most attention to how the flashing is lapped into the covering. Interlocking concrete tiles come in set profiles, and the flashing kit must fit the profile and give a side gutter deep enough for the tile height. On the older slate terraces the work is gentler but fussier, because the surrounding slates are often thin and weathered, and it makes sense to bring matching slate to dress in around the new window.
Low pitches are the second theme. A good number of the post-war houses and bungalows have roof slopes that sit at the lower end of what their covering is rated for. A roof window in a shallow slope sheds water slowly, so the flashing has to be raised slightly and the underlay collar fitted with extra care. We check the pitch at the survey, because some windows are only rated for pitches above a certain angle and the choice of unit follows from that.
Flat roofs are everywhere. The rear kitchens that terrace owners added, the garage tops on the inter-war semis and the single-ply extension roofs on the larger houses all have decks that were laid with very little fall. Because a flat rooflight or lantern stands on a kerb with the covering dressed up to it, the roof around the glass matters as much as the glass. If the covering is old and cracked we raise that in the quote, so you can choose whether to re-cover at the same time.
Access is rarely a problem for the semis, which have driveways and rear gardens, but the terraced streets can leave no room for scaffold in front. Access for those jobs is mostly through the back yard, and a roof window can often be fitted from inside the loft.
- Check the pitch and covering from the loft and the ground before any unit is chosen.
- Test the timbers around the opening, since older terrace rafters may have been notched for a flue or a hatch in the past.
- Match the flashing to the tile or slate profile rather than the nearest stock kit.
- Study the flat roof for its fall, any ponding stains and how old the felt or single-ply is.
Council, listings and paperwork for a St Helens roof
St Helens Borough Council decides planning here. For the great majority of houses in the borough, a rooflight on a pitched roof is permitted development with no application needed, provided it meets the conditions set out in the planning answer for skylights. Those are checked against your roof at the survey, which saves you working them out first.
The front of the house calls for more care. A roof window on the road-facing slope of a terrace alters how the whole street looks, and roof windows at the front of a house explains when it becomes a matter for the council. Flats and maisonettes lack the rights houses enjoy and need a planning application whatever the roof looks like. An Article 4 direction can also strip rights from one street, and the planning pages at sthelens.gov.uk will confirm whether yours is affected.
Listed buildings are the exception to the easy route. A listed house, a listed farmhouse on the borough's edge or a converted listed outbuilding needs consent before a rooflight is cut. Historic England's list records what is protected, and the council's own mapping is the reliable source for houses in or near a conservation area. Checking before you order is better than checking after, and if consent is needed, the application a listed roof calls for is described in a separate answer.
The Building Control notification for a rooflight in the borough goes to St Helens Borough Council. We send it for you, and the Building Regulations guidance for rooflights explains the background.
Three questions, asked in order, settle the route for an owner: whether the building is a house or a flat, whether anything about it is listed, and whether the council has removed the usual rights on this road. The survey confirms the answers for your house before any price is given.
- House or flat, since flats need an application
- Any listing on the property itself
- An Article 4 direction on the road, confirmed with the council
- The slope the rooflight faces, front or back
St Helens roofs, answered before the survey
We have a 1930s semi in Thatto Heath with a windowless landing. Do we need a rooflight or a sun tunnel?
Either can work, and the loft decides which. A sun tunnel runs a tube through the roof space to the landing ceiling and needs no structural opening, while a roof window suits a landing directly beneath a usable sloping roof. The loft is inspected at the survey, and the quote that follows prices whichever one fits.
Our Eccleston extension has a flat roof that ponds after rain. Can a lantern still go on it?
A lantern can go on it once the fall and the deck beneath the covering have been looked at. The glass rises on an upstand clear of standing water, with the covering dressed up to it. If the roof covering is worn out, the quote says so, so you can decide on re-covering during the same visit.
Does the page cover Rainhill, Sutton and Parr, or only the town centre?
All three, along with the streets around them, count as St Helens here, and the survey and quote work the same way across the borough. Haydock and Billinge are covered separately, so look there if your house is in either.
My Parr terrace has no room for scaffold at the front. What if the street is too tight for scaffolding?
A terrace in Parr or Sutton with a street too narrow for scaffold at the front can usually take the window in the rear slope, reached through the back yard. Many of these roofs are slate over old timbers, so the rafters around the opening are tested for notches left by past flues or hatches before the size is fixed. A single rooflight gets the same survey as a large job.
Our semi near Sutton has a loft that was converted decades ago. Can the old roof window be replaced?
A new unit sized to the same opening can usually replace an old window above a stair or loft room, and that keeps the work inside the existing rafters. The surrounding slates or tiles are lifted, a fresh flashing kit is fitted and the covering is dressed back around it. What the old frame was fixed to is checked at the survey, since early loft conversions varied in quality.
Free survey
Get a fixed quote in St Helens
- 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.