Skylight and rooflight costs in Newcastle

Ask three people what a skylight costs and you will hear three answers, each true for a different house. A roof window swapped into an old opening on a semi in Kenton is one job. A new lantern over a kitchen behind a terrace, with joists to trim and a membrane to dress, is another. A rooflight over the kitchen of a downstairs Tyneside flat brings a planning application with it before any glass is ordered. All three get called a skylight.

A figure printed on a web page has to ignore those differences, so it ends up too low to be real or too high to be useful. We would rather show you what moves the number.

What the rest of this page covers

The chapters below take the factors in job order: the product and its glass, the roof and its access, the work inside, and the planning route. Then the survey, the written quote, and how to compare two. Rooflight costs in Newcastle follow one rule above the rest: the house decides more than the brochure does.

Start with what is being made. Roof windows for pitched roofs come in fixed manufacturer sizes, so the unit price is known once the size is chosen. Lanterns and larger flat rooflights are built to the opening, so the factory prices each one. Walk-on rooflights carry thick toughened and laminated glass to bear a person's weight, and conservation rooflights have slim frames made to sit low in slate. Size and shape move it further: two windows side by side mean two flashings and two openings in the rafters.

Glazing specification

Two panes are the base; a third pane lowers heat loss and adds weight. Under Part L, for an existing dwelling in England, the limiting U-value is 2.2 W/m²K for a rooflight and 1.4 W/m²K, or WER Band B, for a roof window. Laminated inner panes are the norm for rooflights over rooms. A coating that cuts glare on a south slope, or outer glass that sheds dirt in the rain, each takes its own line on the quote.

Opening and electric

A fixed unit is the simplest. A manually opening one adds hinges and a handle or pole. A motorised unit adds a control, a sensor that closes it when rain falls and a power supply to the frame, planned before the lining goes in. Our pages on roof windows and electric opening rooflights describe each type.

Once the product is known, the roof decides how much labour surrounds it. Old slate on a Victorian terrace is stripped by hand around the opening, kept and nailed back once the flashing is in. Concrete interlocking tiles on an inter-war semi come away more quickly. A flat roof membrane on a back extension is cut, turned up a new upstand and sealed, and the detail depends on whether it is felt, single ply, rubber or a liquid coating.

Structure under the covering

An opening means cutting rafters or joists. The cut ends are carried on new trimmer timbers, and the rafters either side are doubled so the load passes round the gap. A new-build roof of trussed rafters is a designed set, so an opening through it needs an engineer's design before anything is cut.

Getting up there

A rooflight on a single-storey kitchen roof can be reached from a small tower in the yard. The main roof of a two-storey terrace needs a working platform at eaves level, and a three-storey house in Jesmond needs more again. Where scaffold has to stand on a public pavement, the council grants a licence first, and its fee and lead time go into the job. On an upstairs Tyneside flat, scaffold at the front can stand across the neighbouring front door, so agree it with the people below early.

From the street a skylight is a pane in a roof. From the room it is a hole through the ceiling, and the hole has sides. How much work those sides take depends on the space between the slates and the plaster.

A short reveal or a long shaft

Under a sloping loft-room ceiling, roof and ceiling are one surface, so the lining is no deeper than the rafters. Lighting a landing from the main roof is different. The light has to pass through the loft, so a boxed shaft is built from the frame down to the landing ceiling, insulated on every side and lined. That takes more timber, board and hours.

Fittings and the finish line

A ceiling light or alarm sitting where the opening wants to be is small work to move, but it belongs on the quote.Some quotes end at a boarded reveal ready for a plasterer, others include plaster, and a few run to paint. None is wrong, as long as the quote says which. For a lantern or flat roof rooflight, the kerb is lined inside too, and that lining should be priced on the same basis.

Whether the hole already exists moves the price more than anything.

Using the opening you have

Where an old roof window has misted or a plastic dome has gone brittle, and the timbers around it are dry, the new unit can go into the same opening and the rafters stay as they are. A roof window is matched from its size code and fitted with a new flashing kit; a flat rooflight goes onto the existing upstand if that upstand is sound and tall enough. Our misted rooflights page covers the signs that a unit is due for replacement.

Making a new or larger opening

A new opening adds the structural work above, and it adds paperwork. Cutting a new opening in a roof is building work, notified to Building Control through the local authority or a registered building control approver. We deal with that notice for you, and the quote names the route.

Planning and consent

On a house, a rooflight within the Class C limits is permitted development. On either half of a Tyneside flat there is no householder permitted development, so a new rooflight needs planning permission from the council, with drawings and an application fee. A listed house needs listed building consent for almost any rooflight. Our guide to rooflight planning permission sets out the rules in full.

Nothing is priced until we have seen the house, and the survey is free.

What happens at the visit

We start with the house type, because that sets the route: a whole house, an upstairs flat or a downstairs flat. Then we look at the covering and pitch, get into the loft where it can be reached to see the rafters, and stand in the space the daylight is meant for. We measure, talk through products and glass, and note anything that changes the job.

What the quote is

A fixed written quote follows. It describes the work as surveyed, line by line, and the total does not move on the day. If you later choose a larger or electric unit, the quote is revised in writing before that work goes ahead, so you never face a figure that grew while the roof was open.

What sits inside the figure

The unit, the roof work, the weathering, the internal finish to the extent stated, access equipment, and the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable. It also confirms the 10-year workmanship guarantee, handed to you in writing at the end. Our guarantee page sets out what it covers.

Getting more than one quote is sensible, but two totals can describe different jobs.

Match the product, then the work

Put the two specifications next to each other before you look at any total. Same manufacturer range, same size, same glass? For a lantern or flat rooflight, see whether each figure is the external size on the roof or the clear opening seen from the room, since the kerb makes them differ. Next, find the roof work, the access and the internal finish on each. One quote may include an insulated shaft to the landing while another stops at the frame; one may price scaffold and the other assume a ladder.

Then the paper

Ask whether the price is fixed and what counts as a change. Ask for the workmanship guarantee in writing, and its length, and see whether VAT is shown. When you are ready, book your free survey and we will price your roof on those terms. For the lantern side of this, see our roof lanterns page.