Penshaw skylights and replacement rooflights
Penshaw is a village 11.2 road miles south-east of Newcastle, in the Sunderland district. You may want daylight for a gloomy room or a fresh unit to replace a clouded old one. Both jobs begin with the room and with the roof overhead.
A room that borrows light from the hall
Every house has one: a kitchen with a single small window, a bathroom on a shared wall, a landing that gets daylight only when two doors stand open. In Penshaw, as anywhere, a window overhead solves what a wall cannot. There may also be a rooflight in the roof already that has gone grey and cold. Either way we start with the room, then the roof, then the rules.
Fitted and replaced in Penshaw
These are the products we install; the roof over your room decides which one belongs. Roof lanterns, Flat roof rooflights, Roof windows, VELUX windows, Electric rooflights, Energy efficient rooflights, Misted rooflight replacement, Walk-on rooflights, Conservation rooflights, Sun tunnels.
New light, old units
Brighter rooms in Penshaw, from the first idea to the last seal
Choose the room hungriest for light. Match a product to the roof above it. Learn who must approve and how an old unit gets swapped. Last, follow the survey and the fitting day.
Which room in a Penshaw house gains most from a window overhead?
Short answer
The one you cannot read in without switching on a lamp at midday. A kitchen with one small window, an inner bathroom, a landing and a loft room come into question, and the roof directly above each decides what can be fitted.
Wander round the house on a bright afternoon and notice where a lamp is burning. Those rooms are the candidates. A rooflight is a poor answer to a room that already has good windows, and a very good answer to one that has none worth the name.
Rooms cut off from outside walls
Consider the head of the stairs, a bathroom wedged between two bedrooms, or the passage that runs to the back door. No wall window can reach them. What they do have, where a loft sits above, is a ceiling with a roof over it. Two answers exist. A sun tunnel can thread its tube past the loft. Where the loft is a lived-in room, a window can instead be built into the slope.
The kitchen and the extension
One small window at the end of a kitchen leaves the far side dim. If the kitchen sits in a flat-roofed extension, a flat rooflight over the work surface changes the room more than a bigger wall window could, because daylight arrives from above and reaches the back of the room. If the ceiling is pitched, a roof window on the sloping side does the same job.
Loft rooms
A converted loft, whether a bedroom or a study, needs glass set into the slope. The right size depends on the headroom and on how you will use the space. A bed set under the slope wants a window above it that opens for air, and a desk wants a clear view of the sky rather than the ground. Height matters too: a window set too low shows the neighbours' tiles and little else, so the position of the sill is worth settling at the survey.
A short walk round the house
- Switch off every lamp at noon and note the gloomy rooms
- Look up in each dim room and ask what is overhead
- Note any rooflight already there that looks cloudy or stained
- Ask yourself if the spot also needs a breeze
What should go into the roof above that dim room?
Short answer
Roof windows go on slopes, panes or lanterns go on decks, and sun tunnels go to windowless rooms under a loft. Laminated inner glass is standard over a room, and the frame and covering are matched to your own roof.
Four things decide the product: the pitch of the roof, what covers it, how far the ceiling is from the sky and whether the room needs air.
Where the roof slopes
A roof window is made to lie level with the pitch, edged by flashings cut for the covering over it. VELUX is a well-known make, and reading its sizes takes a minute: in MK04 the first two letters point to the width, the last two digits to the height. The VELUX windows page goes into the codes. A window that opens gives ventilation to a loft bedroom, and a fixed one costs less and suits a landing.
For a flat roof
Flat rooflights come as single panes and as lanterns. A single pane is low and plain. A lantern stands up from the deck and adds height to the room beneath. Both need a raised frame, called an upstand, and manufacturers commonly set that at around 150mm above the finished roof. Lapping the roof covering to that frame is the detail that keeps the weather out.
For a room under a loft
A sun tunnel brings daylight a long way down. Outside sits a little dome; inside, a diffuser panel; between them, a tube running through the loft. It suits a bathroom or a landing, where you want brightness and have no need for a view.
Glass and warmth
Laminated glass forms the inner pane over any room. Energy figures matter too: for existing homes in England, Part L sets a limiting U-value of 2.2 W/m²K for a rooflight and 1.4 W/m²K for a roof window. The quote names the unit, so you can see what you are getting before work begins.
My Penshaw rooflight has clouded over or turned chilly. Who approves a swap?
Short answer
Depending on the survey, the sealed glass alone or the entire unit gets swapped. For a flat, Sunderland City Council decides anything new in the roof; for a house, permitted development generally covers rooflights within set limits; a listed house needs listed building consent first.
An old rooflight tells you its age by the way it looks. A film between the panes means the seal has failed. Brown stains round the frame mean water has been getting in. A cold draught under it means the unit no longer does its job. Each has a different cure, and the survey separates them.
Glass only, or the whole unit
Where the frame is sound and the opening size is right, the sealed glass can sometimes be changed on its own. Where the frame is tired, the flashing is worn out or the unit is a thin plastic dome, the whole rooflight is replaced. Our misted rooflights page explains how the two routes compare. A new unit in the same opening makes the least disturbance to the roof.
Who has to agree
It depends on what you live in. In a flat, including either half of a Tyneside flat, there are no householder permitted development rights, so anything new in the roof needs planning permission from Sunderland City Council. Whether a like-for-like swap amounts to something new is for the council to say, and it is the first thing to put to them. In a house, rooflights generally fall under permitted development within set limits, and the planning guide covers them.
Listed homes
A listed house needs listed building consent for almost any change to a rooflight, new or replacement, and the consent decides what goes in. If yours is listed, ask first and order afterwards.
Building Control
If the swap includes cutting a new or larger opening, that is building work, and the notification goes to Sunderland City Council or a registered building control approver. We handle it where it applies.
| Route | Suits | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| New sealed glass in the old frame | A sound frame, a good flashing and a size that still suits the room | Clear glass and better insulation, with the frame as before |
| A whole new unit in the same opening | A worn frame, a perished flashing or a thin dome | Frame, glass and weathering are all renewed together |
| A new, larger or relocated opening | A room that needs more light than the old unit gave | The roof structure changes, so the permission route applies |
What are the survey and the fitting day like in practice?
Short answer
One visit, no fee, to read the roof and room, followed by a quote that is fixed and written. On the fitting day the unit is installed to the quote, any Building Control notification is dealt with by us, and the 10-year workmanship guarantee is given in writing.
The survey and the fitting are two ends of one job, and the written quote joins them.
Survey visit
Our eyes go to the room, then the roof's outer face, then its underside in the loft. We take the measurements the unit will need, talk about whether it should open, and ask what is above and around it. If the roof has a surprise in it, the survey is where it comes out. The visit is free, and a price comes only afterwards.
Written quote
What follows is fixed and written down, covering the unit chosen, its dimensions, the glass specification and each task included. It changes only if the job does. You can read it at your own pace, and a separate look at the costs page helps you see why one job costs more than another.
The fitting day
Fitting day starts with the old unit lifted out, where there is one. The new unit is then set in the opening, flashed to the covering and sealed. The inside of the opening is lined to suit the new unit, and a sun tunnel needs far less of this than a roof window does. You will hear which applies to your room before the date is set. A sun tunnel needs less than a roof window, and a lantern needs more.
After the job
Where the work is notifiable, we deal with the Building Control notification, and your workmanship guarantee runs for 10 years in writing. If a neighbour is considering the same, Washington is one of the places near Penshaw we also cover.
Plain answers for Penshaw householders
Is Penshaw covered by Sunderland City Council?
Yes. Penshaw is a village in the Sunderland district, so questions about planning or listed building consent go to Sunderland City Council. Building Control for the work can go to the council or to a registered building control approver, and we deal with the notification either way.
How can I tell whether a rooflight has failed or just looks dirty?
Dirt wipes off. A failed seal shows as film or droplets trapped between the panes, out of reach of any cloth. Stains on the ceiling beside the frame, or a cold patch of air below, point to the flashing or the frame. The survey tells you which of those you have.
Does swapping a worn rooflight for a fresh one call for permission?
It depends on the home. A flat needs the council's view because it has no householder permitted development. A house is generally covered within set limits, as the planning guide describes, and a listed house needs listed building consent. Tell us what you have and we will explain the route.
Can I choose the size, or does the old opening decide it?
The existing opening is the simplest starting point, as the roof timbers already make room for it. Reusing it also keeps the disturbance to the covering small. Moving the window a metre along, or making it wider, is a bigger decision, and we will say plainly what it adds. A bigger unit means altering rafters, which changes the work and may change the permission route. We measure both options at the survey and put the one you choose into the written quote.
Does the quote cover the paperwork as well as the unit?
The Building Control notification is dealt with by us where the work is notifiable, and it forms part of the job we agree with you. Any planning permission or listed building consent for a flat or a listed house is applied for separately, and we will tell you at the survey whether you need one.