Skylights & Rooflights in EscrickAn estate village of brick, pantile and well-kept gardens

Escrick is a village of brick and clay, and the roofs reflect that, so the first question is nearly always how a window sits in a pantile.

A pantile is an S-shaped clay tile, and it leaves a wavy profile along the roof. A roof window needs a flashing that follows that wave, with soakers formed to the tile so water runs off and not under. Each tile around the opening is taken up by hand, and the sound ones go back round the frame, with a matching tile used only where one has cracked.

Older clay is often brittle, which is why we take it slowly. If a handful of tiles are past use, you hear about it at the survey, not on the day. Where the roof has been re-covered in concrete tile at some point, the work is quicker, because a standard flashing kit fits the profile.

What sits under the roof covering decides the job as much as the covering itself. A window is set between rafters, with timber trimmers across the top and bottom, and the rafter spacing decides which window sizes fit without cutting more than we need. In the loft we measure it before recommending anything, and we explain which size codes on a VELUX window suit your spacing: the letter in the code gives the width and the digits the height.

Escrick is in North Yorkshire, and the village has a conservation area, so the planning position depends on which street the house is on.

North Yorkshire Council has been the planning authority here since April 2023, when it replaced Selby District Council and the other district councils. A family house in the village will usually meet the permitted development tests for a rooflight; the details are in our skylight planning permission guide. Inside the conservation area, houses keep those rights unless the council has withdrawn them for a particular street, and the council can tell you which applies.

Flats and maisonettes need permission, and a listed building needs consent before the roof is touched. If your house is one of the older estate-style properties, it is worth asking whether it is listed before anything else. A call to the council costs nothing, and the answer saves a wasted design.

In a village like this one, the slope you can see from the road is the one that gets the council's attention.

From a survey in Escrick

The older houses in the village are worth fitting carefully, and the right rooflight is a slim one.

A traditional-looking conservation rooflight is a steel-style frame that sits flush with the covering, with a thin glazing bar and no deep outer rim. On a pantile or slate roof it reads as part of the roof and not as something added to it. Fitted on a rear slope, it lights a bedroom or stair without altering how the house looks from the lane. A stair that rises into the roof is a good candidate, since the glazing floods the stairwell and borrows nothing from the rooms either side. A bedroom under the eaves, with its sloping ceiling, gains an outlook above the rooftops, and the sill is a handy spot for a plant or a blind cord.

Inside, a cottage ceiling may be low and the plaster old. We support the ceiling round the new opening so it is not cracked by the cutting, and the lining of the reveal is finished to blend with the room. Splayed sides, which angle the light into the room, are plastered or boarded to suit what is already there, and the paint goes on last.

Bungalows are part of the mix around Escrick, and a bungalow loft is the one place where a roof window can double as an escape window.

The 4.5m height limit for escape windows works in a bungalow's favour, because a chalet or bungalow room in the roof sits well inside it. That makes a bungalow loft a very workable place for a bedroom or a study. Many detached houses and bungalows of that kind have roof space that was never used, and a few well-placed windows turn it into a room the family keeps. The window needs to be large enough and set at a sensible height above the floor, and we check the figures at the survey. A bungalow roof is often shallower than a two-storey one, so we also measure the pitch, since every roof window has a lowest angle at which its maker will allow it to be fitted. A new opening also needs Building Regulations approval, which we arrange.

Family houses are often extended at the back, and a new room often needs help to feel light.

A rear kitchen with a flat roof usually has dim corners. A roof lantern brings height and daylight to the middle of such a room, while flat roof rooflights sit lower and suit a roof with limited clearance. If the extension is being designed, the lantern can go into the same planning application. On an existing roof, a lantern's height usually passes 150mm, so the council normally wants to hear first.

Both options stand on a raised, insulated kerb, usually 150mm or more above the finished roof, and the kerb belongs to the concealed work that is photographed before it disappears behind the finish. The decision between the two often comes down to the ceiling height you want and the proportions of the room. A long, narrow kitchen may suit a row of flat rooflights, where a square family room gains most from a single lantern in the centre.

Rooflights from the 1980s and 1990s were built to a different standard, and the difference is easy to feel on a cold morning.

A dome that has turned cloudy, a frame that rattles in a westerly or a cold patch above a kitchen table are the usual signs. Bringing the new unit up to current standards means better glass and a better-insulated frame, and the room underneath notices the difference in a cold snap. Replacing the unit as a whole is a controlled fitting under Building Regulations, and a modern one must meet the current heat-loss limits: 2.2 W/m²K for a rooflight, or 1.4 W/m²K for a roof window. Our energy efficient rooflights page goes through what that means for the glass.

Before work starts you receive a plan for each day, so there are no surprises about when the roof is open.

Floors, rugs and stairs are protected, furniture is moved or wrapped, and a screen goes up round the work area where it can. When the team stops for the evening, the roof is left watertight until morning. One crew does the job from beginning to end, and takes the waste away. Because Escrick is a small village, we also give a thought to neighbours: a note through the door beforehand, and care over where the access tower stands and when the noisy work happens, make a job easier on the whole street.

Escrick is about 5.9 road miles south of York, which keeps visits short, and the survey is free.

On the visit we study the roof from loft and garden, go through the council position, and write up the quote with each cost on its own line. If a lantern or a large opening is on your mind, we also talk through how the structure beneath it will be supported, because a bigger opening usually needs a beam. A 10-year workmanship guarantee stands behind the work, and notifiable jobs come with Building Control paperwork at handover.

We also work in Riccall, Bishopthorpe and Wheldrake. Fill in the form beneath this page, or message us on WhatsApp, to arrange a visit.

If the house has had work done before, mention it when you ring. A previous loft conversion or extension often hides a steel beam or a doubled rafter, and knowing where it sits helps us plan the position of an opening before we have climbed onto the roof.