Skylights & Rooflights in HowdenDaylight for the old market town on the Ouse plain

Howden is about 20.2 road miles south-east of York, and it has the feel of a small town with a long history.

The centre is built around the Market Place, with brick houses of Georgian and Victorian age on the older streets. Beyond them come inter-war semis and post-war housing, then newer estates on the edges. Many of the older houses have pantile or slate roofs, while the recent ones usually have concrete tiles on lower pitches.

The choice of rooflight follows the house. A slim, quiet frame is right for an older brick roof. A larger window or a lantern suits the back of a family house that has been extended.

The older the roof, the more a rooflight should fade into it.

A conservation rooflight sits close to the roof plane with a thin metal frame and a central glazing bar, a shape borrowed from the cast iron lights of earlier centuries. It looks right on an older roof where a chunky modern frame would not. For a loft that will be a proper room, a standard roof window on the back slope works well too, and the rear is out of sight from the street.

Terraces and older semis in a town like this often share a party wall, and the roof above can be shared too, with a chimney stack or a parapet to work around. A window that sits close to a neighbour's roof needs flashing that respects the boundary, and a courteous word with the neighbour is no bad idea before scaffold goes up on their side of the line. We are happy to explain to them what is going on and how long it will take.

Old roofs also deserve a careful look at what lies beneath the covering. Timbers in an older house may be uneven, slates or pantiles may be nailed through, and the ceilings below may be lath and plaster. We take the opening out in stages, so the structure around it stays sound. See our page on conservation rooflights for what they look like and how they are fitted.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council decides planning questions in Howden.

For a house, a rooflight is usually permitted development when it sits within the limits set out in the planning guide. The council is the one to ask if your house is listed, if you live in a conservation area, or if a lantern would rise more than the permitted height. Howden's historic centre means it is sensible to check your own address before committing.

Where a council confirms that a conservation area applies, a slim rooflight on a rear slope usually sits more easily with the rules than a large window facing the street. If an Article 4 direction has removed the usual rights on your road, you would need to apply, and we can help you describe the work clearly.

Living near the market square does not make a house listed, so the council's answer for your address is the one that counts.

From a survey in Howden

In a terrace with no spare ground, the loft is where the extra room usually lives.

A single roof window on the rear slope can turn a dark loft into a bedroom or a study, with a clear view out and fresh air when it opens. We check the structure, the stair and the escape route, and where the loft sits above a two-storey house we are honest that a protected stair, not a window, has to provide the escape. The roof window installation page explains the options.

Joists in an old house were never meant to carry a bedroom. Strengthening them, and adding insulation and a lining to the sloping ceiling, is usually part of making the room comfortable, and it is something we talk through at the survey instead of leaving as a surprise.

On a newer house, the back extension is where a lantern or flat rooflight suits the new roof best.

A kitchen or family room pushed out into the garden often lets in light at one end only. A rooflight over the other end evens it out. A lantern lifts the ceiling and adds height, and a flat rooflight does the job more discreetly. A lantern on an existing roof often needs a council conversation, because most rise more than the permitted height. If the lantern belongs to a brand new extension, it goes through the council together with the building around it, which keeps everything in one application. Without that, the council will want to see the lantern on its own.

Both sit on an insulated upstand, set at the height the roof covering needs to stay dry. Our roof lantern installation page goes through the details.

Some rooms cannot have a window at all, and a sun tunnel is the answer.

Up on the roof sits a low dome, and from it a mirror-lined tube runs down through the loft to a diffuser that looks like a ceiling light. Nothing about it needs power, and nothing opens or closes. It suits a landing or bathroom with no outside wall, and it is a short job with little upheaval. In a terrace the tube often has to bend round a joist or a chimney breast, which a flexible section handles well, though it loses a little light with each bend, so a straight run is best where there is one. See sun tunnel installation for sizes.

Plenty of Howden houses already have a rooflight, and many of those are tired, with failed seals or stained frames.

Plastic domes from an earlier decade turn yellow and brittle. Early double-glazed units mist between the panes. Older roof windows can warp, so they no longer close tightly. Swapping a whole rooflight, frame and glass, is a controlled fitting and notifiable under Building Regulations, which is why we handle the notification as part of the work.

Where just the sealed glass has gone and the frame is sound, the glass can be replaced on its own, and that is not notifiable. The misted and failed rooflights service covers that case. We look at the frame, the seals and the upstand or flashings during the visit, and say plainly whether new glass will do or a whole new unit is the better choice.

The survey is free, and we come to you.

We look at the roof and the room, talk through planning and then send a quote on paper, each cost on a line of its own, together with a day-by-day running order. Building Control is arranged where the work is notifiable, and at handover you are given photographs of the hidden work, the manufacturers' warranties and our 10-year workmanship guarantee.

Other places we cover include Goole, Hemingbrough and Bubwith. Use the form below to get started.

Howden sits on flat, open ground, and the roofs there catch the wind and the winter sun alike. A rooflight on a south or west slope will flood a room with light and warmth in summer, so we often suggest a blind or a north-facing slope for a bedroom. On the other hand a north slope gives a cool, steady light that suits a study or an artist's corner. Little decisions of that kind are worth making before anything is cut, and the visit is where we make them with you. Bring your questions about blinds, opening mechanisms and glass finishes, and we will go through them one at a time with samples where useful. Nothing is rushed, and there is no pressure to decide on the day.

Because the roofs here are often a mix of old pantiles and later alterations, we also check how the tiles are fixed and whether the battens beneath are sound. A rooflight is only as secure as the timber it is fixed to, so anything soft or split is flagged on the quote before work begins.