Skylights & Rooflights in HubyLight for pantile cottages, converted barns and village bungalows

Huby stands about 10.6 road miles north of York. It is a small village in flat, open country under a wide sky.

Huby is a village rather than a town, and its houses reflect that: brick cottages and farmhouses with clay pantile roofs, some barn and outbuilding conversions, and newer houses and bungalows added over the last century. Easingwold is the nearest town of any size and Sutton-on-the-Forest is a short drive away, so most of the work in this part of the Vale has the same character.

The flat landscape matters for a rooflight. With little to block it, the sky is big, and a south-facing rear slope can be bright for most of the day. It also means that glass on a visible slope shows from the lane, so the choice of slope is worth a thought.

Clay pantiles are the roof you will see most often on the older cottages here, and they have a few quirks worth knowing.

A pantile is a curved clay tile that laps over its neighbour. The surface is uneven, so a flashing has to follow the wave of the roof, and a flat sheet laid on top would let water in under the edges. We use a flashing made for the pantile profile and lift the tiles round the opening by hand. Old pantiles are often still sound, so we keep and relay them rather than throwing them away.

Underneath, a pantile roof may sit straight on its battens with no modern underlay, so we look at what lies under the tiles and fit a proper membrane round the opening. The result sits low and keeps the shape of the old roof.

The ridge matters too. An old ridge may have settled, and a window set near it needs a firm timber to bear on, so the opening is placed with the roof's own structure in mind, not with the window's catalogue size alone.

Before the survey, look at the loft from inside on a bright day. Pinpricks of light between the tiles show where the covering is thin, and the rafters, purlins and any old chimney breast show where a window can and cannot go. Mark the spot you have in mind with a strip of tape on the ceiling, and the team can judge it against the timbers on the day.

Huby comes under North Yorkshire Council, which took on the planning work of the old district councils in April 2023.

A house will often take a rooflight as permitted development, and the conditions appear in our skylight planning permission guide. Listed buildings are the point to be careful with in a village like this, because farmhouses and older cottages are often listed, and listed building consent applies to changes to the roof. A converted barn may also have had its permitted development rights removed by the original permission, so a look at the old planning decision is worthwhile.

The council can answer questions about both, and we can help you work out what to ask. A lantern needs a second thought on any house, since most rise more than 150mm and so often need an application on an existing roof.

Farm buildings can sit on land with its own history, and a conversion may carry conditions about openings in the roof, so it is worth reading the decision notice for any such conditions before the order for glass goes in. We are glad to look at it with you.

It also helps to know the date and type of the roof covering when you write to the council. A photograph taken from the garden, showing the slope you have in mind, saves a round of emails.

On a converted barn, the planning decision from the conversion often says more than the building does.

From a survey in Huby

A converted barn or stable often has a tall roof space and few windows, because the original building never needed them.

The ceiling follows the roof pitch, with exposed timbers or a plasterboard lining over a deep layer of insulation. Roof windows spaced evenly along the slope light the room without cutting across beams, and a long rooflight can run along a ridge. Because the roof is thick with insulation, the light well from the glass to the ceiling lining is deeper than in an ordinary house, and the lining has to be formed to carry the light down.

Our roof window installation page describes how openings are framed and sealed, and the same method applies in a thicker roof build-up.

One practical point in an old outbuilding is the floor. A boarded or concrete floor below may be a finished surface worth protecting, so it is covered in full before any work overhead starts, and the dust is kept to the working area.

A detached bungalow with a rear sun room or kitchen is where a flat rooflight does the most good.

The added rooms at the back of village bungalows are usually flat-roofed, with a deep floor plan that leaves the house end gloomy. A flat rooflight is carried on an insulated upstand, normally at least 150mm clear of the finished roof, and the covering is taken up and over it. A fixed unit gives the most light for the least cost, and an opening one lets warm air out in summer.

Should the old covering be tired, it makes sense to renew it while the rooflight goes in, so that roof and glass are finished as one piece of work.

A village house has a lived-in feel, and we treat it as one.

Floors, stairs and furniture are covered before the first tile moves, and the area we work in is closed off with a screen where the layout permits. A plan for each day tells you when the roof will be open. Come the evening, we close it in, and the waste goes with us. One team sees the job through.

What goes on behind the plaster is photographed, and those pictures reach you at handover alongside the manufacturers' warranties and our 10-year workmanship guarantee. Where notification to Building Control is required, we arrange it and hand over the certificate.

A window in the roof brings daylight, and it also changes how warm or cool the room feels through the seasons.

Open country can mean little shade, so a south-facing slope in Huby can take a lot of sun in summer. In a loft bedroom that can make the room warm by evening. A blind on the inside of the window helps, and so does an opening window that lets warm air out at the top of the house. Glazing with a low U-value does its part in winter, keeping the heat in, and a new roof window in an existing home is expected to reach 1.4 W/m²K or Window Energy Rating Band B.

Winter weighs on the choice as much as summer does. Warm air rises into a loft, and a well-sealed, well-insulated frame stops it escaping through the roof. The insulation collar round the frame and the membrane lapped over it are part of the hidden work we photograph, because they decide how the window performs for as long as it is there.

For a room that is used all day, such as a study, we would think about the direction of the slope before choosing the glass, and talk through the options with you at the survey.

Someone comes to the house, studies the roof and the room together, and a written quote follows.

No premises exist to visit, and the survey costs nothing. In the quote each cost has its own line, and the working days are laid out in a plan. Neighbouring places with pages of their own include Easingwold, Sutton-on-the-Forest and Sheriff Hutton.

The form below takes a few lines about your room, and a WhatsApp message does the same job.