Skylights & Rooflights in RiccallLight for village bungalows, brick cottages and tidy estates

Riccall grew in layers, and you can read the decades in the roofs as you drive through.

The older core has brick cottages and farmhouses under clay pantiles, many with small windows and low eaves. Around and behind them sit the bungalows and chalet bungalows that were popular from the 1960s, followed by brick estate houses from the 1970s and later, with concrete tiles and plain gables. Many of the bungalows have been extended at the back, often with a flat roof.

Each of these asks for a different kind of rooflight, so we start at the roof and work out what suits it rather than starting with a product. The village sits on low, level ground by the Ouse, and the sky is wide. That is a good reason to bring more of it indoors. The same exposure is why we fix each frame and flashing firmly, and check them again before the roof is sealed up for the night.

A pantile is an S-shaped clay tile, and a rooflight set into a pantile roof needs a flashing that has been shaped to match.

The ridges and hollows of a pantile roof leave gaps that a flat apron would never close. A suitable flashing kit has a soft, formable edge that is pressed down into the hollows, so rain runs over it and not under it. Clay tiles can crack when they are moved, so we lift them by hand, set aside the sound ones to go back and use matching second-hand ones for any that break.

Old pantiles are often laid on battens with no felt underneath, and where we find that, we dress a proper membrane round the opening so the window has a sound edge to sit against. That work is hidden once the window is in, so we photograph it and hand you the pictures.

A bungalow roof is often low and shallow, and that changes which rooflight makes sense.

A loft room needs enough height to stand in, and a shallow bungalow roof frequently does not offer it. In that case a roof window is not the answer, and we would tell you so at the visit instead of selling you one. A chalet bungalow with rooms already in the roof is a different story, because roof windows there are often exactly what the upstairs needs.

For the rooms below a low roof, such as the hall, the bathroom or a back bedroom, a sun tunnel is often better value. The dome sits on the roof, and a reflective tube carries the light through the roof space to a diffuser in the ceiling. Our sun tunnel installation page lists the diameters and shows how one is installed.

A bungalow that cannot take a window can often take a tunnel, and the hall is usually the room that gains most.

From a survey in Riccall

North Yorkshire Council is the planning authority for Riccall, and for most houses the answer is short.

The council took over from Selby District Council in April 2023, so older advice that names Selby is out of date. Houses usually have permitted development for a rooflight, provided it stays inside the limits described in the planning guide. A flat or maisonette lacks those rights and needs an application. Anything listed needs consent of its own. Riccall has some old buildings, so if yours is old it is worth asking the council whether it is listed before you plan the work.

A lantern over an extension is the other case worth checking. Most rise more than 150mm above the roof, which takes them past the usual limit, so the council may ask for an application or may simply confirm in writing that none is needed. If the lantern is part of a new extension, it is assessed along with the extension itself. Our roof lantern installation page goes into that in more detail.

A rear extension on a Riccall bungalow often has a flat roof and a dark inner corner.

A kitchen or family room added to the back of a bungalow tends to be bright by the garden doors and dim near the old back wall. Glass in the roof over that dim part brings the light back into the room. A flat rooflight is the plain, low-profile choice. A lantern gives more height and a more finished look, and suits a room where there is space to enjoy it.

Before pricing the job, we check what the flat roof is made of and how old it is. A tired covering is best renewed at the same time as the rooflight goes in. Where the roof is sound, the new unit sits on an insulated upstand, and the roof covering is dressed neatly up it.

Plenty of Riccall extensions carry a plastic dome or an early glazed unit that has seen better years.

The signs are easy to see from the room beneath. A dome turns yellow and brittle, a glazed unit mists between its panes, and a stain or a damp patch spreads across the ceiling beside the frame. When just the sealed glass has gone, the misted and failed rooflights work replaces only that. If the whole frame is tired, the complete unit is replaced, and because that counts as a controlled fitting, we sort out the Building Control notification as part of the job.

Where the old kerb or upstand is sound, the new rooflight can often go straight onto it, which keeps the work short. Where it has rotted or is too low, it is rebuilt first so that the new glass is not placed on an old fault.

Most people in Riccall stay at home during the fit, so the job is planned round that.

Before work begins, dust sheets go down over the floors and stairs, the furniture is wrapped and the working area is closed off with screens where the layout allows. The same people turn up each morning until the job is done. When the day ends, the roof is closed and made weathertight, so you are not left with an open hole overnight. Waste goes away with us.

Riccall is about 9.4 road miles south of York, so we are never far away.

The survey is free. We measure up, go over the roof and the room, and talk planning through. After that you get an itemised quote in writing, one cost per line, and a plan for each day of the fit. When the work is finished we walk round it with you and leave the product details, each maker's warranty, our 10-year workmanship guarantee and, when the job was notifiable, the Building Control certificate.

We also cover the villages and towns around Riccall, including Barlby, Cawood and Escrick. If you would rather see a flat rooflight than a window, our flat roof rooflights page shows what is involved. Use the form below to book.

It helps if you can tell us which room is dark, roughly how the roof is covered and whether the house has been altered before. A snapshot taken of the roof from the garden is useful, though not essential. Nothing you say commits you to anything, and if a rooflight turns out to be the wrong answer for the room, we will say so plainly and suggest what might work better.