Skylights & Rooflights in South CaveLight for pantile roofs at the edge of the Wolds

A rooflight in South Cave begins with what is on the roof, because the covering decides the flashing, the labour and the look from the lane.

South Cave lies at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds, a short way north of the Humber, about 28 road miles south-east of York. Brick and clay pantile are the local habit, and you see them on older cottages, outbuildings and farm conversions. Around those sit later houses: village semis, 1960s and 1970s bungalows and newer estate homes with concrete tiles. A single street can hold three or four roof types, and each one is dressed differently round a new opening.

That is why we look at the roof from outside before we talk about glass. Pantiles are curved and overlap in a way that flat tiles do not, so the flashing has to be made to follow them. A concrete interlocking tile wants a different kit. A flat roof has no tiles at all, only a membrane and an upstand.

Pantiles are old, uneven and often brittle, so the work is slow and by hand.

The tiles round the opening come off one at a time and are stacked in the order they were laid. Rafters are trimmed and framed with new timber, and the window frame is wrapped in an insulation collar so it does not become a cold spot in the ceiling. Then the flashing goes on, shaped for profiled tiles, and the pantiles are laid back around it. A tile that has cracked is swapped for a matching one rather than forced back into place.

A window in the back slope of a cottage usually suits a loft room well, and the lane never sees it. Frame types, glazing and sizes are explained on our roof window installation page.

Where a South Cave home is a single storey with a flat-roofed extension, the dark room is usually the one in the middle.

Many bungalows were built with a hall, a kitchen and bedrooms leading off a short corridor, then extended at the back with a dining room or sun room. The result is a plan where daylight pours in from the garden end and fades towards the front door. A roof lantern or a flat rooflight over the line of the old back wall carries that light further in.

A bungalow also has an advantage over a house, because the roof void is shallow and the ceiling sits close to the roof. That makes the opening simpler to form and the finished reveal shorter. Flat rooflights are covered on our flat roof rooflights page.

Ventilation is worth a thought as well. A kitchen under a fixed rooflight can feel stuffy in July, so some owners choose a unit that opens on a hinge, with a rain sensor that shuts it when the weather turns. That choice is easier made before the opening is cut than afterwards, because the cabling is run while the ceiling is open.

South Cave is in the East Riding of Yorkshire, so planning questions go to a different council from York's.

The local planning authority here is East Riding of Yorkshire Council. The conditions that make a rooflight permitted development on an ordinary house are laid out in our guide to planning permission for skylights. Flats and maisonettes get none of those rights. A listed building needs listed building consent, and in a conservation area an Article 4 direction can take permitted development away from particular streets, so only the council can say for certain.

The village centre holds older buildings, and some may be listed or fall inside a designated area. Look up your address on the council's planning map before you set your heart on a front slope. Asking costs nothing, and it avoids an awkward surprise halfway through a job.

A pantile roof facing the lane is the one to ask the council about first, and the back slope is rarely the problem.

From a survey in South Cave

A roof lantern is a bigger decision than a flat rooflight, in cost, in height and in how the finished room looks.

A lantern stands up from the flat roof on an insulated upstand, so it is a different size and height from a flat rooflight. Most rise more than 150mm above the roof, which means that on an existing roof an application or a council confirmation is often needed. If the lantern belongs to an extension still to be built, the council weighs it up together with the extension, which makes it the easier route for anyone already building.

Inside, a lantern pulls light from above into the middle of a kitchen-diner. Over a table it works well, because the light lands where people sit. More is on our roof lantern installation page.

Some older South Cave extensions carry a plastic dome or an early glazed unit that is now cracked, yellowed or leaking.

Look at it from below. A rooflight that has gone yellow, cloudy or stained is telling you something. The sealed glass may have failed, the frame may no longer shut tight, or the upstand may have let damp in. Taking out the entire rooflight and fitting a new one counts as a controlled fitting under Building Regulations, so we deal with the notification where it applies. Changing only the sealed glass inside a sound frame falls outside that rule.

Where only the glass has misted, replacing the unit alone is sometimes the sensible answer. Our misted and failed rooflights page shows how to tell the two cases apart, and at the visit you hear our honest view, even when the answer is the cheaper one.

You will be living in the home while the roof is open, so the way we work in your house is as important as the product we fit.

Before anything starts you receive a plan for each day, so you know which rooms we need and when. Dust sheets go down over floors and stairs, furniture is moved or covered, and a screen separates our work from the rest of the house. By evening the opening is closed in and dry. Rubbish leaves with us. The hidden work is photographed, and the pictures come with your handover, alongside the makers' warranties, our 10-year workmanship guarantee and any Building Control paperwork.

South Cave is about 28 road miles south-east of York, and nobody pays for the survey.

We measure the roof, study the room and talk through the planning route. A quote in writing follows, pricing each part separately. If your plans also take in a neighbouring village, we cover Elloughton, Market Weighton and Cherry Burton as well. Fill in the short form below to get things moving.

Pantile roofs are easiest to judge in dry weather, so if the day is wet we can still measure indoors and look at the roof from a ladder, then come back to check the covering closely before the quote is finalised. A tile that is cracked or loose near the planned opening is noted and priced on its own line, so you can see it separately.