VELUX windows in Brighton & Hove

Start at the edge, because the edge is where a roof window earns its keep. The frame itself is rarely the weak point. The weak point is the line where a rectangular window meets a roof made of overlapping tiles, and that line has to shed water for decades. The flashing kit does that job. It is a set of formed aluminium pieces, a base, two sides and a top, shaped to the profile of your covering and fixed so each piece laps over the one below it.

The order matters. Get the laps the wrong way round and the roof leaks at the first heavy shower, however good the window is. That is why kits are made for different coverings: thin slate, plain tiles and deeper profiled tiles each have their own. Our guide to VELUX flashing kits lists them side by side. Water running down the roof takes this route:

Matching the kit to your roof

Brighton and Hove roofs are a mixed bunch. Welsh slate on Victorian terraces, plain clay tiles on older cottages and pre-war semis, and concrete tiles on newer estates all turn up in the same postcode. We identify the covering at the survey, often by lifting a single tile at the eaves, and we order the kit to suit. Where the covering is old or fragile, we also look at the battens behind it, because the flashing is only as firm as the timber it fixes to.

The sash is the part that moves. On a centre-pivot roof window, the sash turns on a horizontal axis about halfway up the frame. You lift the handle at the top, push, and the sash swings round so the lower half moves outwards and the upper half moves in. At the end of that swing, the outside pane faces into the room, which means you can clean the exterior glass without a ladder or a trip onto the roof. For a window on the third floor of a terrace, that is the feature that matters most after a few years.

The pivot also controls ventilation, and most pivot sashes add a flap for when the window is shut.

What the glass does

Modern sealed units are double glazed with a low-emissivity coating and a gas fill between the panes. The outer pane is toughened and the inner pane is laminated, so if it breaks it stays together. Some versions add an outer pane that cuts rain noise, which is welcome under a thin slate roof. If you are comparing quotes, ask for the glazing specification, because two windows of the same size can behave very differently in a downpour or on a hot afternoon. The energy figures behind this are covered in our energy efficient rooflights page.

The reveal is the angled face of plaster or lining that joins the window to the ceiling and wall. It is the part you look at every day, and the part that decides how well the window performs. A good reveal does three things. It carries insulation around the frame so there is no cold bridge from the roof to the room. It sets the light angle, so daylight reaches deep into the room instead of falling straight onto the floor below. And it hides the joint between the frame and the plasterboard.

Insulation is the bit people overlook. The frame sits in a hole cut through the roof structure, and the gap around it has to be filled and sealed. Insulation collars, made to fit each frame size, wrap the frame and link its insulation to that of the roof.

Splayed, square or angled

For a new opening, the lining is built from framing timber and boarded. For a replacement, the old lining is often sound and stays, and we adjust it where the new frame changes the line. The plaster or paint finish is left ready for you or a decorator to complete, unless the quote says otherwise.

The VELUX range is wide, so the useful question is which type suits your roof and the room underneath. The choice splits along four lines: how the sash opens, what it is made from, how the glass is specified, and whether it is manual, electric or solar powered. Our explainer on VELUX window types decodes the letters GGL, GGU, GPL and GPU, and the main options are set out below.

Choosing for the room

A bathroom wants a moisture-resistant finish and an opening sash for steam. A bedroom wants good sound insulation against rain and gulls, and a blackout blind. A stairwell wants a window high enough that you are not looking up at a blank face, with an electric opener you can reach. If you are comparing skylights for a loft room, think about the view as well as the light: a window set lower in the slope lets a seated person see out.

A roof window installation follows the same sequence whether it is a new opening or a replacement. What changes is how much structural work comes first. The steps below are what happens once you accept the quote.

How long it takes

A like-for-like replacement is a day for one window in good conditions, and longer for several or where the lining needs work. A new opening takes longer because of the structural work and the plastering. Weather decides the rest. We do not open a roof if rain is forecast, which is why a date is a plan and not a promise. Our answer on fitting a VELUX window in a day goes through when that holds and when it does not.

The window is the easy part. Getting to it is where jobs in this city are won or lost. A roof window on a Regency or Victorian terrace may sit three or four storeys above a street with no front garden, a pavement and resident parking bays. A scaffold there needs space on the pavement and sometimes the road, and that means a licence from the highway authority. We apply for it, and we cover the process in our guide to scaffold licences and parking suspensions. Lead times for licences vary, so we plan the job date around them and tell you when a date is firm.

Butterfly roofs, mansards and dormers

Where we work around Brighton & Hove

We cover Brighton and Hove and the area up to 30 miles around by road. That reaches the coast road towns east and west, the villages under the Downs and the market towns inland, and the roofs vary as much as the places. Each of our town pages looks at the housing and planning rules there, and the access plan adapts to the street. Whatever the address, the first visit is a free survey, booked in advance, and you get a fixed written quote.

Three separate questions come up: planning, ownership and Building Regulations. They are independent, and passing one does not settle another.

Planning

On a house, a roof window usually falls within permitted development, provided it does not stand more than 150 mm proud of the roof plane, does not rise above the highest part of the roof, and, if it faces the side, is obscure glazed and non-opening below 1.7 m above the floor. Flats have no permitted development rights, so a flat needs planning permission. A conservation area alone does not remove the right, but an Article 4 direction does. A listed building needs listed building consent in addition. See our planning guide.

Flats and leases

In a converted house the roof is normally the freeholder's. If you hold a lease on the flat, you will usually need written consent, a licence for alterations, before the work starts. Read your lease, and see rooflights in flats and leasehold buildings. We include the consent in the access plan and give neighbours notice.

Building Regulations

Replacing a whole roof window, like for like, is building work. It is notifiable and the new unit must meet Part L: 1.4 W/m²K or Window Energy Rating band B for a roof window. A glass-only change in a VELUX frame that is still sound is not a controlled fitting. A new opening is building work too, and Building Control looks at the structure, the weathering, the fire spread and the energy. Should the VELUX installation be notifiable, the Building Control notification is made by us, to the council or to a registered building control approver. Our Building Regulations guide goes into more detail.

Escape and loft rooms

A roof window can serve as an escape route in a bungalow or chalet bungalow, because the storey is within about 4.5 m of the ground. A loft conversion on a two-storey house needs a protected stair, not an escape roof window, so do not treat the window as the fire exit.

People search for window repair when a roof window fails, and the honest answer is usually replacement. The two routes look like this.

Signs it is time to replace the window

• Moisture or a milky haze between the panes that does not wipe away.
• Staining, bubbling paint or a damp patch on the lining under the frame.
• A sash that sticks, will not latch or has dropped in its frame.
• Flashing that is lifting, cracked or rusting at its fixings.

What affects the cost

People ask how much a VELUX window costs, what a roofer charges to fit one, and what the average figure is. We do not quote a figure on a web page, because the answer depends on the job. The price moves with the window size and specification, whether the sash is manual or electric, the roof covering and the flashing kit it needs, whether it is a replacement or a new opening, the rafter work, the scaffold and any licence, the lining and the finish. Access can move the price more than the window does, which is why the quote includes the access plan.

The survey is free, and the written figure that follows is fixed. Our cost explainer and the costs page set out the factors in order. Every job carries our 10-year workmanship guarantee, which we describe on the guarantee page.

Roof windows get more sun and more rain than the walls beneath them, so the blind matters as much as the glass.

Cleaning and care

Wipe the inside glass and the seals a few times a year, open the ventilation flap and clear the dust from it, and spot the outside glass from within by turning the sash. Check the lining under the frame for stains. On a seafront roof, rinse salt from the outside glass and the flashing, because a crust of it holds moisture and wears paint and metal. Wind off the sea stresses fixings and seals, so a sash that rattles in a gale wants looking at.

How long they last

A well fitted roof window lasts for decades, but no single part is permanent. The sealed unit, the gaskets, the flashing and the lining each age at their own rate, and the wetter and windier the site, the faster. Our page on how long VELUX windows last explains which parts go first. The usual first sign is misting.

Coastal exposure

A roof within sight of the sea has a harder life. Salt in the air attacks bare aluminium and cheap fixings, and wind uplift pulls at the edges of the flashing. Gulls are a nuisance too: they scratch at soft covers, drop debris into valleys and leave marks on the glass. We choose materials with coatings suited to the exposure and specify stainless fixings where the site calls for them.

Drawbacks worth knowing

A fair look at the disadvantages

Drawback	The answer
Hot in summer	A blind, ideally solar-reflecting
Noisy in rain	A quieter outer pane
Glass out of reach	A pivot sash cleans from inside
Watertightness	The right flashing kit

None of these is a reason to go without a roof window.

A loft conversion usually depends on roof windows. They bring daylight into a room that has no side walls to put windows in, and they fit within the existing roof slope. If you ask whether your loft suits a conversion, the answer starts with the head height, the roof structure and the stair. A window helps with light and air, but it does not replace the structural work, and it cannot be your escape on a two-storey house.

Why natural daylight matters

Light from above reaches further into a room than light from the side, and it changes through the day, which makes a loft room feel open. For houses in England the rules set no minimum amount of daylight, so the number and size of windows is your choice. That freedom is useful, because it lets you size the openings to the room instead of to a formula.

Mixing roof windows with other rooflights

A loft conversion on a house with a rear extension often uses both: a roof window in the pitch and a flat rooflight or a roof lantern on the extension below. For flat sections, see flat roof rooflights. Where a conservation area applies, see conservation rooflights, and for dark landings with no roof access, sun tunnels. The broader roof windows page covers makes other than VELUX, and if you are weighing makes, see whether there is an alternative to VELUX.

Ready to start? Book the free survey, or return to the main skylights and rooflights page. You can also reach us on the contact page.