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Flat Rooflight Buying Guide

Royal College Surgeons How to Guide

What types of flat rooflight are there?

There are many different flat rooflight styles, and if you’re thinking about installing a flat rooflight, you can find one that suits both the size of room or plans for your project. Types of rooflights for flat roofs include fixed flat rooflights and flat roof opening windows,  and flat roof lanterns. Bespoke flat rooflights offer even more scope and flexibility, bringing character and originality to your property. Whether you’re simply looking to enhance the natural light in your home, or are looking to create an architectural focal point, flat rooflights can be the way to go.

Flat roof window styles

The traditional style for a flat rooflight consists of a rectangle or square shape, installed within a flat roof to dramatically enhance the amount of natural light in a room. More bespoke rooflight options can offer different sizes and unique designs, depending on your vision. Flat roof lanterns and pyramid rooflights create a sense of openness, elevating the living space with a 3D structure that protrudes from the roofline. Our neo Advance Skywalk flat rooflight with protective glass means you can completely transform a roof terrace, adding wow-factor for a  truly original space.

Neo Advance®

The Neo Advance® is a modern, slimline flat rooflight, offering the latest in thermal performance and minimalistic style. The frameless flat rooflight is available as a fixed flat rooflight or with an opening mechanism, offering uninterrupted views while letting natural light fill your living space. Suitable for those looking for a stylish feature that will blend in seamlessly with their home, the Neo Advance® is designed for easy installation and maximum performance, with the best energy efficiency on the market. With Thermoliner® detail to manage condensation and mould, the sturdy aluminium frame is subtly designed for an elegant finish.

Neo Advance Skywalk®

The Rooflight Company’s durable aluminium framed walk-on rooflight is made using triple-ply laminate glass. Complete with anti-slip coating and a frameless interior, offering an uninterrupted view of the sky, while offering a bespoke focal feature for your roof terrace or roof structure.

The Conservation Plateau Rooflight

For those looking for a more traditional aesthetic, the conservation rooflight for flat roofs is curated from the original creators of the first conservation rooflight. The design is optimised for heritage buildings, with teams working closely with conservation officers to ensure our designs are as sympathetic to the original design as possible. For listed homes or homes in conservation areas, our plateau rooflight enables you to enjoy 21st-century technology built within the traditional design, offering period charm and maximum performance while meeting planning requirements.

The Conservation Pyramid Rooflight

The Conservation Pyramid rooflight offers additional scope and an architectural feature to your home, with a more traditional design suitable for older or commercial buildings. Popular with entranceways, hallways and communal areas, pyramid rooflights can make a permanent focal feature in the home, with a number of standard sizes to choose from.

The Conservation Lantern Rooflight

Ideal for larger, communal spaces, the Conservation lantern rooflight can not only add light to your home but truly make a space feel bigger. With a design that protrudes out from the roofline, lantern rooflights are a popular choice in Victorian properties and older properties looking to emulate the architectural style of the period, which features a more prominent, structured design as opposed to sleek and seamless integration. A popular choice for flat roof extensions, roof lanterns work wonderfully well in kitchens and living rooms to increase the natural light and bring the outside into everyday living.

Bespoke flat rooflights

Our bespoke flat rooflights can be made to order, with our design team working closely with you to envision your ideas and bring them to life. See your vision come to reality with our bespoke rooflight service, giving you the freedom to craft a stunning feature completely suited to your individual needs. Our service includes bespoke colours and unusual designs for a unique project where standard sizes aren’t suitable, while still incorporating the latest in technology and quality materials. Curate a stunning, completely unique rooflight for your project, with hand-crafted finishing touches and complete the finishing touch to your project with The Rooflight Co.

Made to measure rooflights

Made to measure rooflights is a service to cater for homeowners who are looking for a standard style and design of flat rooflight, whose project may involve unusual measurements that aren’t available in our standard size range. Made to measure ensures you can find a high-quality roof light to the exact size you require, with the design of our standard products, customised to fit the specification and size you need.

Alternative Design walk on rooflight
Flat roof buying guide. Flat rooflights at Castle Drogo
Exterior_St Georges_courtyard
Bespoke Conservation Plateau Rooflight
The Conservation Plateau Rooflight for the Royal College of Surgeons

How to choose the right flat rooflight for your home

You’ll need to consider the orientation of your roof windows and the direction of sunlight into the room when planning a flat rooflight installation; this could be in a loft conversion or flat roof extension, or you could be installing a rooflight into the existing roof. This will likely involve more maintenance as you’ll need to consider any structural concerns, such as supporting beams and electrics, but can be an option.

Depending on the direction of sunlight and how much natural light enters your home, the rooflight will benefit your room in different ways. Larger rooflights will give more light, but you’ll need to be careful of too much sunlight heating a room in the summer months if you get direct sunlight all day.

Flat rooflights in north-facing rooms will generally provide indirect sunlight all day. This means that a larger rooflight, flat roof lantern, or a run of rooflights could benefit the space to maximise natural light throughout the day.

East-facing rooms and homes will benefit from the morning light, where a rooflight would work brilliantly in a family space such as the kitchen. The household can benefit from the morning’s rays and avoid too much heat in the middle of the day.

South-facing rooms benefit from light all day, with bright midday sun in particular. Rooflights in south-facing homes are excellent for bringing in light and warmth, so you may wish to consider a smaller rooflight for such a space. Darker rooms with less access to natural light from other sources would benefit from a rooflight in a south-facing room.

West-facing rooms get the most light in the early evening. With long shadows into the evening, flat rooflights in west-facing rooms can help to maximise the amount of natural light as long as possible.

How do you want your flat rooflight to open?

Depending on the size and style of the rooflight, and your own personal preference, you may prefer a flat rooflight that opens. Opening flat roof windows allow more ventilation and fresh air into a property and can be a good idea for south-facing rooms that have bright sunlight at midday. Allowing a cool breeze to enter your home and improve airflow, opening flat rooflights can usually open in different ways.

Manually opening rooflight design will include a manual hand winder, as opposed to higher, inaccessible flat rooflights that may require a motorised opening mechanism, usually controlled by remote control or a switch. This feature offers complete flexibility and an impressive feature that’s incredibly easy to use, with no fuss or manual opening required.

Sizing options for your flat rooflight

Naturally, the larger the rooflight you install, the more natural light you’ll benefit from. But it is worth making sure that you have considered the positioning of the rooflight and the direction of the sunlight. Building regulations for skylights consider the amount of heat that can pass through or be lost through a door or window. This is measured as a U-Value, and the maximum U-Value allowed for a property is stipulated in Part L of the Building Regulations Approval Approved Documents. All of our rooflights offer U-Values in line with modern building regulations, that help to retain heat in the winter and keep the heat out in the summer.

Our range of flat rooflights and conservation rooflights for flat roofs come in a number of standard sizes. Our bespoke rooflight option offers scope for a one-off, unusual size or design, and our made-to-measure service means we can build a flat roof window with unusual measurements, should you require this.

Glazing options for your flat rooflight

Flat roof window glazing options include double glazing, triple ply laminate glass, as well as conservation style windows that are sensitive heritage requirements without compromising on thermal performance.

Our range of rooflights come as standard with high-performance glazing for maximum insulation and quality finish, with any extra features available upon request.  With bespoke glazing options including clouded glass for privacy and BioClean glass for self-cleaning roof windows with minimal maintenance, you can ensure your rooflight design is suited to your room and your needs.

Operating accessories for your flat rooflight

There may be additional features and operating accessories that you may need for your rooflight, such as ironmongery, extension poles or concealed motors. Wall-mounted switches are provided for rooflights with a  motorised blind feature.

Flashing kits for your flat rooflight

The kerb that the flat rooflight sits upon is made weatherproof using the roof material. Flat roof window flashing makes it possible to install windows on flat roofs while preventing water damage to the roof and property. The rooflight then sits on the weatherproofed kerb, which also features a silicone bead applied just before the rooflight is gently lowered into place. This silicone sealant helps prevent any leaks from entering the property, as even though the rooflight is designed to fit snugly in the frame, there will still be a joint between the fixtures.

Walk on flat rooflights: What you need to know

If you’re considering installing a walk-on rooflight, make sure you do your research to find a supplier that offers this option. Walk-on rooflights will need specially reinforced glass and additional protected coating to help withstand additional weight safely, while also being finished to a high quality for maximum sunlight all year round.

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Register Your Product

Our standard terms and conditions of sale provide a warranty of 12 months from date of delivery. We recommend you register your products within this timeframe to extend your warranty, where applicable.

If you have more than one rooflight from The Rooflight Co, please enter all serial numbers below:
?
Serial number label found either:-
  • On the back of the O&M booklet supplied with the rooflight.
  • There is a sticker within the channel of the underside of the casement, visible when the casement is open OR Open the rooflight and the sticker will be located in an area that can't be seen when the rooflight is closed.
  • There is a sticker within the thermoliner channel (Channel on the baseplate), visible when the casement is open OR Open the rooflight and the sticker will be located in an area that can't be seen when the rooflight is closed.