Flat glass skylights and rooflights

A flat glass rooflight puts a clean pane of sky into a flat roof. From inside, most show little or no frame, so the ceiling simply opens to daylight. We supply and fit them across Surbiton, Kingston, Surrey and London: over kitchens in new extensions, in the flat roofs of older ones, and above hallways and landings that have no daylight of their own.

Where a flat rooflight works best

• Rear extensions. Light from the garden doors fades a few metres into the room. A rooflight near the back of the extension lights the middle of the plan, which is where kitchens usually sit.
• Hallways and landings. A hallway in the middle of the house often has no outside wall. A rooflight above it, with a plastered shaft down to the ceiling, gives it daylight of its own.
• Flat-roofed rooms such as garden rooms, bathrooms and box dormers, where a wall window would not be enough.

Fixed, opening or walk-on

Fixed rooflights give the slimmest look and the best insulation. Hinged and electric opening rooflights let warm air out on hot days, and some open fully for roof access. Walk-on rooflights are made to take foot traffic on terraces. Double and triple glazed units are available, with coatings that cut solar heat and glare.

How we fit a flat rooflight

The rooflight is only as good as the detail around it, so most of the work is in the opening and the upstand.

1. We set out the opening to line up with the room below, then cut through the roof covering and deck and trim the joists.
2. A treated timber upstand is built around the opening. It lifts the glass above the roof and gives it a slight fall so rain runs off.
3. The roof covering is dressed up the upstand and sealed, so water is carried away from the glass.
4. The glass unit is bedded onto the upstand and fixed.
5. Inside, the reveals are lined, insulated and plastered, splayed where we want the light to spread wider.

You can see every stage on our hallway rooflight in Worcester Park.

Replacing old domes and skylights

Plastic domes cloud over and turn brittle with age. Most can be replaced with a flat glass rooflight over the same opening, as on our Richmond job, where two Perspex domes made way for two triple glazed rooflights.

The roof around the rooflight

Because we also lay EPDM rubber and GRP fibreglass flat roofs, we can renew the roof and fit the rooflight in one job, with the upstand and the roof covering finished together by one team. If you want more height and character than a flat pane gives, see our roof lanterns.