Skylight Installation in Pinewood
- Fixed quote before we start
- Roof never left open overnight
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
- Fixed quote before we start
- 10 years workmanship guarantee
- 25 years fitting rooflights
- Skylights only, not a general roofer
You cannot tell a Pinewood roof from the pavement. The estates on the Belstead side went up across the 1960s, 70s and into the 80s, and that stretch of years happens to span the change from traditional cut-and-pitch roof construction to early prefabricated trusses. Two houses on the same road, looking near enough identical from the front, can have completely different structures over the bedrooms. One of them will take a generous opening. The other will not.
Pinewood is about 1.9 miles south-west of Ipswich centre as the crow flies, which is a quarter of an hour or so by road on a normal day. Close enough that we will come and look before quoting anything, which on this stock is not optional.
Ten seconds through the loft hatch settles it
This is the least glamorous part of any Pinewood survey and the most useful. Head up the ladder, torch on, and look at what is holding the roof up.
Purlins and cut rafters. Individual rafters running wall plate to ridge, with a horizontal purlin part way up carrying them, propped off a load-bearing wall below. Loose timber, cut on site, no metal nail plates. It can be trimmed. Cut a rafter, put a trimmer across, double up either side, and you can have a decent-sized opening or several. Conversions on this construction are straightforward and the unit sizes are generous.
Early fink trusses. A repeating triangular frame with diagonal webs across the middle, joined with punched metal plates. Engineered as a unit, designed as a closed shape, not trimmable. On these the rooflight sits between the trusses at whatever the centres allow and the width is capped.
Both are entirely workable for a pitched roof rooflight. They just give different answers on size, and quoting one when you have the other is how a job goes wrong. That is why we look before we price, and why the price we give afterwards is fixed.
Insulation topped up to 270mm changes two things
This stock was built with minimal loft insulation, usually 50 or 100mm of glass wool. Nearly all of it has since been topped up to 270mm or more under one scheme or another. Good for the heating bill. Two consequences catch people out when a rooflight goes in.
Finished floor level. In a conversion that insulation depth has to be dealt with rather than crushed. Between the joists is often only 100mm, so the rest sits proud across the top, and a floor built over squashed quilt destroys its performance. That eats head height, which on 1970s stock is frequently the tightest constraint in the project.
Cold bridging at the reveal. This is the one that produces complaints in January, and it is the more common of the two.
The reveal detail, done properly
A rooflight reveal is the boxed-out surround between the frame of the unit and the plasterboard of the room. It is a short run of construction, easy to rush, and it is where cold gets in around a perfectly good window.
Done badly, the insulation stops short behind the plasterboard and leaves a gap between the insulation line and the window frame. That gap is a cold bridge. Warm moist room air reaches a cold surface and you get a ribbon of condensation around the inside of the frame every cold morning, then black mould in the corners by February. The homeowner blames the window. The window is fine.
What we do instead:
- Insulation carried all the way up to the unit, packed into the void between the trimmed structure and the frame, with no void left at the junction.
- Plasterboard tight to the frame, so there is no gap behind the trim for air to circulate in.
- A splayed reveal. The head cut back horizontal, the sill dropped vertical. It throws far more daylight into the room than a square box, and the airflow across the glass keeps the surface warmer, which cuts condensation on the pane itself.
- A continuous vapour control layer lapped and sealed to the frame, so moist air is not getting into the construction in the first place.
Pair that with a unit that performs. Something around 1.2 W/m²K with a warm-edge spacer and a thermally broken frame, rather than the 2.8 of an older window, keeps the inner surface warm enough that condensation has nowhere to form. More on energy efficient skylight installation.
The stairwell window nobody can reach
Plenty of these houses have a rooflight set high in a landing or stairwell, and quite a few have one painted shut, jammed, or simply left closed for fifteen years because operating it means standing on the stairs with a pole.
That is the case for a motorised unit. A rain sensor closes it when the weather turns, a wall switch or app opens it from the landing, and the stack effect up a stairwell vents the house properly for the first time. Chain actuator on a smaller unit, rack on a larger one, and the wiring gets planned before the ceiling is made good. See electric skylight installation. For bedrooms and conversions we fit VELUX, Keylite and Roto, matched to the covering measured at survey.
On a cut roof the struts and purlins decide where the opening lands
When a Pinewood roof turns out to be traditional cut construction, the good news is that it can be trimmed. The catch is that a cut roof of this era is not a free canvas. The purlin part way up the slope is held up by struts, angled timbers that run down to a load-bearing wall or a binder in the middle of the loft, and those struts land in particular places. Put your wanted opening straight through a strut position and you are back to a structural conversation, because that strut is holding the purlin that is holding the rafters.
So the survey is not only about whether the roof is cut or trussed. On a cut roof it is about where the struts and the purlin actually sit, and whether the opening you have in mind fits between them or fights them. Often it fits with a small shift up or down the slope. Occasionally it needs the strut repositioned onto a new bearing, which is a designed job rather than a saw and an opinion. Either way you want to know before the ceiling comes down, not after.
The extension and the loft, often the same year
A recurring Pinewood project is both at once: a single-storey rear extension to open up the kitchen, and a loft conversion overhead to add a bedroom, done in one hit while the scaffold and the mess are already there. The two want different rooflight answers. Over the flat or low-pitch extension roof a flat roof rooflight on a proper kerb suits the shape and the span. In the loft, roof windows in the pitched slope do the work, sized as the structure allows. Where a steel goes in to carry the roof or the new opening below, it dictates the layout upstairs as much as down, so we like to see both drawings together. Planning the rooflight positions around the steel and the strut layout in one go is far cheaper than discovering the clash after first fix.
Getting a price in Pinewood
Survey first, including the loft. One fixed written price that does not move unless you change the specification. A 10-year workmanship guarantee, installed to current Building Regulations.
We cover the same south-west edge of Ipswich at Chantry, out to Copdock and up to Sproughton. Full list on areas we cover.
Request a fixed quote for a rooflight in Pinewood. If you can get a photograph up through the loft hatch showing the timber, we can usually tell you which construction you have before we arrive.
How do I know if my 1970s Pinewood roof is cut or trussed?
Look through the loft hatch with a torch. If you see individual rafters running to the ridge with a horizontal purlin part way up, propped off a wall below, and no metal plates anywhere, that is a traditional cut roof and it can be trimmed for a generous opening. If you see repeating triangular frames with diagonal timbers across the middle joined by punched metal plates, those are trusses and the rooflight has to fit between them. On this estate stock both turn up within a few doors of each other, which is why we check rather than assume from the build year.
We topped up the loft insulation and now we get condensation around the rooflight. Why?
Almost always a cold bridge at the reveal rather than a fault in the window. If the insulation stops short of the frame and leaves a void behind the plasterboard, that strip of reveal runs cold, warm room air condenses on it, and you get a wet ribbon around the inside of the frame on cold mornings, then mould in the corners. The fix is insulation carried right up to the frame, board tight against it, the vapour control layer sealed to the frame, and a splayed reveal. A modern unit at about 1.2 W/m²K rather than 2.8 keeps the surface warmer as well.
Is a splayed reveal worth the extra work?
Yes, on two counts. It throws considerably more daylight into the room than a square box for the same size of unit, because the opening widens as it comes down. And it improves air movement across the glass, which keeps the inner surface warmer and reduces condensation. On a north-facing slope, which a lot of rear elevations here are, both matter.
Can I put a large rooflight anywhere on my cut roof?
Not anywhere. A cut roof of this age has a purlin held up by struts that land on set bearings, and a big opening cannot run straight through a strut position without a designed alteration, because that strut is carrying the purlin and the rafters above it. Most of the time a modest shift up or down the slope clears it. Where it genuinely clashes, the strut can be moved onto a new bearing, but that is a structural job with a drawing behind it. We map the strut and purlin layout at survey so the opening is placed around them.
We are doing the kitchen extension and the loft together. Should the rooflights be planned as one job?
Yes, ideally from the same set of drawings. The extension usually wants a flat-roof rooflight or a lantern on a kerb, and the loft wants roof windows in the pitched slope, but any steel carrying the roof or the new opening below shapes where both can go. Planning the positions around the steel and the strut layout in one pass avoids the classic clash where a beam turns up exactly where the window was meant to be. It is much cheaper to resolve on paper than after first fix.
Does a converted loft here need extra ventilation as well as a rooflight?
It needs the ventilation thought through, and the rooflight is part of that. A converted room needs background ventilation to keep the air fresh and to control moisture, which is why we specify units with a trickle or night-vent position and, where the window is out of reach on a landing or stairwell, a motorised opener. On this stock, where the insulation has been topped up and the room sealed tighter than it was, that purge of air matters more than people expect. We set the ventilation strategy at survey alongside the reveal and the vapour control, so the room does not swap a cold problem for a stuffy one.
Thinking about this job? We survey across Ipswich, Suffolk and north Essex and give you a fixed price before any work starts, with a 10-year workmanship guarantee.