Roof Lantern Installation
Flat-roof glazing sized to the room and detailed into the kerb below it.
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South Essex
Rooflight installation in Hockley
Wooded suburb, plotland bungalows. What that means for getting glass into a roof here is the whole of this page.
We travel to Hockley
10-year guarantee
HockleyTown covered
South EssexWithin
30Mile radius by road
10Year workmanship guarantee
In Hockley
What we install on Hockley roofs
Flat Roof Rooflight Installation
Flush and kerb-mounted units into single-ply, felt and GRP flat roofs.
View this service →Roof Window Installation
Roof windows trimmed into slate, clay and concrete tile without proud flashing.
View this service →VELUX Window Installation
We install VELUX alongside Fakro, Keylite and Roto roof windows.
View this service →Electric and Opening Rooflights
Actuated opening units, rain sensors and controls, wired and commissioned.
View this service →Energy Efficient Rooflights
Specified on U-value and g-value, not on the brochure photograph.
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The local detail
15 things worth knowing about Hockley roofs
Hockley grew in a way that almost no other Essex town did. In the early twentieth century large parcels of farmland here were divided into narrow plots and sold cheaply to Londoners, who built on them a bit at a time, often themselves, often at weekends, along tracks that nobody had adopted. A century later the bungalows and chalets that came out of that process are still the backbone of the housing stock, and they behave differently from anything built to a single set of drawings.
Wrap that in ancient woodland, add unmade roads, mature trees with preservation orders and roofs that have been added to in three or four separate campaigns, and rooflight work in Hockley becomes a job where the survey does most of the thinking. This page sets out what a Hockley roof asks for and why.
- 01 Plotland building, and roofs that do not match any drawing
- 02 Roofs assembled in stages, and the joints between them
- 03 Hockley Woods, and the daylight the canopy takes
- 04 Tree preservation orders and root protection areas
- 05 Leaf fall on a roof that is already sheltered
- 06 Low pitches on the older bungalows, and what they permit
- 07 The one storey problem, and where the light has to come from
- 08 Sun tunnels through a shallow bungalow void
- 09 Chalet conversions and the rear slope behind the dormer
- 10 Unmade roads, and getting a lorry to the plot
- 11 What is on a Hockley roof
- 12 Flat rear additions, and the kerb they need
- 13 Condensation in a bungalow, and the two things it can be
- 14 What the survey looks at in Hockley
- 15 Getting a Hockley enquiry moving
Plotland building, and roofs that do not match any drawing
A self built bungalow from the nineteen twenties or thirties was framed by whoever was available with whatever timber was affordable. Rafter sizes vary within the same roof. Spacings are not the four hundred or six hundred centres a modern tape expects. Purlins turn up where the builder decided a span felt long rather than where a calculation put them, and some of them are supported off internal walls that have since been taken out.
None of that stops a rooflight going in. It does mean the opening is set out from what is genuinely there, found by lifting a few tiles and looking, rather than assumed from the outside. It also means the trimming design is settled on site, because a roof built by eye has to be opened by measurement.
Roofs assembled in stages, and the joints between them
Very few Hockley bungalows are still the building that was first put up. A back addition in the fifties, a side extension in the seventies, a conservatory converted into a room in the nineties: each campaign brought its own covering, its own pitch and its own eaves height.
The junctions between those campaigns are the sensitive places on the roof. A rooflight set close to an abutment, a valley or a change of pitch has less room for the flashing to run out properly, and a unit needs a clear margin of covering on all four sides for the detail to work. Six hundred millimetres of clean plane below the opening and three or four courses above it is the comfortable minimum, and where the geometry cannot offer that, moving the unit half a metre solves it for nothing.
A rooflight needs clear roof around it, and on a much extended bungalow that margin is the thing worth checking first.
Hockley Woods, and the daylight the canopy takes
The ancient woodland on the southern side of the town, and the sweet chestnut and oak that spread out from it into gardens, mean a lot of Hockley houses sit under a canopy for most of the year. The consequence for sizing is real and it is often underestimated.
The usual rule of thumb, glazing area of fifteen to twenty per cent of the floor area of the room below, assumes a clear view of the sky. Under a summer canopy the sky above the roof is delivering a fraction of the illuminance an open garden receives, and what does arrive has been filtered green by the leaves. The honest response is more glazed area, or a unit placed in the plane with the clearest sightline to the northern sky, or both. A well aimed smaller rooflight beats a large one pointed into the crown of an oak.
Tree preservation orders and root protection areas
A high proportion of the mature trees on Hockley plots are protected, either individually or through a blanket order covering an area. That does not affect the roof, but it very much affects how anybody gets to it.
Scaffold standards bearing on the ground inside a root protection area, or a delivery lorry tracking across one, is work the council takes an interest in. The usual answers are ground protection boards to spread the load, a repositioned tower, or an access route agreed in advance. Where a branch overhangs the working slope, pruning a protected tree needs consent in its own right. All of it is straightforward if it is identified at survey and awkward if it is discovered on the morning.
Leaf fall on a roof that is already sheltered
Wooded plots put a great deal of organic material onto a roof between September and December. A rooflight upstand is an obstruction, so leaves gather on its upslope side, hold moisture against the covering and encourage moss on the tiles around it. On a flat roof the same material migrates towards the outlets.
Sheltered roofs also dry slowly, because there is little sun and little wind to move air across them, so what lands tends to stay. The maintenance is trivial: a gloved hand around the kerb and along the gutter line each autumn. Choosing a position that is not a natural collecting point removes part of the problem permanently.
Low pitches on the older bungalows, and what they permit
Interwar bungalow roofs in this part of Essex are often shallow, and plenty of the plotland ones are shallower still. Pitch is the single fact that decides which units are even eligible for a slope.
Most roof windows are warranted from fifteen degrees. A few are rated from ten with a specific underlay and flashing detail, and below that no manufacturer will stand behind the weathering of a pitched unit, because at a shallow angle wind driven rain is being pushed up the flashing faster than gravity is taking water down it. A roof that measures eleven degrees is not an argument to be won. It is a fact that selects a different product, usually a kerb mounted flat rooflight set on a purpose built upstand.
The one storey problem, and where the light has to come from
In a bungalow every habitable room sits directly under the roof, which is the great advantage: there is no upstairs in the way, so any room can be lit from above. The counterweight is that a bungalow plan is usually wide and shallow with a corridor down the middle, and the middle is where the daylight never reaches.
That makes Hockley one of the more productive places for roof glazing. A hallway, an internal bathroom or a windowless utility can be given real daylight without touching an external wall. What decides the method is the depth of the roof void above the ceiling and whether anything is running through it.
Sun tunnels through a shallow bungalow void
Where a room has no roof edge to work with, a sun tunnel is the tool. A collector on the outer surface feeds a rigid, highly reflective duct that ends in a flush diffuser in the ceiling below.
On a bungalow the run is short, which is exactly what a tunnel wants, because every bend and every extra metre costs light. The complication is what else lives in that void: an old cold water tank, a bathroom extract duct, a purlin or a chimney breast. The route is confirmed with the loft open at survey, and a straight vertical drop of under two metres delivers noticeably more light than an angled one of three.
Chalet conversions and the rear slope behind the dormer
A great many Hockley bungalows have already had rooms put into the roof, usually with a dormer on one elevation. The dormer lights one half of the space. The other half sits under a full unbroken slope with no glazing at all.
A pair of roof windows in that slope is normally the whole solution, and the constraints are internal: the knee wall height, the collar, and where the sloping ceiling meets the flat. A unit set too high finishes above the collar and lights the void rather than the room. Where the roof space is used for sleeping, the size and opening clear area of a window in that room also have to satisfy the escape requirement, which is a dimensional test rather than a matter of opinion.
Unmade roads, and getting a lorry to the plot
Hockley and Hawkwell retain a number of unadopted lanes with no formal surface, no kerb and no turning head. That is a genuine access question rather than a footnote, because a scaffold lorry needs somewhere firm to stand and somewhere to turn round.
Where a lane cannot take the weight after a wet week, material is offloaded at the nearest adopted road and carried in, which costs time and appears in the figure honestly rather than as a surprise. Narrow frontages and deep plots have the same effect at the other end: boards and tube going down the side of a bungalow by hand rather than off the back of a vehicle.
What is on a Hockley roof
The covering chooses the flashing kit, and on a stock this varied it pays to look rather than guess.
| Covering | Typically found on | What the detail needs |
|---|---|---|
| Concrete interlocking tile | Post-war re-coverings and most extensions | Deep profile kit matched to the pan depth |
| Plain clay tile | Original interwar bungalows and the older cottages | Soaker kit dressed between courses, tiles re-laid in order |
| Clay pantile | Occasional older roofs and outbuildings | Low profile kit sized to the roll, generous side cover |
| Felt, GRP or EPDM | Flat rear additions and garages | Membrane dressed up a kerb, terminated under the unit |
Flat rear additions, and the kerb they need
The single storey flat roofed addition across the back of a bungalow is a Hockley standard, and it is the obvious place for glass. The unit sits on a kerb, an upstand built off the roof structure, with the covering dressed up the sides before the rooflight lands on top.
One hundred and fifty millimetres from the finished surface to the top of the kerb is the industry figure, and it is derived from the depth of water that can stand on a flat roof combined with the height that driven rain can be pushed up a vertical face. On a sheltered wooded plot with a good fall, some manufacturers warrant less. Cutting it so a unit sits lower for appearance is the decision that gets regretted.
Condensation in a bungalow, and the two things it can be
Bungalows concentrate moisture. Kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms all sit on one floor under one roof, and the warm damp air has nowhere to go but up.
Water on the room side of the glass is surface condensation. It is physics rather than a fault, it happens where warm moist air meets a cold surface, and it is managed with ventilation and with better glazing, since a warmer inner pane condenses less. Misting between the panes is a different thing entirely: the sealed unit has lost its seal and the desiccant is saturated, and that unit has reached the end of its life and wants replacing.
What the survey looks at in Hockley
On this stock the survey is doing more than measuring. It establishes what the roof is actually made of, because the plotland origin means nothing can be assumed from the age of the building. It measures the pitch rather than eyeing it. It finds the purlins and any internal support that has been removed. It checks the margin of clear covering around the proposed position. It confirms the void depth for a tunnel route, and it works out where a scaffold can stand without bearing on protected roots.
It also finds the things that change a design: a rafter that is not carrying what it looks like it is carrying, a valley closer to the opening than it appeared from the garden, or a ceiling that is a hundred millimetres from where the drawing put it.
Getting a Hockley enquiry moving
The Building Control notification is handled as part of the job. Sunspire gives a range by email once the roof plane, the covering and the room are known, then a fixed written figure after the survey has confirmed the structure and the access. Sunspire fits new rooflights and replaces units that have reached the end of their working life.
The surrounding towns are covered on the same terms, including Rayleigh and Rochford, and the full list sits on the areas we cover page. The roof is closed and watertight at the end of every working day, and the workmanship carries a ten year guarantee.
Also covered
Near Hockley
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We start with the building, the covering and the slope. Then we tell you what will suit it, and what it will cost, as a fixed written number.
- Surveyed before it is priced
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
- Building Control notification handled
- New installations and replacements