Why a skylight job plan comes first
A rooflight is a small job with a long list of things that can trip it up. The rafters may be closer together than the unit needs. The estate may have a planning condition that took away permitted development rights. The house may sit in a conservation area. The unit may take five weeks to arrive, and the scaffold may be booked for the wrong week.
None of these is hard to find out. They just need finding out before anything is ordered. The job plan is where we write the answers down, field by field, so you and we are working from the same page.
Unit
The first line names the product: the type, the manufacturer and the model. A centre-pivot roof window, a top-hung escape window, a fixed frameless flat rooflight, a two-metre roof lantern, a conservation rooflight with a central glazing bar. If there is a real choice between two products, the plan says which we recommend and why, in a sentence you can check.
Size
The size line gives the exact size code or the made-to-measure dimensions, and what decided them. On a pitched roof that is usually the rafter spacing and the line of sight from the floor. On a flat roof it is the kerb or upstand size and the joist layout. For a VELUX-type window, we give the code, where the letter is the width and the digits are the height, so you can compare it with any other quote.
If the opening needs a rafter trimmed or a new kerb built, the plan says so here rather than leaving it to the day.
Permission
This line records what we found about planning for your address. We check whether the house has permitted development rights, whether a planning condition on the original consent removed them, whether an Article 4 direction applies, whether the house is listed and whether it sits in a conservation area or a National Landscape such as the North Wessex Downs or the Cotswolds.
We write down what we checked and what it showed. If an application looks needed, the plan says so and explains the route. The council makes the decision; the plan makes sure you know the position before a unit is ordered. Our planning permission guide for rooflights explains the rules behind it.
Building Control
A new rooflight or roof window in an existing roof is building work, and replacing a whole unit is notifiable as a controlled fitting. This line says whether your job is notifiable, who will act as Building Control (the local authority or a registered building control approver) and what they will want to see: thermal performance, structure and, in a loft room, the fire escape position.
Where the work is notifiable, we handle the notification. Where only the sealed glass unit is being replaced, the plan says it is not notifiable and why. Our Building Regulations guide covers the detail.
Lead time
Standard roof windows in stock sizes can arrive within days. Made-to-measure flat rooflights, roof lanterns, conservation units and walk-on glass are built to order and take longer. The plan gives the manufacturer's lead time for your unit at the time of quoting, so the fitting date is set against a real delivery, not a hope.
If an application or a structural calculation has to come first, the plan shows that in the timeline too. The answer on skylight lead times gives a wider picture.
Fitting day
This line describes the day itself. When the scaffold or access goes up, what time the roof is opened, when it is closed again and what happens inside the house. For most roof windows and flat rooflights, the roof is open and closed on the same day. Larger lanterns and new openings with structural work may run over two days, and the plan says so in advance.
We agree the date when the unit is ordered and keep to it. If the weather forces a change, we tell you before the day, not on it.
Sign-off
The last line covers what you receive when the job is done. Where the work was notifiable, that is the Building Control completion paperwork. It also lists the manufacturer's product warranty registration and our 10-year workmanship guarantee, with the date it starts.
Keep the plan with your house documents. If you sell, a buyer's solicitor will ask about rooflight work, and the answers are on one sheet.
An example plan
The panel below shows how a plan reads for a typical roof window in a loft. The values are illustrative. Your own plan is written after we have surveyed your roof and checked your address, and it comes attached to the written quote, never as a price on its own.
How to get yours
Ask for a survey through our quote request page, by email or on WhatsApp. We visit, measure and check, then send the written quote with the plan attached. Both are free, and you are under no obligation to go ahead. If you want to read about the costs first, our guide to rooflight costs explains what moves the figure.