Do you install commercial rooflights?

The commercial roofs we are usually standing on

Most of it is light industrial and small commercial stock. Single-ply and built-up felt flat roofs on units built between the 1960s and the 1990s, the sort you find around Cowley, Botley and the Osney industrial edge. Profiled metal deck on later warehouse, trade counter and distribution buildings out towards Bicester, Witney and Thame. Slate and plain tile on older brick and stone buildings that are offices, surgeries or studios now, a fair number of them listed.

There is also a steady stream of buildings that are commercial in use but domestic in construction: a Victorian terrace turned into consulting rooms, a former chapel used as a workshop, a village pub with letting rooms above. The roof build-up decides the method and the price, not the business rates or the tenure. A rafter at 400mm centres behaves the same way whether the room below is a bedroom or a boardroom.

What we decline, and why we say so early

We do not re-cover a roof. If the single-ply membrane on your unit is at the end of its life, the sensible order of work is new covering first and rooflights as part of that project, with the covering contractor leading. Putting new glass into a covering that is about to be stripped wastes your money and puts our detailing at the mercy of somebody else’s programme.

We do not act as principal contractor on a multi-trade project, we do not price structural steelwork, and we do not carry out remedial roofing of any kind. Where a job needs those things, we are one package inside somebody else’s scheme, and we are happy to be. Being narrow is deliberate. It is why the workmanship carries a ten-year guarantee.

Where our package starts and stops on your roof

On a commercial job the boundary is worth writing down before anyone quotes. Ours normally begins at the point the deck is exposed and ends when the covering is dressed back and made watertight around the new unit. Inside that we take the opening, any trimming between purlins or rafters that the unit needs, the kerb or upstand, the unit itself, the flashing or membrane termination, and the seal to the vapour control layer where one exists.

Outside it sits everything that is not the rooflight: internal linings and plastering, decoration, sprinkler and lighting alterations, electrical supply to an actuator, scaffold design where a designed scaffold is called for, and any alteration to the roof covering beyond the perimeter we work in. We list those exclusions on the quotation rather than leaving them to be discovered.

Who is usually on the other end of the phone

Commercial enquiries reach us from four directions and each one needs something different. A building owner wants the number and the disruption. A managing agent wants documents, dates and a single point of contact. A tenant wants to know whether they are allowed to do it at all, which is a question for their lease before it is a question for us. A main contractor wants a price, a programme slot and a method statement that fits theirs.

If you are a tenant, check the alterations clause in your lease and the landlord’s consent process before you ask us to survey. Forming a new opening in a roof is almost always a landlord matter, and the consent takes longer than the installation. We would rather tell you that in the first call than three weeks later.

A commercial survey asks harder questions than a domestic one

On a house the survey settles the deck, the falls, the covering and the access. On a commercial building it settles those plus a set of things that do not exist on a semi. Is the existing rooflight fragile, and does anyone walk that roof. Where is the fall arrest anchorage, if there is any. What is directly below the opening, and can it be moved or covered. Is there plant, ductwork or a cable tray in the way inside. Is the roof still in warranty from the covering manufacturer, because cutting into it without the right method can end that warranty.

We also want to know how the building is used hour by hour. A warehouse that picks orders through the night and a solicitors’ office that empties at six are different jobs with the same roof. There is more on that in our page on working on an occupied commercial building.

Two figures, the same as any other job

You get a range by email once we know the building type, the roof covering, the number of units and roughly how they will be reached. You get a fixed price after the survey. On commercial work the gap between the two is often wider than on a house, because access and the state of the deck move the number more than the glass does. We would rather give you an honest range that turns out to be accurate than a tight one that moves after the survey.

Quantity works in your favour. Four identical units on one roof cost meaningfully less each than one unit on its own, because the access, the set-up and the travelling are shared. If you are considering a phased renewal across a large roof, say so at enquiry stage.

Documents a commercial client is right to ask for

Expect to ask for, and to receive, a method statement and risk assessment specific to your roof rather than a generic template, evidence of insurance cover for the works, product data sheets for the units being fitted, and a written statement of what is and is not included. If your building or your organisation requires a particular level or type of cover, tell us the figure you need to see and we will confirm in writing whether we meet it before you commit to anything.

That is a straight answer rather than a boast. Requirements vary a great deal between a small owner-occupied unit and a large managed estate, and the sensible thing is to check ours against yours in writing at the start.

Making the first enquiry useful

Four things let us give you a real range in one reply: what the roof covering is, roughly how high the eaves are, how many units you want and what is directly underneath them. A photograph from ground level and one from inside looking up is worth more than a long description. Call 01865 704245 or email info@heritageskylightsoxford.co.uk.

We install VELUX, Fakro, Keylite and Roto units, new installations and full replacements only, and we have been doing this for fifteen years. If your job needs something we do not do, we will say so on the first call rather than after the survey.