The short answer
Yes. Many conservation rooflights are made to open, most often on a side hinge or a top hinge with a traditional stay to hold them. Fixed units are also common, particularly over stairs and landings. Which suits you depends on the room, how high the glass sits and whether you need ventilation, a way out, or simply to reach the glass for cleaning.
The ways a flush unit can open
Looking from below, all of these appear as a slim metal frame. The difference is the hinge, and the hinge decides how the glass moves and how much of the opening you get.
| Type | Hinged at | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Top hung | The upper edge | Reaching up from a landing or loft |
| Side hung | One side edge | A wide, shallow opening |
| Fixed | Does not open | Stairs, bathrooms, hard-to-reach places |
| Electric opener | Motor on a hinge | High ceilings, out-of-reach roofs |
A top hung unit swings out from its lower edge, like a hatch, and is held at a chosen angle by a stay. A side hung one swings out from the side and is held by a friction stay or a simple bar. Both use a metal frame sized to the roof and finished in a dark colour to match slate or tile. The page on what colour a conservation rooflight should be explains how frames are finished.
The mechanism is usually a small, plain steel stay, because that is what a conservation officer expects to see on a historic roof. There is no bulky hardware, which is half the appeal.
Choosing between fixed and opening
An opening rooflight costs more than a fixed one, and it adds parts that have to keep working. That is a fair reason to think before choosing it.
Fixed glass suits places where you would never reach the handle or need the air: a stairwell, a dressing area, an internal bathroom with an extractor. Opening glass suits a room where people sleep, cook or work. It gives a way to clear stale air and heat without opening a window, and in a loft room under a slope it can make the difference between comfortable and stuffy in July.
Think about reach. A rooflight set at arm's length above a bed is easy to operate by hand. One two metres up a sloping ceiling needs a pole or a motor, and a motor needs a power supply to the roof. That is covered in whether a conservation rooflight can have an electric opener, and in the broader electric and opening rooflight installation service.
Flush units in a roof are sometimes small. A narrow opening may give little airflow even when fully open, so it is worth asking what the clear gap is, not only the frame size. For help sizing, see choosing a conservation rooflight size.
Opening, ventilation and the regulations
Ventilation is governed by Part F of the Building Regulations. A room needs background ventilation, and in some rooms extract fans or a larger "purge" opening as well. A rooflight that opens can contribute to that.
Our job is to tell you what the room needs and to specify an opening unit that supplies it, where an opening unit is chosen at all. We install to current Building Regulations, and handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable.
A loft room is different again. If the room is a bedroom on an upper floor, Part B on fire safety may require an opening that a person can climb through, and the size and height of that opening are set out in the regulations. A conservation rooflight with a stay does not automatically qualify. Some can, with the right hinge and size, but the check belongs to the design stage and should not be left to chance. We cover the question separately under whether a conservation rooflight can be used as a fire escape.
Planning is worth a thought too. If a listed building consent or planning permission is involved, the opening type belongs on the drawings the council sees. A rooflight shown closed and then fitted with a bulky opener could fall short of what was agreed.
Staying quiet when the glass opens
Any hinge is a place where a rooflight can rattle, and any opening frame has a seal that must close tightly to keep the weather and the sound out.
A well-made opening conservation unit closes onto a compression gasket all the way round, and the stay holds the glass steady in a breeze. Seals age, and that is something we specify and write down rather than leave to the factory default. Because the frame is slim, the glass does most of the acoustic work: a laminated inner pane calms rain and dulls what comes down from the sky. See quieter glazing for conservation rooflights for the glass itself.
Those choices go into your quiet spec, so the hinge, seal and glazing are matched to the room. Flat glass and opening units near Gatwick approaches and the M23 corridor, for instance, call for more care at the seal than a rooflight on a quiet lane.
Short questions about opening conservation units
Can a conservation rooflight open fully, like a door?
No. It opens to an angle held by a stay, which gives a gap for air or a hand, but not a doorway. Larger hatches to a roof terrace are a different product.
Do opening units look different from outside?
Closed, they look almost the same as a fixed unit. The hinge and the slightly deeper frame are the only clues, and they sit below the roof plane.
Can I add a blind to an opening rooflight?
Yes, with a blind that works around the hinge and stay. Our page on fitting a blind to a conservation rooflight explains the options.
Does opening ever let condensation out?
Airing the room helps a little, but the real fix is glazing and ventilation. Do conservation rooflights get condensation goes into it.
If you want to know which opening suits your room, get a quote. The whole range is on our conservation rooflight installation page.