Can a conservation rooflight go in a peg-tile roof?

A peg tile roof is built from hundreds of small clay tiles, each hung from a batten and overlapped by the rows above. The surface is slightly uneven, the colours drift from tile to tile, and the rows run in strict lines up the slope. A rooflight cut into that has to follow the lines or it shows.

Large flat slates or big concrete tiles are forgiving, because one cut covers a wide patch. Small clay tiles are not. A frame that falls a few centimetres off the courses leaves rows of half tiles around it, and the eye finds them at once from the lane. So the size of the unit is chosen from the roof, not the other way round: we match the frame to a whole number of rows and the width between rafters.

The slope also matters. A rear or side slope that cannot be seen from the road is the easier home for a unit, and the front slope of an older house is where we are most careful about frame width and colour.

Old clay tiles break more readily than new ones. Each is held by a nib over the batten or by a peg, and weathered edges can chip when a tile is eased up. We lift them by hand, row by row, and stack them in order. Sound ones go back in the same place. Because a few will not survive, we look for spares that came off the same roof, from a hidden slope or a section the unit replaces, before anyone sources tiles from elsewhere.

New tiles beside old ones show as pale patches for years, so that source of spares matters. If the roof has none, we agree what to do before the work starts. Mortar on hips and ridges is left alone unless it is loose, so the line of the roof stays as it was.

The flashing keeps rain out at the edges of the opening. On a plain tile roof the sides are normally dressed with soakers, lead or metal pieces that interleave with the rows of tiles, and the top is covered by a gutter that carries water around the frame. Along the bottom, an apron laps over the tiles below.

A flashing kit made for large profiled tiles will not follow a peg tile roof, which is one reason a standard kit can look wrong on an older house. Some conservation and heritage-style units can take a flashing suited to plain tiles or a formed lead detail, and we check which for the unit chosen. We choose the arrangement for the tile type and the pitch of the slope. Slope, tile type and the age of the roof all change the detail, and flashings on Kent roofs goes through the variations.

Lead needs room to lie flat against the tiles, so the unit must not crowd the nearest hip or the edge of the slope. Where it would, we move it a course or two, or choose a narrower frame, and we confirm the position on the roof itself before anything is ordered.

Peg tile roofs are often found on older houses, and some of those are listed or stand in a conservation area. A listed house will almost always need listed building consent for a new roof opening, and where a council has made an Article 4 direction, an application may be needed even for a small unit. Our skylight planning permission guide sets out how to tell which applies.

At the free survey we photograph the slope, count the courses, measure the rafters and bring frame samples to hold against your own tiles. A fixed written quote follows, and we handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable. The main conservation rooflights section gives the wider picture, our page on what a conservation rooflight is covers the definition, and you can book the survey here.