The short answer
Yes. A walk-on rooflight is made for foot traffic: a thick laminated glass build-up, a frame strong enough to carry it, and a supporting structure designed for a stated load. An ordinary skylight is built to keep weather out and carry its own weight, so it must never be stepped on. Walkable glass is a separate product, specified for the surface it will sit in and the use that surface gets.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
What makes one walkable
The glass is the first difference. It is laminated from several sheets bonded together, so if one layer cracks the rest hold the unit in place. The top face usually carries a pattern or a fired finish for grip, which also softens the light that passes through.
The frame and bearings differ too. The frame has to take the weight of the glass and the people on it, then pass the load to whatever supports it. A flat rooflight on a thin kerb cannot do that.
Then there is the structure around the opening. A roof, floor or slab that was designed with no hole in it needs trimmers or a beam to carry the load around the glass. That is why a walkable unit is quoted as glass plus structure, not as a pane. How thick the glass ends up is covered in the thickness of walk-on glass, and the reasoning behind loads is in walk-on glass loads and structure.
| Feature | Walk-on rooflight | Standard rooflight |
|---|---|---|
| Glass | Laminated, several bonded layers, grip finish | Sealed double glazing for weather and its own weight |
| Frame | Heavy section made to carry a stated load | Light section for a closed roof |
| Beneath the opening | Structure designed for the glass and the people on it | Trimmed opening for a window that is not walked on |
| Use | Stood and walked on | Looked through only |
Where walkable glass goes in a house
The side-return roof is a good example. When a kitchen has been extended into the passage beside the house, the flat roof over it can be the route for anyone who cleans the upstairs windows or reaches the gutter. A walkable unit lets that route stay open while a strip of daylight reaches the kitchen below.
A landing floor is another. A glass panel in a first-floor landing sends daylight down a stairwell that has no window of its own, and you walk across it without thinking about it. A garden room with a raised deck can have a pane set into the boards to light a storage space underneath.
Paved patios over a lower room use the same idea, and so do balconies and terraces over a ground-floor extension. A roof-top service path suits a long, narrow strip of glass that doubles as the step between two parts of the roof. For cellars, lightwells and basement rooms, see the section on walk-on rooflights, which covers those in more depth.
What to settle before ordering
Say what will happen on the glass. Bare feet on a landing, a family on a terrace, a table and chairs on a patio and a ladder foot on a flat roof are four different loads, and the load sets the build-up.
Say which way the surface faces and what shades it, since a north-facing patio or a terrace beside a high wall changes how much daylight reaches the room below. Say what is underneath. We check the joists, beam or slab at survey, because the supporting structure is as much of the job as the glass. Any strengthening is priced as a separate item.
A new opening in a roof or floor is building work, and we handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable. A roof used as a terrace can raise a separate planning question from the rooflight itself. Our skylight planning guide sets out the rules, and walk-on rooflights and Building Regulations takes the structure and safety side. We check the position for your address at the survey.
Do not test it yourself
If you have a standard rooflight in a flat roof, do not step onto it to see whether it holds. Ask for a survey first.
Getting a walkable unit priced
Size, load, frame finish and the work on the structure all move the figure. A narrow strip over a utility and a wide panel over a landing are different jobs, and a unit that must be craned over a house is different again, and the walk-on rooflight cost guide takes them in turn. Booking the free survey comes first, then a fixed written quote. To start, send us the room and the surface you have in mind.
