velux installation: from within or without?

John Richer wrote on Tuesday (02/03/2004) :

I put one of the basic ones into our loft about ten years ago, the type which simply opens and rotates almost 180 degrees. Our roof is of the flat red tile type and the inside was just the bare roof struts, post war semi. I managed quite well from the inside.

I picked the day carefully (weather) and had it completed easily in the day. It proved to be much easier than I had anticipated.

Was there already some sort of window in the roof that you were replacing? It's one thing to work on an existing aperture quite another to break through from inside without causing too much damage.

Assemble the parts on the ground whichever method you decide on and thoroughly familiarise yourself with the steps that need to be taken. Get a stock of similar tiles ready for cutting down to size too. If you are working inside, that is going to be a PITA.

Rather than using half tiles, try and get extra large (tile and a half) as cutting one of those to a tile and a quarter is better than cutting a standard tile in half.

In message , John Richer writes

From a builders point of view; the chance of having a slate slide out of reach during the job and go through, your windscreen/ child/ flatroof/ neighbour/ you; makes a scaffold essential.

There was no opening to start with. I simply unhooked the tiles one at a time from the battons from the inside, and withdrew them in the loft until I had room to reach out to remove them. Once I had removed enough tiles, I bolted an horizontal temporary batten across the rafters where they needed to be cut, cut them then fixed a permanent batten in place top and bottom.

I then bolted the Velux frame in place, did the flashing, then put tiles back to meet up with the window. Some tiles had to be cut down to the correct size, which I did with a grinderette.

Its quite straightforward, make sure that you have a means of cutting the slates/tiles. A small angle is useful. I have put them in from the inside a few times.No problem. I suppose that the scaffolding comes down to health and safety.

Angle should read anglegrinder.

Perfectly easy from the inside - I've done dozens. You might just need access to retrieve slipped tiles or tools but you can usually do this by passing a roof crawl ladder or board out through the hole.

cheers jacob

In article , John Richer writes

It can be done well enough from inside. Making good on the slating and pointing can be done soon after as you'll have a big hole in your roof with glass in it which the installers can pop their heads out of to carry out the repairs.

In article , mark writes

A very good point!