What is a conservation rooflight ?

If you know that you need conservation rooflights for your project , the chances are that you have searched online and found plenty of choice . But what is a conservation rooflight and are they all the same ?

To better understand what makes a rooflight a conservation style , it is important to understand the history behind this type of glazing and why the design is so sought after , not just on period properties but also more modern projects .

Without the ingenious concept of a rooflight the vision of transforming unconventional space into a well-lit property

would be a daunting task , and in some cases an impossible option . For that reason , the conservation rooflight could be considered a highly influential building feature , which has given the construction industry a solution to introducing natural light into a property . Although rooflights , or skylights as they are sometimes known as , have been around for centuries they became more prominent during the Victorian era as technology and building aspirations were stretched and roof glazing boomed . One of the most famous Victorian building projects was the Crystal Palace , which in 1851 used glazing on an unprecedented scale to showcase just what could be achieved .

Mass-produced Victorian rooflights for residential use tended to be made from cast iron and the earliest examples would have smaller , lighter panes of glass . This was partially down to limits of glass technology at the time but also because of excise duties , which were imposed on glass by weight in the mid-18th century . These slim , single glazed rooflights with multiple panels of glass were unobtrusive in design and sat flush in the roof . Today

it is this minimalist appearance that many people are seeking to achieve in their glazing designs .

As a result of their popularity , there are lots of conservation roof windows on the market , which can make choosing the right one virtually impossible unless one can identify what the differentiations are . An effective way to make this distinction is to look closer at the attributes of a true replica of a Victorian conservation rooflight .