Optilight (skylight - Roof Window) 55x78 Incl Flashing

4.84.8 out of 5 stars

8 product ratings

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6 reviews

by msjgt14 Jun, 2017

Optilight 55x78

Bought 2 of these recently to fit in a small single storey 'lean-to' style extension to the rear of the house. The quality, though perhaps not quite Velux standard, seems adequate although it's too early to tell how it will stand the test of time.
The finish to the wood is nice and smooth with neat, sturdy corner joints and the flashing kit (mine for ribbed tiled roof) fits snugly. We have had heavy showers since I fitted a week or so ago and all seals and run offs etc seem to be fine.
Overall this is a good quality budget choice that does the job with no frills. Now they're in they look great despite being quite cheap. A few bits of advice to anyone fitting the window themselves as I did;

- The fitting instructions need careful study before you start trying to measure, cut and fit, and keep them handy throughout! They are entirely pictorial and graphic and I had to ponder the meaning of some of the somewhat cryptic illustrations before it dawned on me what they were instructing me to do! They DO make sense and I'm sure if you've fitted these types of windows before they're fairly generic from one manufacturer to another. But if you're having a go for the first time,- take care and always double check what you're doing!

-The flashing kit comes in lots of bits and although there are drawings of each in the instructions, the drawings aren't always that representative so it's tricky to fathom which bit is which. Again; lay them out, get it all straight in your head first and take your time.

-Get someone to help if you can when you're putting the window into the frame at the end, because you have to turn it back on itself to swivel it into place. Remember this is a heavy item (even the small 55x78) so taking the weight whilst manoeuvring it into place and clicking pins on each side whilst balancing on a roof is awkward to say the least. Fit it from inside if that's an option.

-Very important to leave the gap it says between the top of the tiles that fit directly below the frame and the frame itself. Get this gap too small and depending on the pitch of your roof you might find the flashing below the window tries to take the rain up hill!

- Finally, and quite important this one, if you're fitting more than one window alongside each other as I did, before you cut any rafters do some detailed and careful calculations for how far apart you're going to place the frames. There is some tolerance for how near to the sides of the frames the tiles come to, but not much, and what you don't want is to end up needing to cut 1/2 width tiles or even less to fill the width up to the sides of the windows. Ideally you want whole tiles here so if possible fit a framework of trimmers and part rafters into the roof structure knowing exactly where both (or all if you're fitting more than 2) windows are to be placed and that the distance apart will work when re-tiling afterwards. Pay LOTS of attention to this as I ended up needing to re-tile the whole extension roof and still because of the distance apart I've fitted the windows, the tiles down one side of one window stand a little prouder than they should because they don't quite fit into the flashing grooves.

I'm not a roofer so apologies for the incorrect jargon and any mistakes I've made or ignorance in my description! I'm just a keen DIY'er who likes to have a go and hopefully my experience might help someone out.Read full review