Rooflights and skylights can add a great deal of value to your home. However, they are not just a consideration for a home that you want to stay in. They’re also a consideration for when you’re trying to sell your home. There are many things that potential buyers will be looking for in a home. Among them are a space where they feel comfortable, a place that they feel they can make their own and a space that can grow with them. A flat roof skylight can help you achieve all these needs and so much more.
When you are selling your home, first impressions count. Potential buyers may visit several houses and those that stick in their minds are the ones that stood out from the moment they walked through the door. It is important to make sure that your home stands out for the right reasons. One way to achieve this is to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere using a rooflight or roof window. Light, warmth, and air remain three key elements in creating a positive first impression. Potential buyers walking into a dark space with little airflow are unlikely to form a good first impression.
It can be difficult to show a house at its best under artificial light and keeping all your windows open isn’t always practical. However, the addition of a fixed skylight can add much-needed light. Carefully positioned to spread the light through as much of the house as possible it can make the space seem bigger and airier, even without a source of fresh air.
Seven ways a skylight can add value to your home
Increased natural light
A skylight installation will increase the natural light in your room by creating an opening in the roof that allows natural light in throughout the day. This will provide your room with better overall light coverage, allowing natural light to reach all corners of the room.
Skylights can be installed in almost any room of the house, and can be made to fit the full length of your room if required, providing your room with the maximum amount of directional natural light. We recommend finding the area of your house that receives the most sunlight throughout the day for the optimal skylight installation.
Better design
Skylights are available in a huge range of designs and sizes, and provide your room with a distinct feel that cannot be achieved with regular windows. Plus, the addition of light openings can improve the perceived size of your room tremendously – a guaranteed positive for potential buyers.
Increased insulation
Rooflights have increased thermal efficiency when compared to most standard windows thanks to argon gas which is used to fill the void between window panes. Because argon gas is non-reactive, with a thermal conductivity rating of around 30% less than air, this prevents heat from being transferred through the window and escaping to the outside.
Reduce your energy bills
Owing to the increased insulation provided by rooflights, you will naturally enjoy a reduction in your overall energy bills over the lifetime of your product. Rooflights will help efficiently heat your room when in contact with direct sunlight, and also retain heat for longer periods when compared with regular windows.
Read our blog ‘Are Rooflights Energy Efficient?’.
Increased privacy
Rooflights are also a great means of improving the privacy of your room, particularly on new build properties, as they can be implemented in lieu of regular vertical windows. This means that pedestrians and passers-by cannot see into your property unless they are directly above it.
Improved ventilation
We stock a range of opening rooflights, providing quick ventilation to your room for temperature control and emergency venting.
Improve the longevity of your home
As well as feeling comfortable when they first walk through the door, most buyers will be considering whether the house is suitable over the longer term. They may walk through envisaging what changes they could make to ensure the house makes sound financial sense in the coming years. By adding a fixed glass skylight, you can show them one of many ways that they can make use of the space now and in the future. They may see other ways that light and air can be added to other spaces in the home, how they can open up new areas, or extend the building with further rooflights. If you have a flat roof, but little outside space, adding a fixed skylight for a flat roof could open a world of possibilities of how the roof space could be used. Planting small ideas like this can help potential buyers overlook other shortcomings in the home.
Health benefits
There are also a number of health benefits associated with increasing the light levels within your room or property, as covered in our blog ‘Benefits of Natural Light in the Workplace’. We have also provided a short list of these benefits below, as they may be a factor that influences the price of your home:
Increased serotonin
Exposure to sunlight causes the brain to release more serotonin, which is a hormone associated with increasing happiness, productivity, and alertness. Conversely, less exposure to sunlight can cause the brain to release increased levels of melatonin, a hormone that is responsible for helping you sleep. In increased levels during waking hours, this hormone can have a detrimental effect on your mental wellbeing.
Increasing the natural light levels in your room can aid in the production of serotonin.
Increased bone strength
Exposure to sunlight and ultraviolet radiation can aid the body in creating vitamin D. Vitamin D can play a large role in the development of healthy bones, according to a 2008 study available on PubMed.
Adding a rooflight to an extension
Extending an existing property upwards and outwards is often an ideal way of giving a growing family more space while improving the value of the home for any future sale. Whether building an extension or opening a loft space, flat roof skylights are essential to turning an uninhabitable space into a pleasant, habitable one.
If you have already spent a significant amount on extending your home, you will want the most affordable option in terms of glazing. For a flat roofed extension, this often translates into having a fixed glass skylight installed. This has all the benefits of opening the extension to natural daylight at a relatively affordable price. Additionally, the unit can be fitted with double or triple glazing, which helps maximise thermal efficiency. In other words, heat is captured from the sun and transmitted into the room below, but the flat skylight glazing prevents the heat emitted by your heating system from escaping outwards.
Glass flat roof skylights can also come with a range of other features to make your new extension both more energy efficient and welcoming. Self-cleaning glass can be installed, which ensures all the available sunlight enters the room; but special specification glass filters out the sun’s harmful UV rays.
Reap the rewards of rooflights with Toughened Glass Systems
Whether you are looking to make the right impression to sell your home or are looking to improve its value for the longer term, a skylight can help. However, it is important that the skylight is fit for purpose and made with safety and security in mind. At Toughened Glass Systems, we have the experience and expertise needed to ensure you have the right window for your needs every time. If you have any specific questions, then call the team on 020 3633 3224 – we will be happy to help.
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