What is flashing and what purpose does it serve?

Roof windows are incredible ways to transform your home, turning dark and unused spaces into open rooms full of opportunity.

By letting natural light into your home, they not only unlock the potential of a room but also bring many health and wellbeing benefits, making you feel healthier and happier in your home.

Once you’ve decided on your roof window, there’s just one other thing you need to think about: the flashing.

At LB Supplies, we know that it can be confusing understanding what the flashing does and which one your window needs. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to window flashings and what purpose they serve.

What is flashing?

Flashings are an incredibly important part of your roof window that you cannot miss.

Installed between your window and your roof, flashing provides a completely watertight seal. This ensures that your windows are weatherproof and protected from the elements, no matter what the weather may throw at it.

Without properly fitted flashings, your windows can suffer from water leakage, which is often hidden in the roof cavity. Water leakage is often hard to spot until it’s too late and has already caused expensive damage to your roof and window.

As incredibly vital pieces of your roof window, flashings are available in a range of different models specific to your roof.

They are categories based on:

• Type of roof-¬†Flashings are dependent on what roofing material is used. The different types of roofing material include plain tiles, which sit flatly on your roof, roof tiles, which have an overlapping or curved shape, or slate, which is a grey, flat type of roofing.
• Roof pitch-¬†Roof pitch is the degree of your roof. ¬†Most flashings are multipurpose and will fit roofing between 15¬∞-90¬∞, while some can fit only certain pitches, such as 25¬∞-90¬∞.
• Installation height-¬†For Velux windows, the flashings are available in both standard and recessed heights. Standard flashings are used if you want to install the window in its usual space in the roof, where the window slightly stands out. In contrast, recessed flashings are installed 400mm deeper into your roof, creating an overall more streamlined and sleek appearance.

To make things simpler, Aurora flashings are designed to fit all roofing types up to 50mm thick on pitches between 15°-90°. Taking away the confusion of picking the right product for your roof, the Aurora flashings will create a weather-tight seal around the roof window, while its built-in guttering builds a mini drainage system allowing water to run off the roof safely and effectively.

Conclusion

Flashings are an incredibly important part of your roof windows that cannot be overlooked.

At LB Supplies, we stock a diverse range of flashings from leading UK manufacturers, ensuring that your roof window has only the best quality available.

Unsure of what the right flashing is to your roof window? Get in touch with our team today.