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mini dormer or prefab dormer window

5242 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  GBrackins
Hey all,

My son's room has a square footprint of about 13x13 feet, but it's under the slant of the roof, so one wall is more like a 45 degree ceiling going from the main ceiling down to a little knee-wall that's about 2.5 feet high. The room has just one window on a far wall and is pretty dark.

My goal is to bring light into this room, and allow him to see out into the front yard and cul-de-sac where the kids play.

I've investigated putting in a large dormer in the slated ceiling - large enough to fit a king bed inside with a double window in the end, and tall enough to easily stand in. However - that's a pretty massive and costly project. I'm a DIYer - but that gets into complicated stuff so I'd probably need to hire several sub contractors (framing, roofing, window, etc.)

So I was wondering if there is an easier, simpler solution - maybe even something prefab.

The easiest solution would be skylights. However, from the outside, they have sort of a 70s look and I don't think they'd look right on my house. Also, rain hitting them might be really annoying to my sleeping son.

Is there a prefab, or something simpler that's like a mini-dormer? Perhaps something with a 18 inch normal window in the end and the whole box built already? Something where I could generally just cut a hole in my roof and install it? If it were smaller like this, I'd probably install two.

I'm thinking that something like this (just as with skylights), I wouldn't have to support it from inside the room - the existing roof joists could support the weight.
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No such thing that I've ever head of.
Main reason there not avalible is because every one would have to be custom made for the differant pitchs of the roof and differant rafter spacing.
Plus you would need a crain to get it up on the roof.
Any dormer would have to have to have more suppot built into the roof to keep the roof from sagging. Most likly an added rafters on each side and double up headers top and bottom.
Not sure where your getting the sky lights are so 70's looking. There installed all the time to new and old houses.
Yeah, I hear what you are saying about the roof pitch - it would have to be custom. Still, maybe somebody makes them and you tell them the pitch.

With a skylight, I believe you don't need added support from below - I think they are probably close to equal to the weight of the section of roof being removed. I'm grasping at straws here because I know it's complicated. I just envisioned being able to cut a hole in the roof at a certain size, then mount the dormer on/in it. I'm not thinking it would be huge, perhaps the size of a large cooler cut at an angle or something. Or, like a 60 gallon drum cut diagonally.
check out Velux, I've had great results with them http://www.veluxusa.com/
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