Do you leave loftroom Velux open at night in your mid-terrace home?

[Teapleasemilknosugar]

Just that really.

If you have a loft conversion with Velux windows in your mid-terrace home - do you leave the Velux open at night?

Would it make a difference to your answer depending on who occupies the room or the room's purpose?

No, in case Batman got in

Not once I discovered how many large spiders live on my roof tiles! Between them and moths we now close the window once dark!

Thanks for the sarcasm.

Yes. Is this you DH? 😂

So I'm not the only one that ponders keeping open or shutting the Velux!

My DH does if he sleeps up there. He likes the feel of air on his face. I’m too scared of creepie crawlies on my face. If I ever sleep up there, I keep it closed.

edited to add we’re in a mid-terrace

Only if it’s occupied so you wake up if it’s raining as your room will get soaked if the velux is left open

I do if it's hot.

I worry about crows getting in so always close it.

I have velux windows on my 2nd floor. I leave them open for days at a time, even when I'm out. I also leave my 2nd floor normal windows open overnight, although close then when I'm out.

@Sansan18 time for me to go to sleep I think. I read that as cows 🐄 😂

Yes we leave ours open. It gets so hot up there!

I'm a detached bungalow so a little different. Our main bedroom and ensuite is in the loft, so we tend to keep the veluxs in both rooms open otherwise it's like a sauna up there in warm weather. I've never worried about anyone getting in, it's more the pigeons who like to walk about on the roof, thankfully it's only ever happened once and it got back out before I got home, but it did leave it's calling card over the duvet!

We don't have a loft conversion but the ceiling of the back bedroom is the height of the (mid-terrace, Victorian) roof and has a velux window. When it's hot, we open it at dusk and close it first thing in the morning, and do the same with the sash windows (with bolt limiters) on the two external walls.

Intrigued as to why it matters it is a mid terrace?

We have a Velux in our spare room on top floor. It gets closed at night in case it rains. I’d advise a guest sleeping in there to open it until bed time but close it overnight unless very hot and guaranteed not to rain.

From a safety POV
From an opportunistic burglary POV.
From birds on the roof getting in POV.
From an insurance POV - does it invalidate insurance if Velux are open?!

Velux windows open very wide, and even if open only a crack they can be pulled wide to climb in easily.

You ask why mid-terrace specifically - many houses have loft conversions. If an undesirable person got into someone else's house because they left their door unlocked or it just wasn't secure or they had scaffold up, and that person exited onto the roof, they'd have their pickings if which house to get into next by going along the terrace roof. An open Velux is surely an invitation.

It would depend how accessible it is from the ground. At the top of one of those lanky townhouses, I would be fine with it.

So you close regular windows while you're out, but the windows that are big enough to easily fit a person through you leave open?

How does it affect your insurance?

Leave them open all day unless it's cold, but shut them at night, because it's our bedroom and it's London and otherwise I can be very easily woken by street noise at any hour. Also we have aircon, so when it's warm they're closed so we can run it. They've never worried me from a safety perspective though. It would be an absolutely absurd way to try and break into the house.

I think your ideas about burglars are way more athletic than is at all likely. Why would an opportunistic burglar leave a house via the roof, and wander along a series of other terraced roofs, hoping to be able to get down? It’s extremely rare for them to go upstairs, even!

The only thing that would stop me leaving a Velux open at night is if it seemed likely to rain during the night, or if whoever was sleeping in the room didn’t grasp that leaving a window wide open at night with the lights on can mean you either end up with every nocturnal moth/insect in the world orbiting your lightbulb, or a stray bat. When DS last did this, he claimed to have got the bat out again, but it kept showing up unexpectedly downstairs at odd moments, and our ceilings are high, which made it v difficult to expel!

Because they're opportunistic and if they spot an easy way in to another house, that's an opportunity.

FWIW the Velux rooms are a preschooler's bedroom and also our home office.

When it’s hot, absolutely. It gets far too stuffy otherwise.

OP, I think your reasons are way out of whack.

• Birds aren’t going to invade your home office because you opened the windows 4 inches.
• What “safety” point of view?
• Your insurance isn’t going to give a shit.
• Burglary is a quick in and out, not running along rooftops like a cat burglar in a film.

We leave ours open in warm weather assuming it’s not raining or forecast to rain. The only mildly undesirable things that happen are spiders and occasionally birds (during the day). I wouldn’t describe a burglary that came about from a burglar climbing out of a neighbouring house and crawling along the roof to drop into another house as “opportunistic” tbh.

Teenage daughter in our front loft room with velux, and they are opened and closed as required day and night just as any other windows are. We're a semi though, so only one attached house for opportunistic burglars to get in via!

Honestly, I don't give it a thought. They're windows, and we use them as such. If it's too hot they're open, if it's cold they're shut. I don't live my life in fear of being broken in to. And obviously insurance isn't invalidated by opening a window whilst you're in the house!

We used to until an unscheduled visit from Mr Pigeon checking out nesting sites. Now I love pigeons, but not in my bedroom and not at 4am!

No concerns here about leaving Velux windows open at night (some in bedrooms and some in other rooms). In practice we tend to shut them but it’s more that we don’t want bugs coming in.

This would not be an insurance issue, and I agree with pps that it’s not a realistic entry point for the average home invader. They want minimal fuss/risk and are much more likely to go in at ground level.