How Much Does it Cost to Fit a Sun Tube?

Job Costs

job	Description	labour
1	Fit a 350mm diameter flat roof unit. This will take 1 man 1 day so that’s…	£210
	Plus materials etc. for the above	£200
2	Fit a rigid tube unit in your main roof with its light source on the landing. This will take 2 men 1 day	£300
	Plus materials etc. for the above…..with a scaffolding tower add a further £300 to this price.	£300
3	Fit a flexible tube unit on your main roof with the light emerging downstairs with boxed in tubing. This will take 2 men 2 days.	£600
	Plus materials etc. for the above (without scaffolding)	£400

“Labour” at £175 a day (tradesman) £100 (labourer), includes incidental fixings etc. and tipping charges. “Materials” if mentioned, are larger things (a boiler) and stuff only you can choose (tiles etc). Also VAT must be added all round.

Information Sheet on Fitting a Sun Tube

To be honest, the first one I fitted was out of desperation. I was selling a house, all the extensions I’d added meant that there was no longer a landing window and it was like the black hole of Calcutta at the top of the stairs. The sun tube I fitted was a 250mm diameter flexible affair.

I probably would have just settled for leaving the upstairs light on during viewings but the snake oil salesman, sorry the agent, went on and on about how great sun tubes were, so I caved in.

And it was! I was very impressed I have to say! Alright it wasn’t Blackpool illuminations but it made a heck of a difference. Knowing what I know now, if I’d splashed out another paltry £50, I could have put a big old rigid one in.

What are sun tubes then?

Basically a plastic dome on your roof, which collects the sunlight. This is connected by tubing to a plastic diffuser (which can be double glazed) in the ceiling, which is where the sunlight eventually emerges a billionth of a second later. The tubes are coated internally with the most reflective substance known to man, (the same kind of stuff they use on One Direction’s teeth), can be flexible or rigid (the rigid chappies will tell you that theirs are best) and are from 250mm to more than 500mm in diameter.

That’s it, once it’s installed, it costs nothing, nada, nowt, rien, to run. There’s no electric bill to pay, the planet can breathe a sigh of relief, the ice caps will re-establish themselves and Jeremy Clarkson will have to find another contentious subject to bang on about.

It is possible to produce light downstairs but there may be a bit of “boxing in” of the tubes to undertake and it might be impossible to site a diffuser in the middle of a ground floor room ceiling. It surely goes without saying that the wider the tube you fit, the more light you get.

FAQs 'traffic light' guide

What's easy about this job…
Open or Close

If you have a nice well in your hallway…

What's tricky about this job…
Open or Close

It's messy and finding the egress for the tube isn't always easy.

Potential problems with regards to this job…
Open or Close

If the tiles are incorrectly bedded, the tile being drilled could crack. This obviously will need replacing. Do you have a spare? It may not be easy to get a replacement that matches.