Skylight and rooflight fitting in Finberry

The hallway

A modern entrance hall is often a narrow room between the front door and the stairs, with the door as its only window. Its ceiling is the underside of the first floor, with a landing above that, and the roof above the landing. The way to light such a hall from above is to continue the opening upwards: either a sun tunnel through the loft ending in a diffuser at the hall ceiling, or a roof window over the landing, which lets daylight fall down the stairwell. A sun tunnel in a hall needs a straight run between the roof dome and the ceiling diffuser, so the first thing to find in the loft is a clear line between the rafters.

By late afternoon in December, a hall lit only through a front door has gone grey, and the lights stay on until bedtime. A source overhead keeps the colour of the walls and the floor even when the weather outside is flat.

The stairwell

A stairwell takes light from the rooms it connects, which in a bright house can make it look dimmer than it is. A roof window above the top landing shows the difference at once, because the light arrives from the highest point and falls through the well. The size matters less than the position: a modest window over the stairs does more than a larger one over a bedroom.

Modern roofs are often framed with trussed rafters, which are factory-made triangles spaced along the house. Where that applies, the opening must fit between two trusses or be framed around them, and the web members inside a truss cannot simply be cut. We find out which kind of roof you have when we look into the loft, and where the stairwell falls between the trusses, since that sets how far the window can move along the slope. A trussed roof is checked against the opening before anything is cut, and the frame size we propose follows the gap between two trusses.

The kitchen extension

A kitchen extension adds a room with large glazing in its outer wall, and the far end of it can still go dim. Whether the roof is flat or pitched decides the unit. Above a flat extension roof, light comes from either a flat-roof rooflight or a lantern; on a pitched extension, a roof window sits in the slope. Orientation changes how each behaves. A slope facing south gives bright light for much of the day and may call for a blind, while one facing north gives a calmer light that holds steady through the year. A flat extension roof also has an upstand to form, and the height of that upstand is part of the planning position for a lantern.

Upstairs rooms and the loft

The same thinking applies above the first floor. A family bathroom or en suite on an inside wall has either a small window or none, and a loft space converted into a study or bedroom has a very different need: sloping ceilings, a low eaves line and often a single gable window. Over a loft room, an opening roof window lets in sky and lets out warm air on a summer evening. Converting a loft on a two-storey house puts the new floor more than 4.5 m above the ground, so the way down the stairs normally needs to be a protected route, and the roof window in that loft is not counted as the way out. The wider rules are in the Building Regulations guide.

A study in the loft shows how little glass is needed when it is placed well. A desk under a roof window gets even light across the page and the screen, with no glare from a side window, and the view upward changes how long a day indoors feels. Bathrooms upstairs, on the other hand, usually call for obscured glass or a sun tunnel, and a landing needs nothing opening at all.

Light across the seasons

A south-facing back garden fills a kitchen with sun in June and gives very little in December, when the sun sits low and the light has to cross the whole room at a shallow angle. A roof opening receives the sky directly, so it keeps working when the sun is low. That is why a hallway or kitchen that feels bright in summer can feel dull from November to February, and why winter is a good time to judge where the daylight stops.

Conditions on an estate's permission

An estate built under a planning permission can carry conditions, and permitted development rights may have been removed by one of them. That is why the check comes first and the assumption never does. Your deeds or the council's planning record for the address will show whether a condition applies, and where one does, an application to the council is the route. Estates and individual houses differ, so each address gets treated as its own question.

If the house is under a builder's warranty

A home that is only a few years old may still be covered by a warranty from its builder or from an insurer that backed the build. Cutting an opening in the roof could affect that cover, and the terms are set by the company that issued it. Read the document, or contact the issuer, before you book the work, and tell us what it says. The terms are not visible from the street, and the roof should stay closed until you know them.

The energy side matters too. A new opening in a roof is building work, and we handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable. The thermal limits are 1.4 W/m²K for a roof window (or Window Energy Rating band B at least) and 2.2 W/m²K for a rooflight or roof lantern, and our Building Regulations guide goes through them.

What the day on the roof looks like

A job on a house of this kind starts with access. The roof is reached from outside by ladder or tower, with the garden or drive protected under the working area. Covering is stripped back around the position, the roof structure is trimmed to the new frame, and the unit is fixed, flashed and sealed into what remains. Inside, the opening is lined and the ceiling made good. A new-build roof has a membrane and battens under its tiles, and we deal with those layers as we meet them, so that the roof closes up around the unit and the finish indoors is ready for paint. Tiles are set aside in order so they go back in the same pattern around the new frame.

Sizing for a modest room

A newer house often has rooms of moderate size, so the unit chosen can stay small. A roof window in the standard sizes, whose code gives the width in its letters and the height in its digits (MK04, for instance), is often enough for a landing. A kitchen with a wide plan may justify a lantern, but a flat rooflight of the right length can serve a narrower one. We size from the floor area that needs light and from the room's height, and the written quote names the unit and its dimensions.

Replacing a unit already in the roof

Some houses on the estate may have been fitted with a rooflight or roof window when they were built, and a unit that has misted or failed can be replaced. The old frame comes out, the opening is checked, and the new unit goes in with fresh flashings. If the opening is the wrong size or in the wrong place for the room, it can be altered at the same visit. A like-for-like swap keeps the existing opening, which keeps the work indoors small. Tell us what is in the roof now, and its size if it is printed on the frame. The process for a VELUX unit is laid out in our replacement guide.

Getting a survey

The estate lies 23 road miles south-east of Maidstone, so a visit fits easily into a working day. The free survey starts with a WhatsApp to 07880 284133, an email to info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk or an entry in the quote form, ideally with a photo of the hall or kitchen as it looks on a dull afternoon. A 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing comes with the finished job.

For houses beyond the estate, we also visit Ashford, Brabourne Lees and Hamstreet.