VELUX windows in Maidstone
New VELUX windows for loft rooms, landings and pitched kitchens, and like-for-like swaps of tired ones, fitted across Maidstone and mid-Kent.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
The long read
VELUX windows, from the first look at your roof to the finished lining
A VELUX roof window sits in the slope of a pitched roof, level with the tiles around it, and gives a loft room, a landing or a stairwell the daylight its walls cannot. We fit new windows into roofs that have none and swap tired ones in homes across Maidstone and mid-Kent. To discuss the roof over your own loft or landing, get in touch.
Roof windows in a pitched slope
VELUX is a manufacturer's name that has come to stand for the whole product. What a homeowner means by it is a roof window: a glazed, hinged unit set into a pitched roof, flush with its covering. The Approved Document L glossary has it lying in the same plane as the roof it is set into. Lanterns and flat rooflights stand up on a kerb, while a roof window follows the slope, so on a sloping roof it is the product we reach for first.
Fitted into the slope, the frame sits between the rafters and the glass follows the roof's own angle. The covering is cut back around the opening and a flashing kit weathers its edge. From the road you see a tidy rectangle on the roof. From inside you see sky, and in a loft room the lining of the window picks up the line of the sloping ceiling.
Roof window terms in everyday use
- Sash
- The glazed part that opens, hinged inside the fixed frame.
- Flashing kit
- The set of metal and rubber pieces that seals the frame to the tiles or slates around it.
- Lining
- The insulated boxing that joins the window frame to the ceiling and wall inside.
- Pitch
- The angle of the roof slope, which decides which models can be fitted.
- Size code
- Letters for width and digits for height, as in MK04.
What people call it
Skylight, roof window and VELUX get used for one thing in conversation, and that works perfectly well. The word to be careful with is rooflight, which in the building rules means the kerb-mounted kind. Sorting that out early stops a quote arriving for the wrong product. Our page on roof windows covers pitched-roof glazing from every manufacturer; here we stay with the VELUX range and the jobs homeowners bring to us around it. If you are torn between a pitched window and a glazed lantern for an extension, the short answer on lantern versus VELUX for an extension sets out which roof suits which.
What the roof has to offer a window
A VELUX window can only go where the roof gives it what it needs. Every model is designed for a range of roof pitches, so one of the first things we take at the survey is the angle of your slope, as our guide to the lowest pitch a roof window suits explains. Next comes the structure. The window has to sit between two rafters, or between rafters with one cut and trimmed around the opening, and cutting a rafter is structural work that we design before we touch the roof.
The window itself is a catalogue size, but everything around it is made to measure for your roof: the timber trim, the lining and the flashing fit. Then the covering. Plain clay tiles, concrete interlocking tiles and slate each need their own flashing kit, so we note what is on your roof and how deep the tiles lie.
The range we fit
The VELUX range takes in hand-operated windows, electric and solar-powered ones, fixed units that never open, and different ways of opening, in a spread of sizes and finishes. We fit the range in homes across Maidstone and mid-Kent, and we also take out and replace roof windows made by other manufacturers when an old one has come to the end of its life. A size code such as MK04 is the quickest way to describe any of them: reading left to right, the letters stand for width and the digits for height.
Loft bedrooms, landings and en suites
In a mid-terrace house the party walls leave a loft room with no gable window at all, so the slope of the roof is the only place daylight can come from. A semi has one gable wall to use. Either way, glass in the slope reaches the middle of the room as well as its edge.
| Room | What the slope can give it | What we check |
|---|---|---|
| Loft bedroom or study | Light across the whole floor, plus a view of the sky | Sill position against the bed or desk, and head room |
| Landing or stairwell | Daylight from above, shared with the hall below | Whether the roof lies over the stairs, and the light well through the loft |
| En suite under the eaves | Light without overlooking from neighbours | Obscured glass, opening sash, damp-resistant lining |
| Bungalow hall or kitchen | Daylight in the centre of the plan | Route through the loft void and the roof covering |
The loft bedroom or study
Height matters here. A window set so that its sill sits near a bed or a desk lets you see out when you are sitting, while a window pitched higher up the slope throws light further into the room. Two windows side by side can give a better spread of daylight than one large one, and they often cost less to trim and finish. We agree the position with you on the survey, standing in the room, because a plan drawing does not show where the bed or the desk will actually go.
Landings and stairwells
The landing of a two-storey house is a dark middle: the doors to the bedrooms are shut, there is no outside wall, and the stairs drop away below. Where the roof slope runs over the stairwell, a roof window lights the landing from above and sends daylight down the stairs to the hall. If the loft space lies between the landing ceiling and the roof, the window needs a lined light well through the loft, and we build that as part of the job. Where the roof does not line up with the landing, a sun tunnel can take the light round the angle instead.
En suites and bathrooms in the roof
A window in the roof slope is hard to see into from the ground, so a bathroom or en suite under the eaves can have daylight without a blind drawn across it. Obscured glass is available if the window can be seen from a neighbouring roof or window, and an opening sash lets steam out. The inside face needs a lining that copes with damp air, which we specify at the survey, and extraction is worth thinking about at the same visit.
Bungalow halls and pitched kitchens
A bungalow with a pitched roof often has a hall or a kitchen in the middle of the plan, a long way from any outside wall. Here a roof window whose shaft is lined and runs over the loft void, or a sun tunnel where the route is narrow, lights the corridor from above. The same goes for a kitchen under a pitched lean-to, where a window high in the slope throws light across the worktop.
Choosing size, opening and glass
Three decisions shape any VELUX order: how big the window is, how it opens, and what the glass is asked to do. Each has a sensible answer for a given room, and the answers are easier to find with the roof and the room in front of you than from a catalogue page.
Check the sill before the size
The bottom of the glass should sit where you can see out from the bed, the desk or the bath, which often matters more than the size code itself.
How the sash moves
A pivot window turns on a bar near the middle of the sash. The top swings out and the bottom swings in, which lets you reach the outside of the glass from indoors for cleaning. It suits a slope where you stand close to the window. A top-hung window is hinged along the upper edge and the sash swings outwards like a canopy, which leaves more clear space beneath it indoors and works well over a desk or a bed. Fixed units do not open. They are the choice for a stairwell or a high gable position where nobody could reach a handle, and they keep the price and the draughts down.
Models with an opening sash can be hand-operated, electric or solar-powered, and the electric versions can take a rain sensor that closes the window when a shower starts. If a window will sit out of reach, electric opening makes it useful; our hub on electric opening rooflights goes through the wiring and the controls.
Sizing against the room and the rafters
The width of a roof window is set by the gap between rafters, since the aim is to avoid cutting more timber than necessary. Rafters in older Kent houses can sit at irregular spacings, so we check the real gap rather than assuming one. If the nearest size is slightly narrower than the gap, the difference is made up with timber and flashing. If the gap is too small, one rafter is cut and carried on a trimmer, and that counts as structural work. Height is chosen from the room: a taller window sits further up the slope, throws light further in, and means a taller lining inside.
What the glass is asked to do
Glass in the roof faces the sky, so it deals with the sun, the rain and the cold more directly than glass in a wall. The range includes laminated inner panes for safety, obscured finishes for bathrooms, coatings that cut solar heat gain, and glazing that quietens rain on the pane. Which of those suits you depends on the room. A south-facing loft bedroom in July gains from solar control. A landing that you only walk through may not need it. We note the aspect of the roof at the survey and pick glazing to match, and the whole-unit insulation figure is covered in the energy efficiency hub.
Colour and finish
Frames come in white painted, natural timber lacquer and other finishes, and the outside is clad to match the roof. A white lining brightens the room because it bounces the daylight further in. Dark finishes read well on slate and look sharper against a grey roof from the garden.
Swapping an old VELUX window for a new one
A roof window that has been in the same opening for a couple of decades shows its age. By the time someone rings us, the glass is often misted between the panes, the sash sticks, or a brown tide mark has crept across the lining below it. Each of those has a different cause, and each decides what the new job looks like.
A like-for-like swap, in the order it happens
- Ceiling covered Floor and furniture sheeted before the old lining is touched.
- Old unit out Sash lifted off, frame and flashing stripped from the slope.
- Opening checked Rafters and battens inspected for rot or movement.
- New frame and flashing Frame fixed, flashing kit laid to suit the tiles or slates.
- Lining and glass New lining insulated and fitted, sash hung and adjusted.
Signs that a unit has failed
Cloudy moisture between the panes means the seal on the glazed unit has failed. That glass will not clear, and our notes on misted rooflights explain why. A sash that jams, a handle that has gone loose or a frame that has gone out of square points to worn hinges, and in older timber frames to rot at the lower corners. Drips at the bottom of the frame can be water getting in at the flashing or condensation running down the glass, and the two look alike until the surround is opened up. Our short guide to common VELUX window problems sorts them by what you can see.
Same size, same opening
The simplest swap puts a new window into the opening the old one leaves. The old unit comes out, the flashing is stripped off, and the opening is checked for rot and for the position of the battens. A new frame goes in, with a new flashing kit and a fresh lining. The old window has a label on its frame giving the size code, which tells us the nearest current equivalent. Where the original model is no longer made, the nearest size is fitted and any small gap is closed with timber and flashing, so you have a straight swap in appearance if not in every millimetre. Our page on swapping an old VELUX window follows this job in more detail.
When the opening changes
Some replacements are not like for like. A homeowner may want a bigger window than the old one, or two where there was one, or a different position so the sill matches a new bed. Widening an opening means cutting rafters, trimming and a new flashing kit, which makes it closer to a new opening than a swap. The same goes for adding a window to a roof that has never had one, and our page on putting a window into a roof that has none covers that case from the structure upwards.
Why the lining gets replaced too
It is tempting to keep the old lining and drop a new window in front of it. We look at the lining first. Staining, soft plaster or a sagging board show that water or condensation has been reaching it, and a new window fixed to a damp lining only moves the problem. Replacing the lining along with the window leaves the inside tidy and gives us the chance to insulate around the frame.
Flashing kits, blinds and electric operation
The metalwork around it, the blind on the inside and any motor behind the lining are all ordered with it, and a quote that leaves one of them out can come back as an extra once the scaffold is up.
Flashing kits
A flashing kit is the set of formed pieces that makes the joint between window and roof watertight. Different kits suit plain tiles, interlocking tiles and slate, and some are made for thicker tile profiles. Using the wrong one can let water in. On a Kent roof with hand-made plain clay tiles, the tiles can vary in thickness from one course to the next, so we look at the roof from the ladder before we pick the kit. Flashings for a conservation roof are a further case, and our page on roof window flashings for Kent roofs goes through the covering types in turn.
Blinds
A window in the roof gets full sun and full sky, which is fine in a stairwell and less welcome in a bedroom at six in the morning. Blinds made for the window fix to the frame itself, so they hold close to the glass and do not swing in a draught. Blackout blinds suit a bedroom. Pleated or roller blinds soften light in a study or kitchen. Solar-powered and electric blinds can be linked to the same remote as an opening window, which suits a window out of arm's reach. We can fit blinds on the same day as the window, with the brackets set in the frame during installation.
Electric and solar operation
An electric window needs a power feed, and a solar-powered one carries its own panel and battery and needs none. The mains feed is a job for a qualified electrician, and we plan the cable route at the survey so it runs behind the lining and not across the plaster; our answer on whether electric rooflights need an electrician explains the split. Motorised windows with a rain sensor close themselves when a shower starts, which helps with a window left ajar in a bathroom or a room above a study.
Putting it all on one quote
Because each of these parts depends on the others, we price them together. A tiled roof with a thick covering needs a deeper kit, which changes the lining depth, which changes the blind bracket. Electric operation changes the lining and the wiring route. Ordering the window, the kit, the blind and the motor as one package means the parts arrive in the right sizes.
What a VELUX quote depends on
- Size and typeLarger sashes, electric motors and special glazing all cost more than a standard hand-operated unit.
- Roof coveringSlate, plain tile and interlocking tile need different flashing kits and different amounts of labour.
- New opening or swapCutting and trimming rafters adds structural work that a like-for-like swap does not need.
- Inside finishLining depth, plaster returns and light wells through a loft add time.
- Blinds and wiringEach blind, remote and cable route is its own line.
Planning, Building Regulations and heat loss
Cutting a hole in a roof touches three sets of rules: planning, Building Regulations and fire safety. None of them usually stops a roof window, but each can shape how the job is done.
Myth
A like-for-like swap means the new window only has to match the old one.
Fact
Today's figure applies to the new unit however little the size changes: 1.4 W/m²K for the whole window.
Planning permission
Because a roof window lies close to the roof plane, a house in England usually has permitted development rights for it under Class C, so no application is needed. Flats and maisonettes have no such rights, an earlier planning permission may have removed them by condition, and a listed building will almost always need listed building consent. Being inside a conservation area does not remove Class C by itself; an Article 4 direction does. We check your address against all of that at the survey. The conditions, in full, are in our skylight planning permission guide, and national guidance sits on the Planning Portal.
Building Regulations
Opening up a roof slope counts as building work, covering the altered timbers, the energy limits and, for a room in the roof, fire and escape. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and either the council or a registered building control approver signs the job off. Our skylight Building Regulations guide covers the detail.
Heat loss and the window limit
Part L sets energy limits for existing homes. Any new or replacement roof window is held to the window figure of 1.4 W/m²K, with Window Energy Rating band B as the floor if you go by rating instead. A U-value is the rate at which heat passes through a square metre for each degree of difference between inside and out, so a lower figure holds more heat in. The number that counts is the whole unit, frame included. Where the window is cut into a roof, the insulation between rafters and the seal at the lining matter as much as the glass, so we specify both. A well-sealed lining also keeps the frame warm enough to reduce condensation, which keeps the plaster below it dry. If you want to see how roof glazing behaves through the year, our answer on whether skylights lose heat takes it further.
Escape from rooms in the roof
Approved Document B accepts an escape window only for storeys up to 4.5 m above ground. Convert the loft of a house with two storeys and the new floor lies above that height, so the escape normally follows a protected route down the staircase, and the roof window cannot stand in for it. A bungalow or chalet bungalow is different. Its roof rooms sit within the height, and a roof window can be the escape window there when the clear opening is 0.33 m² or more, at least 450 mm in both width and height, with its lower edge no more than 1,100 mm off the floor and a sash that stays open unaided. Those figures steer which model we choose and how far up the slope it goes.
Fitting day, the guarantee and where we work
Work on a roof window starts from the inside. We sheet the floor and the furniture below, then open the ceiling and lining around the old or proposed opening so we can see the rafters before we cut the slope. The structure inside decides how the outside is trimmed.
The installation process
On the roof we lift the covering back from the opening, set the frame between the rafters and fix it square to the slope. The flashing kit goes on from the bottom up so each piece laps over the one below it, and the tiles are dressed back against it. The sash is hung once the frame is weathered, then adjusted so it closes evenly on its seals. A single window can be a day's work, although a pair, a light well through a loft or a new opening that needs a trimmer will take longer, and we tell you the time when we quote.
Finishing inside: plastering and lining
The inside is not left as bare timber. The lining is insulated, boarded and fixed so that its top edge is level and its sides are plumb, and the returns at the ceiling and wall are plastered. We leave the surfaces ready for paint. If a blind or an electric motor is part of the order, its brackets and cable are fixed before the board goes on.
The guarantee
The work carries our 10-year workmanship guarantee, issued in writing, and the manufacturer's own warranty covers the window itself. You get both documents with the Building Control completion paperwork where the work is notifiable, and our guarantee page sets out what is covered and how to claim.
Areas covered around Maidstone
We are based in Maidstone and work within about 30 road miles of it. Closest to the town are Bearsted, Coxheath, Aylesford and Larkfield. North of the town the Medway towns, Chatham among them, are within reach. Tonbridge, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Staplehurst and Marden lie to the south and west. In the east we go as far as Lenham and Charing. The roofs in those places run from clay tile and slate on older houses to concrete tiles on newer estates, and the right flashing is different for each.
Free survey and fixed written quote
Every job starts with a free survey, in the room under the slope and then on the roof. The quote that follows is fixed and in writing, and it lists the window, the flashing kit, the structure, the lining and any blinds or electrics as separate items. For the cost side, the guides on VELUX window cost and how much it takes to fit one explain what moves the figure, and if you are weighing options at a lower price point, cheaper alternatives to VELUX. To start, book a survey, WhatsApp 07880 284133 with a picture of the loft room and the outside slope, or email info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk.
VELUX window guides and answers
Reading a VELUX label and a drip
How do I find the size code of my old VELUX window?
Look for a label on the frame or the edge of the sash, usually reached by opening the window fully. The code on it gives the width in its letters and the height in its digits. We can tell you which current size sits closest to it.
What happens to my ceiling when you cut a new window into a loft room?
The ceiling sheeting goes first so dust stays in the work area. The slope is opened from outside, the rafters are trimmed where the design calls for it, and the lining is built from the frame to the ceiling and wall inside. Plaster returns finish the edge, and the surface is left ready to paint.
Why is there a drip under my VELUX window after heavy rain?
Two causes look alike. Rain getting in at the flashing runs down the lining and stains it from the top. Condensation forms on the cold glass or frame and runs down inside, usually in cold weather and without rain. Staining that shows after rain points to the first, and we confirm the cause on site.
What pushes the cost of a VELUX window up or down?
The size of the sash and whether it is hand-operated, electric or fixed set the base. The roof covering, the amount of structural work and the inside finish come next, followed by blinds and wiring. Our guide to VELUX window cost sets the factors out.
Can blinds or electric opening be added to a window already in the roof?
Blinds can be fitted to an existing frame with brackets that clip to the window, and we can fit them as a standalone visit. Electric opening depends on the window: some models take a conversion, others are better replaced when a motor is wanted. We look at the model and the cable route before saying which applies.
Does a bathroom roof window need special glass?
Obscured glass is the usual choice where the window could be seen from a neighbouring roof or window, and a lining made for damp conditions suits the room. An opening sash lets steam out, and a rain-sensing motor can close it for you. Extraction in the room works alongside the window.
Book your free survey
Tell us about the room that stays dark. We come out, look at the room and the roof, then send a fixed written quote.
Or on 07880 284133, or call 01622 277162
No obligation. We survey before we price.