Sun tunnels in Maidstone
A sun tunnel carries daylight from a small dome on the roof, down a mirrored tube, to a landing, hall or bathroom that has no outside wall. We survey, measure and fit them in Maidstone and across mid-Kent.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
The long read
Sun tunnels: choosing the tube, the route and the room
A sun tunnel gives a room in the middle of the house daylight of its own through a small dome on the roof and a mirrored tube. If you have such a room in mind, get in touch and we will check the route from roof to ceiling.
A tube of daylight, part by part
Some rooms in an ordinary house have no outside wall to put a window in. A landing between two bedrooms, a hall that runs down the middle of a terrace, a bathroom boxed into the centre of the first floor: each sits inside the house and borrows whatever light drifts in from the rooms around it. A sun tunnel gives a room like that a source of daylight of its own.
The arrangement has three parts. A small clear dome on the roof collects light from the sky. A tube with a mirror-finish lining carries it down through the roof structure and the loft, bouncing it along the way. At the ceiling of the room below, a diffuser panel spreads the light across the space. From inside it looks like a round ceiling light, yet it is daylight, and it brightens and dims with the weather and the hour. There is no wiring, and nothing on it opens or moves.
A quick fit test
A room with no outside wall, a short run of loft or roof void above it and a roof slope facing open sky: that combination suits a tube.
Other names for it
Sun pipe and sun tube are other names for the same product, and we answer to any of them. Light tubes are sometimes lumped in with skylights, but they are a different tool. The opening in the roof is small, the route can bend, and the room does not have to sit directly under the roof slope.
What a tube gives you, and what it leaves out
The tube delivers a soft, even pool of light at the ceiling. You cannot see out of it, and it does not open to ventilate the room. If you want a view of the sky or a window you can swing open, a roof window is the right product. Where the room is a wide extension under a flat roof, a flat roof rooflight or a roof lantern, whose frames come in aluminium or uPVC and whose glazing is double glazing, covers a bigger area than one round diffuser can.
Our answer on whether sun tunnels actually work goes through what you can expect from the light in a typical room, and what makes the difference between a bright landing and a disappointing one.
The sort of house a tube suits
The classic case is a pitched roof with a loft or void between the tiles and the ceiling of the room below. The tube drops through that space, and the longer and bendier the route, the more light is lost along the way, which is why the survey begins in the loft. Terraces and semis built with a central staircase and landing are well suited, as are bungalows where a hall or bathroom sits in the middle of the plan with the roof directly above. A dormer bungalow or chalet with rooms in the roof is a different matter, because the tube would run through living space; there a roof window is usually the better answer.
Landings, halls, bathrooms and cupboards
On a two-storey house the stairs rise through the centre of the plan, and the landing at the top usually has a small window at best. Add a closed bedroom door on each side and the space is gloomy by mid-afternoon. A tube from the roof above lands light directly on the stair head, and it also spills down the stairwell to the hall.
| Room | What the tube must cross | Point to settle at survey |
|---|---|---|
| Stair landing | Loft void or roof space above the stair head | Position over the stairs so light reaches both floors |
| Windowless bathroom | Loft space, with insulation around the tube | Airtight ceiling seal and a separate extractor duct |
| Ground-floor hall | Roof void only if no room sits above | Whether a bedroom or bathroom blocks the route |
| Walk-in wardrobe | Short drop through the loft | Diffuser size against the wall space for rails |
| Converted garage | Void between pitched roof and ceiling | Distance from the one window already in the room |
Bathrooms and en suites
A windowless bathroom takes a sun tunnel well. The diffuser sits over the bath or shower, and at night the extractor fan and ordinary lighting take over. A damp room asks more of the fittings than a landing does: the ceiling seal must be airtight, the tube must be kept clear of warm moist air, and the fan must have its own separate duct. The details are in our short answer on a sun tunnel in a bathroom.
Halls, utilities and cloakrooms
A narrow hall on the ground floor of a terraced house is often lit by a glazed front door and nothing else. If the roof sits directly above it, with a bedroom in between, the tube has to cross that bedroom, and we would not run it that way. Where the hall is under a single-storey rear section with a pitched roof, or under the stairs' own loft void, the route can be short and straight. A utility room, boot room or downstairs cloakroom built into the middle of a house can often be handled the same way.
Wardrobes, stairwells and corridors
Dressing rooms and walk-in wardrobes with no window are a good use of a tube, since choosing colours and fabrics is easier in daylight. A long upstairs corridor in a 1930s semi may need one diffuser at each end rather than a single large one. A stairwell with a tall void is helped by a tube that lands at the highest ceiling, because the light then reaches both floors.
Garages and garden buildings
A garage conversion into a home office or gym often loses its roller door and gets one small window. If the roof above is pitched with a gap before the ceiling, a tube lights the middle of the room, away from that window. Rooms beside an orangery or conservatory are another case: an inner hall or utility that lost its window to a glazed extension can take a tube when a pitched roof sits above it. A flat-roofed garden room is better served by a flat rooflight, because there is no loft void to run a tube through.
When a room is bigger than one tube can handle, we price two tubes or a different product and show you the options at the survey. A VELUX roof window in the same roof can sit beside a tube where one room needs a view and the next needs only light.
Rigid or flexible tubing, and the route through the loft
Look into a loft above a landing and you can see why the tube is the part that needs thought. Joists run one way, purlins or braces cut across the other, there may be a water tank, wiring runs and bundles of insulation, and the spot where you want the light rarely lines up with the clear spot on the roof. The tube's job is to get between the two.
Working out the route from the loft
- Fix the diffuser Choose the spot on the ceiling where the light is wanted.
- Find the clear bay Locate joists, wiring, tanks and insulation above that spot.
- Look up at the slope Check where the rafters, valleys and chimney stand.
- Pick the tube Rigid where the drop is straight, flexible for the awkward offset.
Rigid tube
A rigid tube has a smooth, mirrored lining along its whole length. Light travels down it with fewer reflections, which makes it the better choice when the run is straight and the roof is directly above the room. Rigid sections can be joined with angled elbows when the route needs to shift sideways, and each elbow costs some light. When the route is short and straight, a rigid tube is the first thing we suggest.
Flexible tube
A flexible tube is a ribbed, foil-lined duct that bends round obstacles. It is the answer when joists, a tank or a chimney breast sit in the line of a straight run, and it can be pulled into place in a cramped loft where a rigid length would not go. Its ribs mean the light bounces more often on the way down, so a flexible tube normally delivers less than a rigid one over the same distance. Pulled tight and kept as straight as the loft allows, it performs better than one left sagging in loops. Our comparison of rigid and flexible sun tunnels sets out when each makes sense.
Mixing the two
Many routes use both: a rigid tube for the straight drop from the dome, and a short flexible length for the final offset to the ceiling. We plan this at the survey from the loft, with a torch and a tape, because the answer changes from one house to the next.
Tracing the route
The route is drawn from the room upward. The diffuser position comes first, since that is where you will see it. Then we find the joists, mark the clear bays, and look up to see where the tube can pass through the roof without clashing with a rafter, a chimney or a valley. When the first position fails, we shift the diffuser a few hundred millimetres or turn the tube through a gentle bend, and re-check. Only then is the dome position on the roof confirmed.
How much light arrives at the bottom
Light entering the dome meets the mirrored wall of the tube, and each time it bounces, a little is absorbed. A short tube with few bounces delivers a bright patch at the ceiling. A longer one, or one with several elbows, delivers less. The size of the dome and the quality of the lining decide how much is collected at the top and how much survives the journey.
Myth
A longer tube always means a bigger dome is needed to make up for it.
Fact
A larger dome gathers more light, but every elbow and every extra metre of run still takes some away, so the route is planned to stay short and straight first.
Run length
Run length is measured along the tube, from the dome to the diffuser. A bungalow with a shallow loft over a hall gives a very short run. A tall two-storey house with a stair landing under a steep roof gives a much longer one. There is no single maximum, because the answer depends on the lining, the number of bends and what the room is for. The practical question is how bright you need the space to be, and the answer to how long a sun tunnel can be goes into that in detail.
Bends and angles
A tube that goes straight down serves the room best. A tube that doglegs through two elbows loses more light than one that makes a single, gentle change of direction. We prefer to move the diffuser position slightly at the planning stage, if it saves an elbow, than to give you a bright dome and a dim ceiling.
Roof pitch and which way it faces
A south-facing slope catches the sun for more of the day, but the dome also gathers diffuse light from the whole sky, so a north-facing slope still delivers a steady, even light, softer in tone. Trees, a neighbour's gable or a taller part of your own house can shade the dome, and we look at these while we are on the roof. The slope's pitch affects the angle at which the tube leaves the dome, and the flashing is chosen to suit it.
The room's own colour
A pale ceiling and pale walls bounce the light round the room, so a landing painted in a dark colour will look dimmer under the same diffuser than a white one. We mention this at survey, because a sun tunnel is often fitted just before a redecoration, and the paint choice can change what you see.
Night and early morning
A tube does nothing when it is dark outside. Your ordinary ceiling light stays, and some diffusers have a lamp fitting built in so one panel does both jobs. We list that as an option on the quote if you want it.
Fitting through tiles, slates and flat roofs
On the roof, a sun tunnel is a flashing and a dome. The flashing is the part that keeps the weather out, and it has to be matched to what the roof is covered with. Plain clay tiles, concrete interlocking tiles, natural slate and the many flat-roof coverings each need a different flashing, and a mismatch can let water in.
| Covering | How the dome is weathered | What we check first |
|---|---|---|
| Plain clay tiles | Flashing lapped under the course above and over the course below | Condition of the tiles we must lift and refit |
| Concrete interlocking tiles | Flashing shaped to the tile profile | Batten spacing and the position of the nearest rafter |
| Natural slate | Slate-style flashing with soakers | Whether the slates around the spot are sound |
| Flat roof | Short upstand, covering dressed up its sides | Age of the covering and the falls around the opening |
Pitched roofs
On a tiled roof, we lift the tiles around the chosen spot, cut a small opening between the rafters or trim one in, and fit a flashing that laps under the tiles above and over those below. Slate follows the same logic with a flashing shaped for slate. The flashing for a tile type may be a pressed profile, a lead-style dressing or a flexible apron, and we choose it on the survey after checking the roof covering. On old roofs, such as Victorian terraces with thin slates, we often assess how well the surrounding slates will take being lifted before agreeing the position.
Flat roofs
A sun tunnel on a flat roof sits on a short upstand, finished into the membrane, felt or GRP covering. The route below is the tricky part, as there may be a ceiling void with joists running a single way and insulation above. A flat roof with warm-roof insulation on top has a different build-up from one insulated between the joists, and the tube must keep its warmth in either. If the extension is wide, our flat roof rooflights may suit the room better.
Fitting day in the loft
Work starts inside, with dust sheets down on the landing and the loft hatch protected. In the loft, we mark the centre point from below, drill up through the plasterboard, and cut the ceiling hole for the diffuser. On the roof, the dome and flashing go in. Back in the loft, the tube is fitted between the two, taped at every joint, supported so it does not sag, and wrapped in insulation so that cold air in the loft does not chill the tube and bring condensation inside it. Last of all, the diffuser panel clips into the ceiling ring and the room is cleared.
Insulation and draughts
The ceiling is part of the thermal envelope of the house, and a gap around a tube is a draught path. We seal the joint where the tube passes through the ceiling, and insulate the tube itself in the cold loft. The insulating layer around the tube is one of the lines we write on the quote, along with the loft access and any boarding that has to be lifted. Our page on energy-efficient rooflights covers the wider picture for glazed roof products.
Planning, Building Regulations and damp rooms
A tube is small, yet cutting through the roof for it still counts as building work. The structure around it has to stay sound, the covering has to stay weathertight, and the ceiling has to keep its place in the energy envelope of the house. Where the work is notifiable we send the Building Control notification ourselves; the council or a registered approver then inspects, and the completion paperwork reaches you at the end.
Terms on a sun tunnel quote
- Dome
- The clear cap on the roof that collects daylight.
- Flashing
- The shaped sheet that seals the dome base to the tiles, slates or roof covering.
- Diffuser
- The frosted panel in the ceiling that spreads the light.
- Elbow
- An angled tube section that changes the direction of the route.
- Class C
- The permitted development class covering rooflights on houses.
Planning
Planning permission is a separate question from Building Control. On a house, a dome that projects only slightly from the original roof slope usually falls within the permitted development rights set out in Class C for rooflights, subject to its conditions, while flats, houses converted under change-of-use permitted development and homes with a removed right or an Article 4 direction are treated differently. We check the dome's height above the slope against that rule at survey, and our skylight planning guide explains the full list. National advice is on the Planning Portal.
Listed houses and conservation areas
A conservation area on its own leaves Class C in place, and only an Article 4 direction takes it away. A listed house is another matter, since a new opening in the roof will almost always need listed building consent. Where the dome would be visible from the road, we talk through its position with you before drawing anything, and the conservation rooflights page covers what the heritage options look like.
Ventilation and extraction in a bathroom
A sun tunnel brings light and nothing else. It does not ventilate, so a bathroom still needs its extractor fan, and the fan's duct must run separately from the tube. If a warm, humid room shares air with a cold tube, condensation forms inside the lining and the light dims. So we seal the diffuser to the ceiling, and keep extraction out of the tube altogether.
Security
Nothing on a sun tunnel opens, and the dome is fixed down to its flashing, so there is no catch or hinge to force. We confirm the fixing at the survey.
Fire stopping and the loft
Where a tube passes through a ceiling that forms part of a fire separation, or runs near wiring or a flue, the detail has to respect that. We check what is in the loft before the position is fixed. A flue, a recessed downlight with no cover or a bundle of cable in the way moves the route.
Roof windows are judged differently
A roof window set into a pitched roof must meet the tighter window figure in the energy rules, and a rooflight or lantern has its own, higher limit. A dome and tube is a different arrangement again, and we specify it from the product's own performance data and the insulation we add around it. Which category your job falls into, and what that asks of the specification, goes on the quote.
What moves the price, and how a survey starts it
A sun tunnel can cost less than a roof window, and the figure depends on how easy the route is. Our guide to what a sun tunnel costs to fit goes through each in more depth, and the costs page covers every other product.
The tube and the dome
Each tube is cut to length and fitted to the route, made to measure in that sense, and we specify the manufacturer range that suits your roof, with brand and options shown at the survey. The dome diameter sets how much light is collected. Tube type, rigid or flexible, and the number of elbows and joints set how it is carried. A premium lining and a larger diffuser raise the material cost, and a built-in light fitting adds a line for the wiring.
The roof
Pitched roofs covered in clay tile, concrete tile or slate each ask for a different flashing. A tall roof or a steep pitch needs more scaffolding or more protection on the day, and a flat roof needs its covering dressed back around the new upstand.
The loft and the ceiling
A boarded loft means lifting boards to reach the route. A loft full of stored belongings may need clearing before we begin. A tight eaves access slows fitting, while a clean, open loft above a landing is the easy case. The finish around the diffuser, where plaster has to be made good, is on the quote too.
Free survey and a fixed written quote
The survey takes in the room, the loft above it and the roof covering, with a tape measure and a torch. Within it we agree the diffuser position, trace the route, and check the planning position and the Building Control route. The quote that follows is in writing and fixed, with the 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing too.
Where we fit sun tunnels
Our base is Maidstone, and the areas covered run to about 30 road miles around it. Close in, that includes Bearsted, Coxheath and Aylesford; to the north, Chatham and the other Medway towns; and further out, Tonbridge, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Lenham and Charing.
Getting in touch
Use the quote form to book your survey. Tell us which room is dark, whether a loft sits above it, and the age of the house. Photos of the room and the loft hatch sent to WhatsApp on 07880 284133, or an email to info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk, helps us arrive with the right tube lengths and flashings.
What the quote is built from
- Dome and tubeDome size, rigid or flexible tube, elbows and joints.
- Roof coveringTile, slate or flat roof, and the flashing each one needs.
- Loft and accessBoards to lift, stored items to move and how tight the eaves are.
- Ceiling finishDiffuser size, optional light fitting and the plaster made good.
Sun tunnel guides and answers
Pricing, attics and dull days
How much will a sun tunnel come to for a hall with a loft above it?
The roof covering, the length of the run and the number of bends set the figure. A short, straight drop through a clear loft costs least; a long route through a boarded loft with tight eaves costs more. The cost guide lists each factor.
Our bathroom has a floored attic room over it. Is a tube still possible?
A tube would have to cross the attic room, so we would not run one straight through it. Sometimes the tube can slip into the eaves and bend back, but the extra length reduces the light. A roof window in the attic room is another option.
Which suits a stair landing better, a sun tunnel or a roof window?
It depends on what the landing needs. A sun tunnel lights a landing with no view and no opening, and it works through a loft void. A roof window gives light, a view of the sky and fresh air, but it needs a roof slope above with a clear route for the shaft down to the landing.
Will a tube leave a damp patch or cold spot on the ceiling?
A properly sealed and insulated tube should not. The joint at the ceiling is sealed against draughts, and the length in the cold loft is wrapped, so warm air from the house does not meet a cold surface.
Who deals with Building Control when a new opening is cut in the roof?
The Building Control notification is ours to send where the work is notifiable. Inspection is by the council or a registered approver, and you are given the completion paperwork afterwards.
What happens to the light on a dull, wet day?
The dome gathers light from the whole sky, not only from direct sun, so the diffuser stays softly lit on an overcast day, though less brightly than in summer sun. After dark the tube gives nothing, and your ordinary lighting takes over.
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.