Skylight and rooflight fitting in Marden, Kent
Marden lies roughly 7 miles south of Maidstone, with the South Eastern Main Line running through the parish. The name began as a clearing beside the marsh. Three rooms tend to miss out on daylight: the garden room, the utility room and the box room with its one small window.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
Houses along the B2079 and off Pattenden Lane
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1 Rows built to the road The B2079 links the A229 at Maidstone with the A21 at Flimwell and runs through Marden. Houses built side by side along a road are often shallow to the front and deep behind, so the back rooms depend on whatever the garden side offers. -
2 Desks in the box room A spare bedroom can become the desk on days at home. A box room usually has one small window, and a roof window above it adds a second source of daylight. -
3 Flat roofs at the back A garden room or utility room added to the rear usually gets a flat or shallow roof, with glazing on one side only. That roof is the simplest place to put daylight back into the space and into the old back wall of the house.
From a woodland clearing to a station village
Marden was on record by 1066, and its story runs through orchards and rails.
Marden began as a clearing. The old name was Maer den, a clearing beside the marsh, and the Weald of Kent around it was dense woodland where pigs were turned out each autumn to forage on acorns and beech mast. The settlement was recorded as Maere Denn by 1066 and has carried its present name since about 1635. Today the parish sits in the borough of Maidstone, and the railway that serves it is the South Eastern Main Line.
Apple growing shaped the village next. Marden hosted a nationally recognised fruit show from 1933 to 1991, which began when 35 top-fruit growers founded the Marden Fruit Show Society and held the first show at Walton Hall on Pattenden Lane. From 1950 a substantial industrial estate went up north of the railway line on Pattenden Lane, adding local work alongside the farm jobs.
Roof words that turn up on a Marden quote
- Roof window
- Installed level with the surrounding slope, so the frame follows the line of the tiles.
- Rooflight
- A glazed unit installed out of plane with the roof surface, on a kerb or upstand; a roof lantern is a rooflight.
- Lining
- The finished sides of the opening between the glass and the ceiling, which can be angled to spread light.
- Kerb
- The upstand a flat-roof rooflight or lantern is fixed to, standing above the roof surface.
- Sun tunnel
- A light tube from a rooftop dome to a ceiling diffuser, used where a loft sits between the room and the tiles.
Houses in a place with that much history arrive in several ages, and the age matters less to us than the layout. Before a product is named we want to know what stands on the far side of each wall and what lies above the ceiling. Where trees grow close to a house we also look at what overhangs the slope, since shade and leaf fall change the best position for glass.
The B2079 is the road through the village, running between the A229 and the A21 at Flimwell. Houses along a road like that are generally built to face it, with the front door on the street, so the living rooms look out on the traffic side and the kitchens and bedrooms look the other way. Later extensions fill the garden side across the back, and a room that once had a window onto the garden is left looking at a wall.
Garden room, utility room, box room
A garden room at the end of a path is a single storey with a flat or shallow roof, and its glazing usually faces one way. It is bright beside the glass and dim at the back wall. A rooflight over the back half evens that out, and a lantern across the middle lights the whole floor from above.
A utility room is a different problem. Squeezed between the kitchen and an outer wall, it often gets a door and a very small window, or none, so the sink is worked under electric light all day. If a flat-roofed extension is overhead, a small flat rooflight lights the floor directly. If the room sits under the main roof with a loft above it, a sun tunnel carries daylight down through the loft space.
A box room is the smallest bedroom, often over the front door or the stairs, with one narrow window. Used as a desk room on the days the train is skipped, it needs more daylight than that window gives. Glass let into the slope above the desk adds a second source, positioned higher than any wall window could be, so daylight reaches the desk and the far corner together. The lining of the opening is angled inside, which spreads the light across the ceiling and down the walls.
The roof above the room settles the choice
The roof above a room settles more than the room itself does. Glass that lies in the same plane as the slope around it is a roof window. Glass set out of plane on a raised kerb, as on a flat roof, is a rooflight, and a roof lantern is the tallest form of that. Which one can go in comes from the roof covering, the timbers beneath it and the pitch.
| Room | Roof above it | What we would look at |
|---|---|---|
| Garden room | Flat or shallow roof, single storey | Flat rooflight over the back half, or a lantern spanning the middle |
| Utility room | Flat extension roof, or the main roof with a loft over it | A small flat rooflight, or a sun tunnel |
| Box room | Pitched slope | A roof window in the slope |
Pitched slopes
A box room beneath a pitched roof is the straightforward case. The window is set between the rafters, the opening is lined and finished inside, and the flashing around the frame is matched to the tile or slate. A roof window that opens also gives a box room a way to let warm air out on days spent working at home. The pitch has to suit the window, and our note on pitch limits for roof windows covers the cases where it does not. Slate, plain tile and concrete tile can each need a different flashing, so the covering is recorded before anything is ordered. Where the window fits between a pair of rafters, the structure around it stays as built; a wider opening means framing around a cut rafter.
Flat roofs and lanterns
On the flat roof of a garden room or a rear extension, the rooflight is bonded to a kerb that is built or checked before any glass arrives. The roof covering is sealed to the kerb before the ceiling below is lined. A lantern usually stands more than 150 mm proud of the roof, so it normally needs planning permission unless the council confirms otherwise, and the lantern planning guide explains why. A flat rooflight is a separate product with a separate answer, set out in the flat roof rooflight hub.
Where a loft is in the way
Some rooms have no roof directly above them. The utility room under a loft, the landing and the inner hall each have attic space between ceiling and tiles. A sun tunnel crosses that gap and ends in a flush diffuser in the ceiling. It gives no view of the sky, but a utility room or a landing under a loft can be lit through it.
Inside the opening
How the opening is finished indoors counts alongside the glass. A shallow lining sends daylight straight down, while a deeper one with splayed sides spreads it across the ceiling. Whether the ceiling is boarded or plastered, the lining is finished to match it, and its depth depends on how thick the ceiling build-up turns out to be when we measure it.
The glass itself has an energy limit that differs between a roof window and a rooflight, and cutting into a roof brings its own structural checks. The Building Regulations guide lays out both.
Council, conservation and booking a survey
Planning in Marden goes through Maidstone Borough Council, and our skylight planning guide shows how to work out if a rooflight on your house calls for an application at all.
There is a conservation area called Marden near the village centre. Living inside one does not alone remove the permitted development rights a house has for a rooflight, because only an Article 4 direction does that, and the same guide covers the difference.
| Stage | What happens | What you hold afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| Survey | We inspect the room, the roof covering and the way up to it | A clear answer on which unit suits the roof |
| Quote | Unit, glazing, roof work and finish are priced together | A fixed quote in writing |
| Fitting | The opening is formed, the unit set in, and the inside finished | A completed opening with the roof made weathertight |
| Afterwards | The Building Control notification is dealt with where it applies | A 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing |
The roof opening is building work, and we handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable.
Booking from Marden
Message 07880 284133 on WhatsApp, write to info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk, or try the quote form further down, which asks for a postcode and a short description. The survey carries no charge, and the price follows it. Staplehurst lies just east and Coxheath north of Marden, and we work in both. Horsmonden, to the south-west, is covered too.
For a garden room or utility room, one photo taken from the garden that shows the whole back of the house is the one to send first. It shows every roof at once: the main slope, the flat extension roof and anything standing above them. A second photo from inside, looking at the dark corner, shows what the light has to reach.
Marden box rooms, utilities and lanterns
We commute from Marden station and work at home twice a week. Would a roof window in the box room help?
A box room under a pitched roof can take one pane in the slope overhead, which puts daylight above the desk instead of beside it. The pitch and the rafter spacing decide the size, and we measure both on the roof itself. A brighter desk room means the lamp can stay off for more of the working day, and the roof window can be chosen with an opening sash if you want fresh air up there too.
Who decides planning for a rooflight on a Marden house?
Maidstone Borough Council, since the parish falls inside the borough. Whether an application comes into it at all is covered by our skylight planning guide.
There is no window in our utility room, between the kitchen and the garage wall. What goes above it?
The roof over it chooses the answer. A flat extension roof takes a small flat rooflight directly overhead. Where the main roof and a loft stand above the room, a tube from a dome on the tiles carries daylight to a diffuser in the ceiling. Either way, we look at the roof before recommending one, and the ceiling finish is matched to the room.
What happens if the roof over my garden room is flat and I want a lantern on it?
The first step is the council, because a lantern usually stands more than 150 mm proud of a flat roof and so normally needs planning permission unless the council confirms otherwise. Our lantern or VELUX comparison sets the lantern beside the lower flat rooflight, which is the alternative to weigh up. The kerb under either has to be sound, and that is checked at the survey.
Nearby towns to Marden, Kent
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