Rooflights and skylights for Ightham homes

The hallway that borrows its light

In a house that runs from the lane to the garden, the hallway sits between two rooms. It has a front door and perhaps a glazed panel, and the stairs climb to a landing with no window. If the loft above is clear, a sun tunnel carries a pipe of daylight down through it into the hall. Where the slope over the stairwell is free of obstruction, a roof window lights the flight and the landing together, and the ceiling reveal can be splayed to spread the light along the walls. The choice between them is made from the rafters, the loft floor and the height of the ceiling below, and we measure all three before quoting.

Garden rooms and rear extensions

A garden room or single-storey extension across the back brings light to its own space and can shut the daylight of the room behind it. Glass in the new roof, set close to where old wall meets new, hands some of that light back to the older room. On a flat roof the choice is between a low flat rooflight and a raised roof lantern; a lean-to or pitched roof takes a roof window. The height a lantern normally rises above a flat roof puts it past the 150 mm limit in Class C, so planning permission is normally needed unless the council confirms otherwise, and the roof lantern planning guide covers the detail. There are cob trees still standing in and around the village. If one grows near the back of your house, we note where its branches fall across the roof, because shade changes how bright a rooflight gets.

Across the back, a garden room under a flat roof has a short drop from deck to ceiling, so a lantern reads from inside as extra headroom, while a flat rooflight leaves the ceiling plain. Which suits comes down to how you use the room, and we settle it standing there with you.

The A25 runs through the parish, and the village keeps its recreation ground beside it. Houses along a main road and houses down a side lane tend to differ in plot shape: the road frontage is often narrower, with the garden running back a long way behind. A long, narrow plot often makes for a long, narrow house, and the further a room sits from the street and from the garden, the less daylight reaches it.

Back bedrooms under the slope

A back bedroom tucked beneath a rear slope often has a small window, a sloping ceiling and little straight wall to put furniture against. A roof window adds daylight and a view of sky from the bed, and its height is set from the floor so the glass starts where you can see out and reach the catch. In a room that forms part of a loft conversion there are structure and escape questions as well, which the Building Regulations guide sets out.

In an older bedroom with a low eaves line, the roof window is placed so the sill is within reach, and the lining is angled so the light spreads over the ceiling as well as the bed.

Landings and the upstairs corridor

The hall problem repeats on the first floor. A landing with bedrooms leading off it has doors and walls on every side, and the only light is whatever slips under a door. One roof window above the stairwell lights the landing and, as the light falls down the stairs, the hall beneath as well. We check that the stair opening is wide enough for the shaft of light to travel down, and we look at the loft hatch and any water tank before choosing the exact spot on the slope. The stairwell carries the light down to the hall as well.

Reading the roof before the room

Once we know which space is dim, we look at what lies above it. The covering, whether tile or slate, decides how the flashing is formed. The rafters set the width of the unit that drops between them without cutting a structural member. The loft decides whether a deep lining, a splayed light well or a tunnel is needed. In an older house, a roof that has moved over the decades may not be square, and the opening is set out from the structure rather than from the eye.

Conservation, listing and older buildings

Ightham has conservation areas, among them one named Ightham. Should an application prove necessary, the council looks at the kind of unit and the slope it sits on, and the conservation area rooflight guide explains how. Your address gets checked on the council's own map, since a boundary can run down the middle of a lane.

A listed house still has Class C rights, but a new or altered roof window will almost always need listed building consent. A house made from a barn or a shop under change-of-use permitted development may have no householder rights at all. The planning permission guide sets out how to tell which applies to you.

Sign-off and the visit itself

Once a roof is cut, the job falls under the Building Regulations. They look at the framing around the opening, the energy performance of the glass and, in some houses, fire and escape routes. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and the local authority or a registered building control approver signs it off. You receive a fixed written quote after the survey and a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing when the job is finished.

The visit begins in whichever room you want brighter, whether that is the hallway, the garden room or the back bedroom, and then moves up to the roof and the loft. Narrow lanes can limit where a van parks, so we ask about access and about the route through the house for the glass and the tools.

What changes the cost of a job in the village

The size of the opening matters, and so does the build-up of the roof beneath it. A thick, insulated roof needs a deeper upstand or lining than a thin one. Access adds hours where the van has to park along a lane and everything is carried to the door. The type of unit moves the price too, since a raised lantern and a low flat rooflight are priced differently, and so are basic and coated glass. We write all of that into the quote as separate lines, so you can see what each choice adds.

On the day

Plan for the loft hatch and the stairs to be clear on the morning, because the glass and the frame go through the house in pieces. We agree the route through the house with you beforehand.

The room below is cleared and covered before anyone goes up. The opening is formed and the new frame fixed, flashed and made weathertight the same day, so the roof is never left open overnight. Inside, we line the reveals and leave the plaster ready for paint. The job is easiest to book for a spell of dry weather, but a small unit can go in between showers.

If you are near the edge of the parish, the places around, Borough Green, Wrotham and Seal, are covered too. Surveys are booked through WhatsApp on 07880 284133, by email to info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk, or with the request form.

Inside the room, the lining around the opening is finished to meet the ceiling or sloping soffit it joins, in plaster or painted board, and a deeper loft means a longer light well to line. The written quote names that finish alongside the glazing and the flashing, so the work around the glass is agreed before anyone climbs onto the roof.