Upchurch skylights and rooflights
The village and parish of Upchurch lie about 2 kilometres north of the A2, with Rainham one way and Sittingbourne the other. A landing, a long lounge or a new kitchen extension that has lost its daylight can borrow it from the roof.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
Houses of the 1930s to the 1970s, and where they dim
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1 Inter-war stairs along a party wall Where a staircase hugs the party wall, the landing above has nothing on its outer side. Semis and terraces of that period are often planned this way, and daylight can reach that stairwell through a window in the roof pitch or down a sun tunnel. -
2 Post-war through-lounges A through-lounge joins the front and back of the house in one room. The middle sits furthest from both windows, and a rear extension can take the garden-side light away too. -
3 Extensions built from the 1970s on A flat-roofed kitchen extension adds floor area and pushes the room behind it further from daylight. The extension roof is usually where some of that light can be put back.
Low marsh, an old church and a long living room
The shape of your rooms matters more to the roof than where the village sits.
Upchurch stands about 2 kilometres north of the A2, between Rainham and Sittingbourne, on land that is low-lying and marshy today. Its record stretches from a grade I listed 14th-century church, with a small charnel crypt beneath it that turned up again in 1877, to the Upchurch Pottery, dating from 1909. We read each house by its own roof plan and its own rooms.
Terms on a rooflight quote
- Roof window
- Set level with the surface of a pitched roof, with its frame flush to the slope.
- Rooflight
- Mounted on a kerb or upstand that lifts it clear of a flat roof's surface.
- Sun tunnel
- A reflective tube between a dome outside and a diffuser inside, used where a loft separates roof from room.
- Light well
- The boxed shaft that carries daylight from an opening in the roof down to a lower ceiling.
The through-lounge
From the doorway you see a window at the front, a window at the back and a long stretch of floor between them. Both ends of a through-lounge catch daylight, and the middle gives out first. Add a rear extension and the back window may now open onto the new room rather than the garden, which removes the second source. The chair by the front window stays bright. The far end of the carpet, where the dining table or the sofa has ended up, does not.
A rooflight needs a roof over the room, and that settles which lounges we can help. In a bungalow the lounge sits directly beneath the roof, so a roof window, or a sun tunnel run through the roof space, can go straight over the dim middle. A two-storey house usually has bedrooms above the lounge. Daylight then has to arrive through whatever roof was built onto the back, and if there is none, we look at the rooms that do have a roof overhead.
When the extension is flat-roofed, a flat roof rooflight or a raised roof lantern just inside where the old back wall stood reaches into the lounge as well as the new space. A pitched extension suits a roof window set into its slope. We mark the spot from inside the room, standing at the darkest point and looking up, before anyone goes near a ladder.
Which way the glass faces
A tall, narrow living room facing the road gets its best light in the morning or the evening, depending on the compass. A roof opening collects light from the whole sky, so it stays useful when the sun has moved round to the other side of the house.
South- and west-facing roof glass warms a room on a bright afternoon, so we note the direction of the slope early. It guides the choice of glazing and tells us whether a blind belongs in the quote.
Where the same lounge doubles as a dining room, the table moves around, and the light from above does not care where it ends up. A fixed position above the centre of the floor suits that, because it favours no single corner.
Bungalow and chalet roofs
Single-storey houses give the clearest line from sky to floor, because there is no bedroom above and the rafters are the only thing overhead. In a chalet-style house the upper rooms sit inside the roof, and the same slope that forms their ceiling can take a window for the light below as well. We check the pitch and the build-up of the roof at the survey, since both affect which units fit the opening.
Roof glass on a bungalow also leaves the loft above unconverted if you wish, because the opening sits in the slope and the shaft runs only through the roof space.
Dark landings, and who decides what goes on the roof
Nobody asks for a window in the landing when a house is built. It is a corridor to the bedrooms and the bathroom, and where the stairs follow a party wall, the outer side is blank. A window in the roof pitch over the stairwell supplies daylight at its source, and that light drops down the stairs as well as spreading along the landing.
Where a loft sits between roof and ceiling, the stairwell can be too far below the tiles for a roof window to do the job. A sun tunnel covers that gap. Before recommending one we go up into the loft, measure the distance, and see what else passes through the space.
Myth
A roof window always needs planning permission, so asking is a waste of time.
Fact
On a house it is usually permitted development when the Class C conditions are met. Flats, some converted buildings and houses where a condition has removed the rights are handled differently, so the address is checked first.
Planning in Upchurch
For anything that alters the outside of a house in the village, the council to ask is Swale Borough Council. Whether a roof window or lantern needs an application turns on the type of dwelling and how far the glass projects, and the skylight planning permission guide lays out the conditions in full.
Upchurch has a conservation area carrying the village name. A conservation area on its own leaves permitted development rights in place; an Article 4 direction is what removes them. We look up your address with the council at survey, and the conservation area rooflight planning guide covers the detail. A listed house follows its own route, set out in our listed-building rooflight guide.
Cutting through a roof also counts as building work. The framing around the opening has to take the load the old rafters carried, and the glazing has its own energy standard. Where the work is notifiable we deal with the Building Control notification, and the Building Regulations guide describes what gets inspected.
Small openings, big difference
A landing needs far less glass than a living room. Over a stairwell, a modest roof window can light the whole run of stairs, and because the opening is small, the spacing of the rafters often settles its exact position. In a house with a boxed-in loft room above, the same stairwell may suit a sun tunnel instead, and the survey settles which.
Looking in the loft
Everything we need to decide about a landing is in the space above it. We look for the water tank and pipework, the wiring, the insulation depth and whether the ceiling joists run across or along the stairwell. A stairwell whose joists run the wrong way costs more to open than one where they run with the opening, and that difference belongs in the quote, line by line. If the stairs turn through a half-landing, we also check where the light will fall, so the brightest spot is on the treads.
A landing window needs no furniture moved and no wall opened, because the whole job happens in the roof and the ceiling line.
The kitchen extension, and the paper that follows the survey
An extension built across the back of a semi to hold the kitchen gives a household room to cook and eat together. It also puts a roof over the strip of house that used to catch the garden light. The worktops by the glass doors are bright. The island in the middle sits in half shade, and the old back room behind it is dimmer still, however many bulbs are in the ceiling. This is the plainest case for a rooflight, because a flat roof is already there with nothing built above it.
The survey begins in that kitchen and then moves up. On the roof we look at the covering, the falls, the direction the joists run and how the deck is built up. Those findings set the upstand height and tell us if a low rooflight or a lantern suits the roof. A lantern stands higher and usually falls outside Class C, so if it will need an application, that is settled at the start. Our roof lantern planning rules page explains the reasoning.
| Room | Product to weigh | Checked at survey |
|---|---|---|
| Landing under a rafter slope | Roof window in the rear slope | Rafter spacing, tile type, stair position |
| Landing with loft above | Sun tunnel | Tube route, insulation, ceiling clearance |
| Bungalow through-lounge | Roof window or flat rooflight | Roof build-up above the dim middle |
| Flat-roofed kitchen extension | Flat rooflight or lantern | Falls, joists, upstand and planning status |
Indoors, a rooflight in a kitchen invites questions about glare and warmth. The orientation of the roof answers part of that. A blind, or a glazing specification chosen for the aspect, answers the rest, and both are discussed before the quote is written. We line the sides of the opening and leave them ready for decorating, so no bare plaster is left around the glass.
Where the kitchen extension joins the older house, the roof usually steps down from the old wall, and a rooflight placed beside that step catches light that would otherwise bounce off the higher wall. We choose the position from inside the room so that the worktops and the table both get daylight.
From Maidstone to Upchurch
Upchurch is a drive of about 14 miles from Maidstone. The survey is free. A fixed written quote follows, naming the unit and its dimensions, its glazing, the roof works and the indoor finish. When the job is done, a 10-year workmanship guarantee goes into your hands in writing.
We cover the neighbouring villages too, including Rainham and Newington.
For a fast reply, WhatsApp 07880 284133. Email to info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk works as well, as does the quote form.
Landings, lanterns and building control
What can be done for a landing that has never had a window?
Daylight can come from above: through the slope or through the loft. Rafter spacing, the tile type and the gap between roof and ceiling point us to one product or the other, and the survey settles it.
Our kitchen extension has a flat roof. Is a lantern or a flat rooflight better?
A flat rooflight sits low and is usually simpler on planning. A lantern stands higher and gives the kitchen a raised glass ceiling, but it will normally need planning permission. How deep the kitchen runs and how much height the roof build-up allows usually settle it.
Who inspects the building work once the roof is opened?
The council's building control team or a registered building control approver does the inspecting. We deal with the notification for work that needs one, and the paperwork reaches you when the job ends.
Is there a charge for the survey visit to Upchurch?
Nothing, and you owe us nothing if you decide against the work.
Nearby towns to Upchurch
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.