Rooflights and skylights for High Halstow homes
High Halstow is a village on the Hoo Peninsula, between the Thames and the Medway, with its church on the peninsula's highest point. For a dining room, a garden room or a kitchen extension that has gone dim, daylight can be brought in from the roof.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
At the back of the house, where the extension begins
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1 The bungalow with a deep middle Modern bungalows stand on the site of five thatched cottages behind the church. A bungalow has the roof directly over every room, which makes its middle, the dining room or the hall, easy to reach from above. -
2 Houses added for refinery staff From 1952 the village grew to house workers at the Isle of Grain oil refinery. Plans of the mid-20th century often put the hall and stairs at the core, with little outside wall to spare for windows. -
3 A flat-topped garden room A flat-roofed garden room has a whole roof of its own to work with. A lantern or rooflight there can serve the new space and the room it joins.
Bungalow roofs, a dining room and a garden room
A village that stayed small until after the Second World War has grown in layers, and each layer lights its rooms differently.
High Halstow's church of St Margaret is Grade I listed, was built on the highest point of the Hoo Peninsula and is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The village around it was small: a school, two shops, a pub, a wheelwright and an undertaker. It stayed that way until after the Second World War, and then houses went up for refinery workers from 1952. The outcome is a village of several layers, with farmhouses of the early 18th century such as Buck Hole Farmhouse and Great Dalham at one end of the scale and modern bungalows at the other.
A dining room with a neighbour's wall for a view
A bungalow spreads its rooms across one floor, and the dining room can end up in the centre, between the lounge and the kitchen. Its window, if it has one, may look onto a neighbour's wall or a side passage. Because nothing sits above it but the roof, this is one of the easiest rooms in the village to light. Under a sloping roof, the answer is a roof window fitted flush with the tiles. Where the roof is level, a flat rooflight does the same job, and either one drops daylight straight onto the table.
The loft complicates matters a little. Between the rafters and the ceiling there is usually a void, and the opening must be framed through it and lined with a light shaft. That work is part of every quote we write for a ceiling like this, and it explains why two roof windows of the same size can differ in what they cost.
What the loft void does
In a bungalow the loft between the rafters and the ceiling is where the opening gets awkward. The roof window sits at the top, the ceiling opening sits at the bottom, and a boxed shaft joins them. Angle that shaft outwards at the bottom and it spreads the light across the whole table. We draw the shaft on the survey sketch, with its height and the width of the ceiling opening, so the proportions are clear to you before anything is ordered.
The inside of the shaft is lined and painted white, and that finish is itemised in the quote with the rest of the job.
The hall
The hall of a bungalow is usually a corridor with doors off it, and the rooms it serves borrow its light when their doors stand open. A sun tunnel run through the roof space can bring a disc of daylight down to the hall ceiling. A tube that is straight and short passes more light than a long one with bends, so the route through the loft matters as much as the size of the dome.
Glass walls and a dark centre
Conservatories and garden rooms invite long views of the garden, and the people sitting inside them lose track of how dim the middle of the floor has become. Overhead glass changes that: the sky lights the centre as well as the edge. Where the room is used in the evening, internal lighting still matters, but the daytime balance shifts and the lamps stay off longer.
A garden room added to the side or back of a house is usually a single storey with its own flat roof, and its glass walls light the edges while the centre stays in shade. A roof lantern or a flat roof rooflight overhead puts light on the middle of the floor.
A garden room with thin roof construction can heat up quickly in summer. We note the existing construction and the aspect, so the glazing is chosen for that room, and the specification goes into the quote.
What sets the price of a Halstow job
- Size and shape of the openingA larger opening needs more framing and a bigger unit.
- Pitched or flat roofEach covering has its own flashing and weatherproofing.
- Type of unitRoof window, flat rooflight, lantern or sun tunnel.
- Structure around the openingCut rafters or joists need new members to carry the load.
- Glazing specificationChosen for the room's aspect and the energy limit for the product.
- Access and finish insideScaffold, ladders and the lining of the light shaft.
The kitchen extension, Medway Council and the drive north
Behind the church, in the area once called the Square, several modern bungalows replaced five thatched cottages, and Churchill Place was developed nearby. Any house in the village may have been extended at the back since it was built. A kitchen extension leaves the room it was built against with a window that opens onto the new space instead of the open air.
The roof over the extension is where we look first. If it is flat, a rooflight on a low upstand can go over the join between the old back wall and the new kitchen. A lantern gives more height and more glass, and stands higher on the roof, so it usually falls outside Class C and calls for an application. The roof lantern planning and Building Regulations guide explains the reasoning.
| Space | Roof above it | Unit to weigh |
|---|---|---|
| Bungalow dining room | Pitched, with a loft void | Roof window and light shaft |
| Bungalow hall | Pitched, with a loft void | Sun tunnel |
| Garden room | Flat or lean-to | Flat rooflight or lantern |
| Kitchen extension | Flat, built onto the old wall | Flat rooflight or lantern |
Reading the extension from outside
Before we climb up, we walk round the extension and note how it meets the original house. The line where the new flat roof abuts the old wall needs its own detailing, so it affects where the glass can sit. A rooflight set some distance out from that line has a simpler detail than one tucked right against it, though the inside of the room is better served by glass close to the old wall. The survey resolves that compromise on the actual roof, with the actual flashing in front of us.
The same walk-round shows how the extension is drained. Gutters, downpipes and the fall of the roof all influence where a unit can stand without water pooling against it. A rooflight placed at the lowest point of a roof with poor falls invites trouble, so we look at the direction water travels before settling on the spot.
What happens on the roof
The forecast shapes the order of work on the day, since the opening and the weatherproofing are planned together.
Once the covering is lifted and the framing is exposed, the plan on paper meets the real timbers. If the rafters sit where the survey said, the opening is formed as drawn, and a trimmer is added to carry the cut members. The unit is then fixed, flashed into the covering and weathered in. On a flat roof the same stages apply with an upstand in place of the flashing kit. Indoors, the lining and plasterwork are made good, and the room is ready for decorating.
Which council decides
High Halstow lies in the unitary authority of Medway, so Medway Council is the local planning authority. Whether a house needs an application for a rooflight depends on the conditions in Class C, set out in our planning permission guide. The two Grade II listed farmhouses, Buck Hole Farmhouse and Great Dalham, are buildings where a new roof window would almost always need listed building consent, a separate permission; the page on rooflights on listed buildings covers that case.
The Building Regulations apply to any new opening in a roof. Covering the structure and the energy standard, they are explained in the Building Regulations guide, and we deal with the Building Control notification when the work needs one.
Choosing between a rooflight and a lantern
A flat rooflight sits low and keeps the outline of the extension unchanged. A lantern rises from the roof, gives a deeper glazed ceiling inside and lets in light from several sides. Neither is better in every case. The height of the room, the joists, the budget and the need for a planning application all feed into the choice, and when both are viable we price them side by side so the difference is visible.
A lantern also changes the room below, since its glazed sides lift the ceiling into a shallow roof of glass. In a kitchen extension that sends light across the whole worktop. Whichever is chosen, the joists beneath a flat roof set the size of the opening, and a trimmer is added where a joist is cut. The kerb on a flat roof is built up from the deck to the height the unit needs.
From Maidstone to the peninsula
The village lies at the junction of the old roads from Hoo and Cliffe to the Isle of Grain, now a crossroads north of the A228. Northward Hill reserve, 270 hectares of grazing marsh, woodland and farmland, lies close by, and a heronry has been recorded in the woods since at least 1947.
After the survey you get a single fixed written quote, and when the work is done our 10-year workmanship guarantee is handed over in writing. Nearer the Medway, Hoo St Werburgh is under two miles south as the crow flies, and Chattenden lies a little further to the south-west. WhatsApp 07880 284133 is the way to book, or use the quote form.
Bungalow middles and flat garden-room roofs
How do you get daylight into a dining room in the middle of a bungalow?
Straight down through the roof over it. Under a pitched roof, that means a roof window plus a boxed light shaft down through the loft; under a level one, a rooflight. We measure the ceiling void and the rafter layout at the survey.
Our garden room has a flat roof. What goes on it?
Either a low rooflight or a roof lantern. Headroom and the look you want from inside steer the choice, and a lantern normally needs a planning application because it stands higher.
What decides the price of a rooflight on a Hoo Peninsula bungalow?
Opening size, roof covering, product type, structure, glazing and access each play a part.
Who decides if a roof lantern needs a planning application here?
Medway Council is the planning authority, and a raised lantern over a flat roof normally needs an application. The conditions that apply to your house are in our planning guide.
What does the survey cost for a house this far north of you?
Nothing. High Halstow sits about 18 miles from Maidstone, inside the area we cover.
What happens to the loft when a sun tunnel goes into a bungalow hall?
A tube runs through the loft between the dome on the roof and the diffuser in the ceiling. We check what is up there first, including tanks, wiring and insulation, so the tube can run in a straight line. Paint colours read differently under daylight than under a bulb, which is worth bearing in mind before the hall is decorated.
Nearby towns to High Halstow
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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.