Skylights and rooflights in Ticehurst

Trees, hills and the line of the roof

A house can sit below a rise or beside tall trees. A roof window faces the sky above that clutter, so it sees more than a wall window at the same height does. Which way the slope faces matters as well. A north-facing slope gives a cool, steady light, and a south-facing one brings sun that can heat a small room in summer, which is where a blind or the choice of glass comes in. We take a compass bearing at the survey instead of guessing from the road.

A station down the road

The nearest station is at Stonegate, which has hourly trains to London Charing Cross and Cannon Street and to Hastings, and a bus links the village to Wadhurst station. If you work from home, the dining room, the spare room or a landing alcove may be your desk, and a room that needs a lamp at noon is tiring to work in.

Old buildings and new openings

A house in a village that predates its station by centuries is likely to have been altered many times. A chimney moves, a lean-to is added, a loft is boarded. Each change can close off a window or open a route for light, and we start by asking for the story of your house. The result is better when we know that the wall behind a landing was once outside.

An old frame may carry the marks of earlier changes, such as a blocked-up window or a chimney taken down. We look for those from the loft, because they show where the roof timbers have already been altered.

Victorian houses

Houses from the Victorian era tend to be built as a string of rooms, each with a window to the front or the back. When a kitchen or a sitting room is extended across the rear, the dining room that sat in the middle loses the window it had. A rooflight set into the extension roof close to the old wall can return daylight to the table without touching the front of the house. This is also where a lantern may suit, and our roof lantern page covers when. If the extension has a pitched slope in place of a flat roof, a roof window fills the same role.

Houses of the last century

Later houses are deeper from front to back, with the stairs and hall as the core. Here the loft room is the one likely to be dim, because a bedroom in the roof may have only a gable window. A roof window on the longer slope lights it from above and gives a view while you sit. If the loft has been converted, rules on escape and energy apply, and our Building Regulations guide sets them out.

The inner dining room

A dining room that has doors to its neighbours and no outside wall of its own is easy to spot. It may have had a window onto a side passage that now looks into a utility room or a garage. A rooflight over the table end of the room costs less than moving walls, and the street elevation of the house stays untouched. Over a table, the light also falls where people sit for long stretches, which is a better use of daylight than a bright corner nobody uses. We measure the distance from the old wall to the far corner, because that sets how large the opening needs to be to reach the whole room.

Loft rooms: gable or slope

A gable window is limited to the end of the room it sits in, and the slope on the long side is where more light can come from. The sill height matters. A roof window set low enough to see out of from a bed or a chair works better for a bedroom than one placed high for maximum light, and a study can go the other way. If part of the ceiling follows the slope, the light well also gives you a lighter, taller feel to that edge.

A roof window on the long slope, with its sill near the foot of the sloping ceiling, gives a seated person a view of the sky. A loft used for storage keeps its use after the work: the boards lifted for the survey are relaid once the opening is formed.

Planning on an older house

For Ticehurst, Rother District Council is the body to ask, and the conditions that decide whether you need to are in the planning permission guide. An older house is more likely to be listed, and a listed house is treated on its own terms, as rooflights on listed buildings explains.

Building work and sign-off

Once a roof is opened, the job counts as building work, with checks on the structure around it and on how well the glazing holds heat. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and we hand you the paperwork at the end. Keep it with the house papers for when you sell. A buyer's solicitor may ask whether the roof work was notified, and the file answers that. The 10-year workmanship guarantee comes to you in writing too, so file it alongside.

Light for a working room

If a spare room or a landing alcove has become your desk, think about where the light will fall. A roof window above and slightly behind the chair spreads even light across the desk, where a window in front of you throws glare on a screen. A blind on the unit takes the sun off in summer afternoons. We settle these details at the desk itself, since they affect the size we suggest.

What the quote will say

After the survey you receive a written quote at a fixed figure.

Neighbouring villages

We also work in Wadhurst, about three and a half miles west, Burwash, about three and a half miles south, and Hawkhurst, a little over four miles east.