Rooflights and skylights for Sevenoaks homes

The through-lounge

In a through-lounge the seating sits between two lit ends: a window at the front on one side, and a rear window or garden doors on the other. Both ends are bright. The middle of the floor, where the sofa and coffee table tend to sit, is as far from each as it can be, and in a terrace or a semi the side walls are shared with a neighbour or the hall, so they carry no glass at all. On a bungalow, or beneath a single-storey extension, the roof sits directly above that middle and a rooflight over it puts daylight on the floor itself. Before any glass is ordered we mark the centre of the floor and the point on the roof directly above it, so the opening can be placed over the part of the room that is darkest.

A two-storey house usually has a bedroom overhead. For that, we look for the nearest roof that does cover the room, such as a flat-roofed link or a rear addition, and place the glass there so it spills light into the through-lounge from the side. The ceiling height, the depth of the roof build-up and the direction the room faces all feed into where the glass lands. A rooflight facing south throws a bright patch that crosses the floor during the day, while one facing north gives an even, softer light.

The stairwell

Stairs on a two-storey house climb through the middle of the plan. The hall at the bottom borrows whatever comes through the front door, and the landing at the top borrows from open bedroom doors. The roof sits right above the top of the stairs, which makes this the easiest dark space to reach from above. Fitted into the slope above the landing, a roof window lets daylight drop down the stairwell as far as the hall, and open-tread stairs or a glazed balustrade pass more of it on. Painted walls in a pale colour carry it further again. Because the light arrives from above, it reaches the lower treads and the hall floor at an angle that no hall window can match. Where the loft between the ceiling and the roof makes a window awkward, a sun tunnel crosses it with a reflective tube. The route of the tube has to clear the loft, so before we settle on a route we look in the loft for pipework, cables and a water tank.

The upstairs bathroom

Bathrooms on an upper floor often get a small frosted window on an outside wall, or none. If the bathroom lies beneath the roof slope, a roof window over the bath or basin brings daylight into the room, and because it faces the sky it is rarely overlooked, so the glass can often stay clear. A sun tunnel is fitted here for light, so a bathroom that gets one keeps its own extraction, which is checked from the loft. Where there is a loft above, a sun tunnel suits better, and our guide to sun tunnels in a bathroom goes through how that works.

Conservation areas near the middle of town

Conservation areas close to the centre of Sevenoaks include the High Street, The Vine, Kippington and Oakhill Road, Granville Road and Eardley Road, and Hartslands, with others at Brittains Farm and Vine Court. Some of those may sit just across a parish boundary, so we check your own address against the council's records. A house standing inside one keeps the permitted development position it would have anywhere else unless an Article 4 direction has been made for the street. If it comes to a full application, the style of rooflight and the slope it faces weigh more heavily, and our conservation area rooflight guide explains how.

Listed buildings

Older streets in Sevenoaks have listed buildings among them. A listed house keeps its permitted development rights, but a new or altered roof window will almost always need listed building consent, and that application goes to the district council. What the application involves is covered in the listed building rooflight guide, including what the council will want to see of the roof slope.

Flats, conversions and conditions

Two kinds of property sit outside the usual householder position: flats and maisonettes, and houses created by converting an office, shop or barn under change-of-use permitted development. A house whose original planning permission carried a condition can sit outside it as well. For those the route is an application, and the guide linked above sets out the position so you can see it before we visit.

Building work and sign-off

Any new opening cut through a roof falls under Building Regulations, so the structure around the hole, the heat loss through the new glass and the fire and escape questions of any room in the roof all come into it. Escape works differently in a bungalow than in an attic above two storeys, and we look at which applies when we visit. The glazing has its own energy limit depending on whether the unit is a roof window or a rooflight, which is another reason the type is settled before the quote is written, since it fixes the specification we price. The Building Control notification is ours to handle where the work is notifiable, and the Building Regulations guide lists what gets checked.

What the measurements decide

A roof window goes in a slope, a sun tunnel crosses a loft, and a flat roof rooflight suits a flat-roofed link or extension. We also record the rafter spacing, the covering, the height of the ceiling and the length of any tube, since each changes the work and the cost. The written quote then names the unit, the glazing, the work to the roof covering and the finish inside the room, so you can set it beside any other quote line by line.

Fitting day and afterwards

Fitting is mostly done from above, with dust sheets down and a protected route through the house. The room below is covered first, so dust and debris stay off the floors. Inside, the opening is lined and left ready for decorating. You receive our 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing, with the paperwork for the notification where one applies.

A photograph before the visit

Households in Otford, Seal and Dunton Green can ask us for a survey too. If you can describe the dim room and send a photograph of the ceiling, or of the landing seen from the stairs, we arrive already knowing which part of the roof to look at. The quickest way to start is WhatsApp on 07880 284133, or you can email info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk. The quote form takes the same details.