Rooflights and skylights for Dunton Green homes
Dunton Green is a small village in the valley of the River Darent, close to the North Downs. In a typical house, the same few rooms tend to lose out: the through-lounge, the bathroom and the utility room.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
Which Dunton Green rooms lose out?
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1 The through-lounge, dim in the middle A lounge with a window at each end gets its light there. The stretch between, where the sofa or the dining table sits, relies on the lamps. -
2 A bathroom with a pinhole window Bathrooms are often fitted into whichever room had a spare corner, with obscured glass that lets in little. The roof above is the side with nothing in the way. -
3 Utility rooms behind the kitchen Once the extension is built, the utility room ends up in its deepest part, with a door to the garden and little else for daylight.
A village between the river and the Downs
Brick and tile country, and the rooms it leaves in the shade.
Dunton Green lies in the valley of the River Darent, three miles from Sevenoaks. It is designated as part of the Kent Downs area of outstanding natural beauty, because of its nearness to the North Downs. National and regional walking trails pass through the village, and the Darent Valley Path, which is reached from Rye Lane, follows the river from Sevenoaks to Dartford. The railway station has trains every 30 minutes towards London Bridge, Waterloo East and Charing Cross.
| Space | Usual limit on light | Fittings to price |
|---|---|---|
| Through-lounge | Windows only at the two ends | Flat rooflight over a single-storey part; roof window in a bungalow roof |
| Bathroom | A small obscured window, or none | Opening roof window; sun tunnel if no slope is overhead |
| Utility room | A garden door and one small window | Flat rooflight on a flat roof; roof window on a pitched one |
Brick, tile and the dates in between
The village has buildings from several decades. The Dunton Green Brick, Tile and Pottery Works opened in 1862, with clayholes, kilns and an engine house. Dunton Green Free Church followed in 1873, St John the Divine's, the parish church, was built in 1889 and 1890 from local bricks, and the Free Church moved to a new building on Station Road in 1937. Houses from the Victorian years onward are often brick under a tiled roof, and the plan of a house tells you more about where it goes dark than its age does.
Lounges that run the depth of the house
Interwar houses in particular often have a lounge that runs the full depth of the ground floor, with a window at the front and French doors or a window at the back. Both ends are bright, and the stretch in the middle, where the table or the sofa tends to sit, is not. If there is a roof directly over that stretch, because the house is a bungalow or the lounge has been extended in one storey, daylight can come in from above. With bedrooms over the middle of the room, the roof cannot reach it, and the answer lies elsewhere in the plan.
Obscured glass and a spare corner
Older houses were rarely built with a bathroom. One was fitted later in whatever space was spare, so it often has a small window of obscured glass, set high, or no window at all. The roof above a first-floor bathroom has nothing built against it, so an opening roof window can add ventilation as well as light. Where the bathroom lies at the centre of the plan, away from any slope, a sun tunnel runs the light down from the roof.
Stairs and landing
In a two-storey house the stairs take whatever light is left. A landing between two bedroom doors has no outside wall, and the stairwell below it is lit from the hall. A roof window directly over the stairwell sends light down both flights. Where the loft is large and the slope sits off to one side of the stairs, a sun tunnel can bridge the gap. Either way, the first job is to climb into the loft and see what lies between the roof and the ceiling. The hatch position, the direction the joists run and any tank or pipework up there decide whether light can drop straight down or has to be carried across to one side.
Behind the kitchen extension
A utility room added with a rear extension is usually the deepest part of the extension, with a door to the garden and a single window. Where the extension has a flat roof, a flat rooflight over it lets the room use the sky overhead. Under a pitched roof, the equivalent is a unit let into the slope. In both cases the unit goes where the work happens, over the sink or the worktop, so the daylight falls on what you are doing and not on the wall behind it.
Sevenoaks District, the Downs and your roof
Sevenoaks District Council receives the planning applications for Dunton Green. The village sits within the Kent Downs landscape designation, and the national conditions that govern a roof window are set out in our planning permission guide, which is the place to start.
Four terms behind a roof window decision
- Class C
- The class of permitted development for rooflights and roof windows on houses, subject to conditions on size, height and side slopes.
- Change-of-use permitted development
- A route for turning an office, shop or barn into a home without full planning permission. Houses created this way have no householder rights.
- Planning condition
- A requirement attached to a planning permission; some remove permitted development rights for the house they cover.
- Building Control notification
- The notice that tells the building control body about notifiable work, so that it can be checked and signed off.
Converted buildings
Not every house in a village began as a house. Barns, shops and offices have been turned into homes across England, and whether a converted home has householder permitted development rights depends on how the conversion was approved. Conversions approved through full planning permission are treated differently: the householder rights stay, unless the permission itself carried a condition that removed them. Houses made under change-of-use permitted development start without householder rights, so a roof window there needs an application. If you own a converted home, the planning decision notice is the document to find, and our guide to permission for a roof window explains how to read it.
A lantern on a flat roof
Planning treats a lantern on a flat roof differently from a window in a slope. The glass stands up from the deck, so a lantern normally falls outside Class C and needs an application to Sevenoaks District Council, unless the council confirms otherwise. The roof lantern planning guide explains the reasoning.
Building work and the paperwork
Cutting an opening in a roof counts as building work. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and the council's building control team or a registered building control approver does the checking. The skylight Building Regulations guide covers the structure, energy and fire points it can involve.
A home office with a roof window
The village has telecottage facilities. A back bedroom or a spare room used as an office has its own needs: a screen dislikes glare, and a desk dislikes shade. A roof window sited to the side of the desk gives steady light without putting the sun on the monitor, and a blind handles the brightest hours. We position the unit with the furniture in mind, and we measure the room to see where the desk can sit. A unit that opens also lets a warm study clear its air in summer.
Booking a survey from the Darent valley
From Maidstone it is about 20 road miles west to Dunton Green, which sits comfortably within our area. The survey starts in the room you want changed: where the windows face, how far their light carries and which stretch of the floor is dim. We then go up to the roof to find what is above that stretch, whether it is a pitched slope, a flat extension roof or the loft of a bungalow.
Choosing the product
The roof decides the product. Where it is a pitched slope, the answer is a roof window. A flat extension takes a flat roof rooflight, and a larger flat roof, such as one over a rear extension, can carry a roof lantern. A sun tunnel serves the bathroom or landing that has no roof directly overhead.
Opening or fixed
A roof window can be fixed or can open, and the choice follows the room. A bathroom gains from an opening unit because steam has somewhere to go. A utility room with a washing machine and a dryer benefits for the same reason. A fixed unit suits a room where ventilation is already handled, such as a lounge with doors at either end.
Fitting and finishing
We protect the floors and the route from the door to the room before anything is opened. In a pitched roof the slope is opened, the opening is framed, the unit is set in its flashings and the inside is lined. On a flat roof the kerb and the upstand are formed first and the rooflight is fixed to it. Wherever the van has to park, we plan the carry route with you before the day, so nobody is moving glass through the house for the first time on site.
The quote and the guarantee
After the visit you receive a quote in writing with a fixed figure, listing the unit, the roof work and the finish inside. A written 10-year workmanship guarantee goes with the finished work. Ask us to start by WhatsApp on 07880 284133, by email at info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk, or with the quote form.
Parts of a Dunton Green quote
- The unit itselfRoof window, flat rooflight or sun tunnel, and its size.
- The roof under itTiles, felt or another covering, and the timbers that carry the opening.
- Getting to the roofAccess from the garden or street, and how scaffold or ladders are placed.
- Opening and glassFixed or opening, the glass type and whether a blind is fitted.
- Work inside the roomLining the opening, plaster finish and clearing up.
Dim lounges and windowless bathrooms
How far out is Dunton Green for a free survey?
The village lies west of our Maidstone base, inside the area we cover. A survey costs nothing and carries no obligation.
Our through-lounge is bright at both ends and gloomy in the middle. Is the roof the only fix?
Light from above needs a roof over that part of the room. A through-lounge in a bungalow, or one with a single-storey section, has that. With bedrooms directly above the middle of the room, the roof cannot reach it, and what is possible becomes clear once we have seen the layout. A sun tunnel can help the hall or the landing, but it still needs a route through the roof space.
Who checks the Building Regulations side of a bathroom roof window?
Either the council or a registered building control approver checks the work; the notification itself is ours to handle where the work is notifiable. Our Building Regulations guide covers what the building control body looks at in a roof opening.
Our house was converted from another building. Can we still have a roof window?
The way the conversion was approved decides it. Householder rights are missing from a house made under change-of-use permitted development, so an application is needed. A conversion with full planning permission keeps its rights unless a condition took them away. Your decision notice shows which it was, and Sevenoaks District Council can confirm.
Nearby towns to Dunton Green
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.