Rooflights and skylights for Crockenhill homes

Where the stair comes up

A flight that rises between a party wall and the hall wall draws its daylight from a landing window, if there is one, or from doors left open. Terraces and semis from the Victorian period, the 1930s and the 1960s are often laid out this way, with the stair set back from the front door and any window small and high. By mid-afternoon in November the hall wants its light on.

The roof lies directly above the stair void, which is the advantage. A roof window placed in the back slope can drop daylight down the well so it reaches landing and hall together. Where the loft is too shallow, too full or too awkward for a window, a sun tunnel reaches the same stairs through a smaller opening, provided there is roof space between its dome and the ceiling to run the tube.

Sun tunnel or roof window over the stairs

A roof window brings in more light, shows the sky and can open. A sun tunnel asks for less of the roof and a clear run through the loft, and its diffuser sits flat in the ceiling like a light fitting. Where the void is wide and the loft is clear, the window is the natural pick. Where a tank, a duct or a boarded floor sits on the line, the tunnel can be angled round it with a bend, within the limits of the run. The measurements taken inside the loft decide which of the two goes on the quote.

The landing in between

A landing joining a front bedroom to a rear one has bedroom walls each side and frequently a bathroom or airing cupboard behind it. With the doors shut, the stairwell is its only source of light. A rooflight over it brightens the landing floor and the head of the stairs, and with doors open some of that daylight spills into the bedrooms. If the unit is a roof window that opens, warm air can also leave the top of the house.

Small details in the roof space settle how the job is done. A loft boarded for storage has boards that come up locally. A water tank, a pipe run or an extractor duct near the line of the stair is worked around. The landing ceiling may be plasterboard, or lath and plaster in an older house, and each is cut and made good in its own way. All of it can be seen from the loft hatch.

Reading the rafters

Rafter spacing sets the widest roof window that fits between two timbers without cutting them. On a VELUX unit, a code such as MK04 gives the width in its letters and the height in its digits, and we match the code to the gap where we can. Where we cannot, the opening is framed with a header and trimmers so the load of the cut rafters travels around it. The distance between two rafters is measured from the loft hatch.

Where in the slope

In a bedroom in the roof, the ceiling comes down to a low knee wall, and the question is where a window can go and still leave space to stand beneath it. We mark the position with the furniture and the swing of the door in mind. A window above the head of the bed brightens the morning, and on a south-facing slope it warms the room in July, so the choice of blind gets settled at the survey.

If the room is in the roof of a two-storey house, the way out down the stairs comes into play. Our Building Regulations guide covers how that works, and we go through it against your own flight of stairs.

Getting to the rear slope

The rear slope is reached from the garden, so we agree with you where a scaffold or tower can stand, how beds and borders are protected, and where materials wait. Where the garden is narrow, the footprint of the scaffold is marked out first so the borders keep as much room as possible. Indoors, everything is carried up the stairs, which means the hall and landing carpets are covered. We cover the opening as it is formed, then set and flash the unit into the slope, and the lining inside follows.

Glass for a bedroom

A bedroom roof window looks at the sky, so the glass is picked for how the room is used. A south-facing slope gets summer sun for much of the day, a child's room may be slept in at noon, and a light sleeper will hear rain on the pane. The quote names the glazing, and a blind, if you want one, is priced with it. Glazing and blind are chosen together, since the blind fits to the frame of the window.

A bedroom under an unconverted loft

When the back bedroom is on the first floor with an unconverted loft above, the ceiling is flat and the roof sits a few feet higher. Light has to travel down a shaft from the roof to the ceiling, and a sun tunnel or a short lined light well does that. A bedroom already in the roof is simpler, because the glass can sit straight in the sloping ceiling.

A roof that has never had a rooflight

A roof with no opening in it can be given one, and our write-up on putting a skylight into an older roof covers what that involves. A job taking in the stairwell and the back bedroom shares one set-up on the garden side and one pass through the loft, so we survey both together even if you only plan one for now. Replacing an old unit in the same spot means lifting the tiles around it and renewing the flashing along with the frame.

Choosing for each room

A stairwell job involves the loft hatch, the stairs and the hall floor all at once, so beforehand we agree where dust sheets go, how materials reach the loft, and which doors stay shut. A landing job is shorter in the roof and longer indoors, since the ceiling lining needs the most careful finish on a surface everyone sees on the way to bed.

A visit goes room by room: the stairs and landing from below, the loft from above, the back bedroom with a tape and a level. Access for the roof work is agreed on the same trip.

Sign-off and paperwork

Cutting an opening in a roof is building work, and we handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable. A ten-year workmanship guarantee in writing arrives with the finished job.

Places nearby

Swanley is the closest, a mile away to the north-east, with Hextable just over two miles to the north and Orpington about two and a half miles west. Each has its own page: Swanley, Hextable and Orpington.

Photographs of a stairwell or landing can go to us on WhatsApp, 07880 284133, or to info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk, and the quote form reaches us too.