Dartford skylights and rooflights

The box room

Often tucked over the hall or the stairs, the box room gets the least floor space and the smallest window in the house. The bed or desk goes against the wall under it, so the window lights one side and leaves the corner behind the door dim. A roof window is only an option where the roof slope forms part of the room, and if the box room sits in the main body of the house under the loft, the right answer may be a sun tunnel through the void. The dome is small, the tube is narrow and the diffuser leaves the ceiling flat, which suits a box room. If the slope does come down into the room, a roof window lights the whole ceiling and the sky becomes visible from the bed.

The glazing in a small room needs thought. Heat in summer and the amount of glass visible from the bed are both worth settling before an order is placed, and we go through the choices at the survey.

Dartford has a long written record. After the priory was destroyed in 1538 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII had a new manor house built, and from 21 to 25 June 1545 the town was the seat of national government. The houses we work on belong to a later chapter of that story, and the town's key industries, among them brewing, paper-making, flour milling and cement, declined during the 20th century. What remains for us is the housing stock, and each house is read on its own terms. Roofs vary from one street to the next, so the same size of window can need a different amount of work on neighbouring houses.

If the room doubles as a study or a nursery, think about how it is used at the hours the sun is up. A desk under the glass wants steady light from above and behind the screen; a cot wants a position the sun does not hit directly. We mark the likely spot on the ceiling and check it from the floor before cutting anything, and we explain the glass options for a sunny slope.

The garden room

A garden room built onto the rear of a house tends to have its glazing in the wall facing the garden. The doors give a bright strip along that side, and the part nearest the house is dim. Because the roof of such a room is usually flat, it can take a flat rooflight or a roof lantern, and the light then arrives over the middle of the floor. Our flat roof rooflights suit a low, simple roof, and a roof lantern gives a taller, shaped ceiling to the same room. On a flat roof, the build-up of felt and insulation beneath a rooflight is part of the survey, since the upstand is formed from it.

Daylight and warmth interact. A south-facing roof lantern or rooflight on a garden room brings strong light, and the glass specification helps manage heat; we go through the choices with you so the room stays comfortable. A roof lantern also sets the character of the ceiling, with the glass rising in a shape that frames the sky.

Getting materials to the roof of a garden room is usually the easy part, because a single-storey roof is reached from the garden. A box room or a stairwell job is different: the roof is two storeys up, so the access plan matters. We agree the route into the house, the covering for floors and the place for the van before the day, so nobody has to improvise a path through your hall.

The stairwell

A stairwell takes whatever light a window at the foot of the flight can spare. Daylight from above reaches each tread as well as the landing, because it falls the full height of the void. We look at the slope above the stair opening and fit a roof window where the pitch is overhead, or run a sun tunnel where a loft intervenes. The hall at the foot gains from it too: a hall that borrows light from the landing becomes brighter, and the upstairs doors can stay shut without darkening the stairs. Where the stairwell is wide and the ceiling high, a larger unit suits it, and where the stair is narrow a compact one will do. The opening over a stairwell is lined down to the ceiling, and the lining is finished so the light falls evenly on the walls of the flight.

A lantern over a flat roof

With a garden room, settle planning first. A lantern on a flat roof usually projects beyond 150 mm, which normally takes it outside Class C; unless the council confirms otherwise, it needs a planning application. A rooflight on a low kerb stands differently, and the survey tells us which of the two you have. Roof lantern planning and Building Regulations takes the lantern case step by step, and for a house in general our skylight planning guide lays out the conditions.

Replacing what is already there

A garden room or an older extension may already carry a rooflight that has misted between the panes or has simply reached the end of its life. We replace existing units as well as fitting new ones. A replacement roof window takes the 1.4 W/m²K window limit, and a size code such as MK04 tells us the unit's width from its letters and its height from its digits, which helps with a like-for-like swap. The final answer comes at the survey, where we take the opening's dimensions and inspect the kerb or frame it sits on. Our misted rooflights section explains the signs.

Where the old unit was a plastic dome or a thin glazed panel, replacing it is also a chance to choose better glass for the way the room is used now. We talk through the options for your orientation, and the new unit is set so that the roof covering and the internal lining meet it cleanly. The change often shows more from inside the room than from the garden.

Building Regulations

Cutting any new roof opening brings in the Building Regulations. They look at the framing around the hole, how well the glass holds heat and, for a room in the roof, the way out in a fire. For a rooflight or lantern the Part L limit is 2.2 W/m²K, and a roof window is held to 1.4 W/m²K (or Window Energy Rating band B minimum). We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and the council or a registered building control approver signs it off. The Building Regulations guide shows what they check.

From enquiry to finished ceiling

The survey costs nothing and starts in whichever room you want brighter. We take the width of the box room or the depth of the garden room, inspect the roof from outside and from the loft, then settle product and position together. A written quote follows with one fixed price spanning the unit, the roofing work and the finishing indoors, and our 10-year workmanship guarantee comes in writing at the end.

Send a photo of the room by WhatsApp to 07880 284133, email info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk, or fill in the form lower down. Neighbours get the same service: Hawley, Darenth and Stone.