Skylights and rooflights in Cliffe, Kent

Victorian terraces

Victorian terraced rows were often laid out for economy: a front room facing the street, a second room behind it, a kitchen or scullery at the back and a yard. The second room often had a single window onto the side or the yard, and when a rear extension later swallowed the yard, that window could look into a wall or into the new kitchen. Upstairs, the landing sits above the stairs with bedrooms on either side, so it depends on a door being open. Both of those spaces respond well to light from the roof, because the roof is the one face of the house that the extension has not touched.

Flint, ragstone and the thick wall

Walls of flint or ragstone are thick, and a window cut into one has a deep reveal that funnels the light into a narrow cone. The sill is high, the room is cool, and a corner far from the glass has little light on a grey afternoon. Altering such a wall is an expensive and disruptive job. Glass in the rear slope over the room leaves the stonework alone, and the slope can be chosen so the unit is out of sight from the road.

Barns, listed buildings and conversions

The records for Cliffe describe a 16th-century Grade II barn with a timber frame, weatherboarded walls and a hipped roof. Old farm buildings of that type are often turned into homes, and turning a barn into a home can mean the usual householder rights no longer apply. A listed building has its own route: a new roof window will almost always need listed building consent. We ask how a building started life before we talk about glass, and the planning guide explains why the answer matters.

Why a roof helps an old plan

In a house from the cement years or earlier, the quickest way to see the problem is from the doorway of the middle room on a dull afternoon. The window at the far end gives a pale rectangle, and the near end of the room is dim. Mark where that dim zone starts, and the roof above it is where the glass belongs.

Thick walls and small, deep-set windows are typical of older buildings, and they cut down the daylight a room receives from its sides. Putting light in at roof level avoids altering the walls, and it can sit on a rear slope that is not seen from the street. That is a different calculation from a new-build, and it is why we begin with the building and its age.

Extensions are the other source of dark rooms. Newer kitchens and garden rooms across the back of a house put a wide run of glass at one end and leave the old rooms behind them in the shade. The same kind of unit solves it: a rooflight placed where old meets new, so the daylight reaches back into the older part of the house.

The rear slope suits an old house for a practical reason. It is the part of the building that rarely carries a window, so glass can go where the room needs it without cutting into a stone wall or changing the face the street sees. Inside, the opening is lined and its reveal finished smooth, ready for paint.

The loft room

A loft room usually has a small window at one end and a ceiling that follows the slope. Daylight enters from the gable and fades before it reaches the other end. A roof window in the slope puts light on the far half of the room and lets you see sky from a desk or a bed. Fire and escape rules apply to a loft that is used as a bedroom, and the Building Regulations guide sets out how they work for a house of two storeys.

Dormers and gable windows sit at the ends of a loft room. A roof window on the garden-facing slope adds the missing side, and a second one opposite balances the floor where the roof is wide enough for a pair. The width of the room and the rafter spacing decide whether one unit or two will fit.

The garden room

A garden room has a large run of glass on its garden side, yet the end against the house can stay gloomy. A rooflight over that end, or a roof lantern over the middle of a larger room, adds a second direction of light. Because a lantern usually stands more than 150 mm proud of the roof, the planning position differs from a flat unit, and the roof lantern planning guide sets it out.

A lantern shows its glass from inside as well, so the lining and the proportions of the frame are chosen to suit the ceiling height.

The kitchen extension

Where a kitchen has been extended down a long plot, the inner corner near the old house is the far point from every outside wall. A low flat roof rooflight sits over that corner and leaves the roofline plain. We look at the covering of the flat roof, the direction its joists run and the height the upstand needs to reach.

The inner corner of a deep extension is often where the sink or the cooker stands, so the glass is placed with the worktop in mind.

Survey, quote and the day itself

The visit starts in the room that needs brightening. We ask where the sun falls in the morning and the afternoon, where furniture sits, and what you would like to see from your chair. The covering, the rafters or joists, the pitch and the access are checked from the roof. The quote that follows lists the unit and its size, the type of glass, what happens to the roof and how the inside is finished, all added up to one fixed figure in writing.

On the day, the room below is cleared and covered, the opening is formed and the new frame is flashed into the roof before we finish for the evening. A tall house on the escarpment can mean a longer ladder or a different way of getting glass to the roof, and we plan that at the survey. Inside, we line the opening and leave it ready for paint.

What moves the price in Cliffe

Opening size and roof build-up set the base. Access then adds its share: a tall house on the escarpment, or a back garden reached only through the house, takes longer to work than a bungalow with a side gate. The unit type matters too, as a raised lantern and a low flat rooflight are priced differently, and so are plain and coated glass. A loft room may need a deeper lining where the rafters are thick. Each of these appears as its own line on the written quote.

Conservation and sign-off

One conservation area carries the name Cliffe, so we check whether your house stands in it. Being inside it leaves your permitted development rights as they were, unless an Article 4 direction takes them away. The conservation area rooflight guide describes how the rules work in these areas, and we check your address at the survey. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and the finished job carries a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing.

Neighbouring places we cover include Cliffe Woods to the south, High Halstow to the east and Chattenden to the south-east. A survey request can reach us by WhatsApp on 07880 284133, by email at info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk, or through the booking form lower down.