Skylight and rooflight fitting in Cranbrook, Kent
Cranbrook sits in the Weald of Kent, south of Maidstone. The darkest spots in its houses can be a stairwell, a garden room or a kitchen extension that has no sky above it yet.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
Under a Wealden tiled roof
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1 Steep tiles, deep loft A tiled Wealden roof can have a long pitch and a roomy void beneath it. Daylight can come down to a landing from a roof window or a tube, and the loft gives us space to work. -
2 Hall houses and their extensions The area has listed houses of very different ages, from a late 14th century hall house to an 18th century house given a mock-Tudor extension by the brewery. -
3 Flat felt behind a pitched house A single-storey addition with a flat roof often sits against a taller original wall. The room behind it loses its window, and the flat roof above it is where daylight can return.
Stairwells and garden rooms under old tiles
Dark corners in Wealden houses sit along the stair and at the far end of the garden.
Cranbrook is a town in the civil parish of Cranbrook and Sissinghurst, in the Weald of Kent, and it sits some 15 miles south of Maidstone. The history written about the place is full of buildings that were made to last: a Grade I listed Wealden hall house and cloth hall at Wilsley Green, dating to the late 14th century, and a Grade II listed 18th century house, Baker's Cross House, that was given a mock-Tudor extension by the brewery. A far more modest house of any age in that landscape can have a middle that daylight never reaches.
What we check in the loft first
- Rafter spacing The gap between rafters sets how wide a roof window can be without extra framing.
- The line of the stair A shaft has to land over the landing or stair well, so we mark where it comes out on the ceiling.
- What is stored or run through Water tanks, cables and ducts in the loft decide how the shaft or tube is routed.
- The covering outside Tile type, battens and any felt tell us how the flashing is formed.
The stairwell with no window of its own
Take an older house with a central stair. The treads climb between two walls, the landing sits above the hall, and the only outside light arrives through a small window at one end or, in some cases, not at all. A long pitched roof leaves a deep void above that landing, and the void is what makes the job practical. A roof window can be set into the slope, with a lined light shaft running from the slope to the ceiling beneath. Where the distance is too great for a shaft to be lined neatly, a sun tunnel carries daylight down a narrow tube instead. Either way, the stairs, which every person in the house uses, get a patch of sky. A tiled roof is made of many small pieces, and a roof window is flashed into them course by course so water runs over the frame and away.
We measure the stairwell carefully before we say which suits. The gap between rafters, the slope outside and the line of the stair below all narrow the choice. A shallow slope changes what a roof window can do, and the guide to how shallow a roof can be is worth reading before you fall for a particular model.
A roof window that opens suits a landing, because warm air collects at the top of the house and can be let out through it on a summer afternoon.
Garden rooms at the edge of the plot
Agriculture became the mainstay of the economy once the cloth trade declined, and outbuildings, studios and garden rooms suit a place with that much land around it. A garden room is often a low box with glazed doors on one wall and a flat roof. It is bright by the doors and dim at the back, and a desk or a sofa pushed to the rear wall lives in that dimness. A flat rooflight over the back third corrects the balance without changing the look from the lawn, and the room can feel like part of the garden at any hour.
Roofs of this kind are usually simple, which is helpful. The structure is a few joists or rafters, a deck and a covering, so we check what is already there, how the covering is laid and how to build a proper upstand for the unit. The detail on upstands and kerbs is in its own guide. If the outbuilding was converted from a barn or a similar building, the permitted development position can differ from an ordinary house, so say so when you get in touch.
Old farm buildings and mills belong to this landscape too. The tributaries of the River Beult around Cranbrook once powered 17 watermills, and old mill and farm buildings are the kind of structure that gets converted to homes. A converted building of that sort is worth a conversation about its planning history before anything is ordered.
The kind of daylight each room can use
A stairwell wants a steady, even light so that the treads are easy to read at every hour. A shaft from a roof window gives that, because the light has bounced down a pale lining before it reaches the stairs. A garden room is a different case. People sit still in it, often at a screen, so glare from a low sun matters as much as brightness. Glass with a solar-control coating, or a blind fitted to the unit, takes the edge off a south-facing roof, and the specification is something we settle with you at the survey. North-facing slopes give the calmest light, and a rooflight there suits a studio, a workroom or a reading corner well. Over a desk, a rooflight with a blind fitted to the unit keeps screen glare down while the rest of the room stays bright.
Condensation is the other thing to plan for in a garden room, since the air inside is often warm and damp from a kettle or a plant shelf. Rooflights with a thermally broken frame and an energy-efficient glazing unit keep the inner surface warmer, which helps. Ventilation matters too, and an opening unit lets the room breathe on a muggy afternoon. Our page on electric opening rooflights covers the ones that open at the touch of a button, which is handy when the unit is out of reach above a desk.
Kitchen extensions, listed houses and consent
Planning for Cranbrook goes to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, and the skylight planning guide tells you when an application is needed. The structure, energy and escape side sits in the Building Regulations guide.
Myth
A roof window is only a hole in the tiles, so any roofer can cut one in an afternoon.
Fact
The rafters around a cut opening have to be framed to carry the load, and the new glazing is held to an energy limit set for the kind of unit it is. Loft rooms can bring fire and escape questions as well. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable.
A kitchen extension on a taller house
Rear additions on older Kent houses are often single-storey, with a flat roof stepping down from a taller original wall. The kitchen at the back is bright. The room it was built against, whether a dining room or a sitting room, loses its window to the extension. Light has to come from above, and the flat roof is where it can arrive. A flat rooflight placed close to the old wall sends daylight both into the kitchen and back through the opening into the room behind, which is the one that needed it.
A lantern is another option on a flat roof, and a taller one over an open-plan kitchen can look striking. A lantern stands taller than a flat unit, and that height usually brings planning into the picture, as the roof lantern rules page explains. Whichever you choose, the roof under it is the larger part of the work, and an old extension may need its deck, insulation or falls looked at while the roof is open.
When the house is listed
The Cranbrook area has listed houses of very different ages, and a listed house still has permitted development rights for roof windows, but a new or altered opening will almost always need listed building consent first. That is a conversation with Tunbridge Wells before it is a conversation about glazing. Conservation-style rooflights, which sit flush with the tiles and have a slim metal frame, are made for exactly this setting. Our guides on rooflights on listed buildings and on conservation rooflights on peg tiles go through what the council looks for.
Access, scaffolding and the weather
A steep roof changes how we reach it. Scaffold or a tower may be needed to work safely at the eaves, and we price that into the quote from the start. Clay tile and slate are lifted and re-laid around a new opening, so we check that spare tiles of the right type are available, or whether sound ones from elsewhere on the roof can be used.
Inside, a loft that is used for storage needs clearing around the work area, and the ceiling below is protected. A plasterboard lining forms the shaft or the splayed reveal of the window, and it is left ready for paint. For a flat roof, the day is quicker from the inside, but the covering outside is where the weather matters: we open only as much roof as we can close and make weathertight the same day.
From survey to finished opening
The survey is free, and you get a fixed written quote before any work is booked. Where the job is notifiable, we handle the Building Control notification and leave you with the paperwork, along with our 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing.
If you are weighing up an extension that is not yet built, tell us the roof plan early. A rooflight is much easier to fit while the roof is still being formed, and the builder can leave the right opening. Start with a WhatsApp message to 07880 284133, an email to info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk or the quote form. For houses a little further out, we also cover Benenden, Hawkhurst and Staplehurst.
Wealden stairs, garden rooms and listed roofs
What are the first questions to settle for a rooflight in a Wealden house?
Age and listing status come first, then the roof covering. A plain tiled slope on an unlisted house is usually simpler to flash. Hip, valley and chimney positions matter too, because the unit has to sit clear of them.
How do we get daylight onto a stair landing that has no window?
From the roof above it. Where the landing sits under a pitched roof, a roof window feeding a lined light shaft across the loft carries daylight straight down to the stairwell. When the run is long or the loft is crowded, a tube with a reflective lining can bring the light down instead. Rafter spacing, the shape of the stairs and what is stored in the loft decide between them, and we check all three before we suggest one.
Our garden room at the end of the garden is gloomy at the back. What goes in a flat roof like that?
A flat rooflight over the back of the room, built on an upstand and finished neatly inside, evens out the light from the doors at the front. We look at the roof structure first, since a thin deck may need extra support around the opening, and we check how the covering will be lapped into the upstand so the junction stays dry.
Who decides planning for a rooflight in Cranbrook?
Applications for Cranbrook go to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. For a rooflight on an ordinary house the question is usually whether you need one at all, and the planning guide lays out the tests.
Nearby towns to Cranbrook, Kent
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