Rooflights and skylights for Culverstone Green homes

Long plots and deep houses

Plots cut out of farmland or an old fruit farm are often long and narrow, with the house at one end and a garden that runs a long way back. That shape invites extension. A kitchen goes on the back, then perhaps a dining area or a garden room beyond it, and the distance between the oldest rooms and the nearest outside wall grows each time. Whether yours has that shape is something we see on the walk-through.

What the ages of the houses tell us

Houses from the early nineteenth century tend to have rooms that open one off another, modest windows and a staircase set in the middle of the plan. Houses from the mid twentieth century often have a better window area, but the plan is deep, with a hall running to the stairs and a lounge or dining room in the centre. Houses of either kind may since have been extended at the back or the side, and every extension pushes some earlier room one step further from the outside.

Roads and frontages

The A227 is the spine of the area. A house that fronts a road like it has its front rooms lit from the road and its back rooms lit from the garden, and anything between the two relies on borrowed light. Extensions usually go on the quiet garden side, which adds depth to the very part of the plan that was already furthest from the road.

The hall and the landing

In a deep plan the hall runs from the front door to the foot of the stairs with a room on each side, and the landing above repeats the pattern. If the slope over the stairwell is clear, a roof window lights the flight from the top. If the loft floor or the rafters get in the way, a sun tunnel reaches round the obstruction with a flexible or rigid tube.

Those patterns tell us where to look first when we arrive. At the survey we walk in from the front door until we find the room with the least light, and the roof above that room becomes the focus.

The dining room

A dining room that sits between the kitchen and the lounge has doors on at least two sides and sometimes no window at all. Of the options, a sun tunnel run up through the loft disturbs the house least to put daylight there, because it needs only a small opening in the roof and a short run of tube. Where a slope sits right above, a roof window gives a larger patch of light and can be opened for ventilation. Either unit works from the roof down, so the dining room does not lose any of its wall space. A tunnel's diffuser can be set at the table end of the dining room, away from the door, so the light falls where people sit.

Which way the glass faces

The direction a roof faces changes how the room feels. A rooflight on a south-facing slope gives bright, warm light and may call for glass with a solar-control coating. One on a north-facing slope gives a steadier, cooler light all day. A flat roof has no facing at all, so the position of the unit counts for more than the direction. We note the orientation at the survey and talk through the glazing options with you, since the choice of glass belongs in the quote from the start.

The kitchen extension

A kitchen extension is the place where a lantern or a flat rooflight makes the most visible difference. A flat roof rooflight sits low and plain on the roof. A roof lantern rises above its kerb and has glazed sides as well as a glazed top. The choice depends on the ceiling height you want, the way the extension was built and what the council says about the height of a lantern, which the roof lantern planning guide explains.

Whichever unit goes in, the weather side of the job is the same. The covering is cut back, a new upstand or kerb is formed, the frame is flashed and the glass is set. The glazing is chosen for the room it covers, as a south-facing kitchen has different needs from a lounge that faces north.

Dining room and lounge as one space

Where the dining room and the lounge have been knocked into one, a single unit can light two uses. A single rooflight set at the join of the two zones gives the table and the sofas the same patch of daylight. If you are planning that wall removal, say so at the survey, because the structural work and the roof opening can be arranged together.

Ventilation over the cooking area

A fixed unit lights a room, and an opening unit also lets out steam and heat. Where a kitchen extension has a cooker or a hob under the glass, an opening rooflight, with a manual pole or an electric motor, gives the room a second way to air. Our electric opening rooflight page describes the options. The opening mechanism changes the specification and the price, so it is a decision for the survey.

Building work and sign-off

Cutting a hole in a roof brings the Building Regulations into play. The framing around the opening is checked, the glass has to meet the energy limit for its type, and some houses raise fire and escape points as well. The Building Regulations guide goes through them. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and the council or a registered building control approver signs it off.

Rights that depend on the building

Flats and maisonettes sit outside the householder rights altogether. So do homes that began as offices, shops or barns and were turned into houses under change-of-use permitted development. An earlier planning permission for the house may also carry a condition that took the rights away, which is why we ask about any extension the house has had and read the paperwork that goes with it. The answer comes from your own address and the council's records, and we settle it before a quote is written.

What the survey is like

Our survey costs nothing and comes before any price. It begins in whichever room you want lighter, which might be the dining room, the lounge or the kitchen, and moves to the loft and the roof. What follows is a quote that is fixed and in writing, and a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing comes with the finished work.

Close by we also cover Vigo Village, Meopham and Wrotham. Our WhatsApp number is 07880 284133, our email is info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk, and the enquiry form reaches us too.