Skylights and rooflights in Edenbridge

Why a bathroom goes dark

Bathrooms get tucked into the middle of a house. One sits between the bedrooms, another over the hall or beside the stairs, wherever the plumbing runs allow. In terraced and semi-detached houses the bathroom often backs onto the party wall or the landing, with a small frosted window if the wall permits one and nothing if it does not.

Overhead, the roof can supply what the wall cannot. If the bathroom is on the top floor, glass in the slope or a sun tunnel puts daylight over the bath, and privacy takes care of itself because the glass faces the sky. A window that opens helps clear steam. The sun tunnel suits a bathroom where the loft above is too shallow for a full unit, and the notes on bathroom sun tunnels go through that case.

What the roof above decides

A hipped roof falls away on four sides, so a bathroom near a corner may sit under a slope that drops steeply. A pitched roof with a gable has a slope on two sides and a full-height wall on the others. A flat roof over a bathroom extension takes a flat rooflight on an upstand, and what lies beneath the covering matters as much as the glass. Each type has its own flashing, worked out against the roof actually there.

Condensation gathers on the cold face of any glass, so the glazing and a way to ventilate the room are chosen together. We note both at the survey and name the glazing on the quote.

Hips, valleys and where the window goes

On a hipped roof the main slopes meet the hip slopes along angled timbers, and a roof window is kept clear of them. A window needs ordinary rafters on either side, so on a hipped bathroom roof it sits in the main slope with space to spare, and the hip rafters are left alone. A valley, where two roofs meet, brings water down in a concentrated stream, and the same rule applies: keep the glass out of it. The position is drawn on the survey sketch before we price it.

Sun tunnel or roof window

A bathroom directly under the roof can take either one. A roof window gives a view of sky and more light, while a sun tunnel needs a smaller opening and a clear run through the loft from dome to diffuser. If a water tank, a stack of boxes or a pipe sits on that line, the tube can be angled round it with a bend, and where the run is too crooked a window in a better spot is the answer. The deciding measurements come from inside the loft.

A ground-floor bathroom has the first floor above it, so neither unit reaches. There the daylight has to come from a window in the wall, or from a rooflight over a landing or stairwell that opens into the bathroom's corridor.

Where the light has to come from

When the lounge lies under a pitched roof with bedrooms above, the roof cannot reach the middle of the room. The answer then lies in the room beyond: a rear extension with a flat roof or a mono-pitch can take a rooflight on the line where old wall and new roof meet, close enough to light the back of the lounge as well as the extension. At the survey we check which way the glass would face and how far into the lounge the daylight would travel.

Position matters more than size. A small rooflight above the centre of a long lounge does more than a large one pushed against the extension wall, because the daylight lands where the chair, the sofa or the table stands. The ceiling is formed with a splayed lining, so the opening widens into the room and spreads light further instead of casting a hard-edged square on the floor.

Sun on the sofa

A rooflight over a sitting area lets in high sun in summer and low sun in winter, and the glass is chosen with that in mind. A south-facing opening over a lounge sofa may want solar-control glazing or a blind, and a north-facing one may need neither. Both options are priced in the quote, so the choice is yours before any work begins. A blind on the glass is the simple answer where the sun is strong.

Listed buildings and the conservation area

Edenbridge has a Grade I listed parish church, St Peter and St Paul, and there is a conservation area named Edenbridge. Sevenoaks District Council's records show which rules apply to your address, and our guide to rooflights in conservation areas shows how they work when an application is needed.

A listed house is another matter. It still has its permitted development rights, but a new or altered roof window will almost always need listed building consent. See rooflights on listed buildings for the process.

Glass in an unbroken roof

A house whose roof has no opening yet can be given one. The structure around the opening comes first, then the weatherproofing, then the finish inside, as described in fitting a skylight where none existed. The rafters are checked from the loft first, and the opening is placed between them where it can be.

Planning and Building Control

Sevenoaks District Council deals with planning for Edenbridge, and whether a given rooflight needs an application can be checked against the skylight planning guide. On a flat roof a raised lantern is a different matter from a flat rooflight; roof lantern planning and Building Regulations covers it.

The opening itself is building work. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and you receive the paperwork when the job ends.

How a flat-roofed utility is done

On a flat-roofed utility the deck is opened and framed, an upstand is formed around the opening and the existing covering is lapped to it. A pitched or lean-to roof follows the same order with different details: tiles are lifted and a roof window is framed between the rafters, with flashings in place of an upstand.

Falls matter on a flat roof. The deck slopes towards a gutter or outlet, and an upstand that sits across that slope has a high side and a low side, so water is led around it with a small cricket or tapered fillet. We note the direction of the fall at the survey and draw the position of the unit to suit it.

What to have ready

A clear loft hatch and a view of the utility ceiling from below are all the survey needs. Tell us where the washing machine, the boiler and any extractor are staying, because the rooflight position is drawn around them. If the roof has been re-covered recently, mention it: the covering sets how the new flashing is lapped.

Towns next door

We also cover Westerham and Sevenoaks. For Edenbridge itself, WhatsApp 07880 284133 or info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk will reach us, and so will the quote form. Every job carries our ten-year workmanship guarantee in writing.