Rooflights and skylights for Hamstreet homes

The weatherboarded cottages

A cottage in that style was built long before anyone planned for daylight in the middle of a house. Cottages of that age are often low, with small upstairs windows set close under the eaves and a staircase that rises through the centre of the plan. A steep tiled roof over such a cottage leaves the upper floor with sloping ceilings, so a roof window is sized to the room under it as well as to the rafters. When the stairs go up between two bedrooms, the landing has no outside wall, and it borrows whatever light comes through an open bedroom door. A roof window over that landing can change it, but it needs a clear run through the roof frame and the ceiling below. In an old roof the rafters may be spaced to suit the timber on hand, so we look at them from the loft before we say where a unit can go.

Houses from the spread of the 1900s

Twentieth-century houses often share a plan: a hallway that runs from the front door towards the back, with the stairs along one side and the reception rooms off the other. The hallway then has daylight only at its two ends, from a glazed door or a small side window, and the middle is lit by whatever a landing lamp provides. Where the roof space is open directly above it, a sun tunnel can bring daylight down to the middle of that hall through a tube and a ceiling diffuser. Hallways of that sort are narrow, so a tube of modest width is enough to change how the space reads. Where a bedroom sits over the hall, a tunnel has nowhere to run, and we look at the stair void or the landing instead.

The room in the roof

Some houses here have had the loft boarded and lined for a bedroom or a study. A gable window lights one end of such a room, and the far end can stay gloomy by mid-morning. A roof window in the slope on that side fills the gap, and with the sill set low in the slope you can see out when seated. A boarded loft used as a bedroom also needs a way to darken the room, which is one more reason to settle blinds when the unit is chosen. A room in the roof is treated differently from an ordinary bedroom under the Building Regulations, so read the escape and energy rules in our Building Regulations guide before you plan the layout.

A named area in the village

There is a conservation area called Hamstreet, so it is worth asking about. Where an application is needed, the details to settle are which slope the unit faces, how low it sits and how the flashing meets the tiles.

Why two Hamstreet quotes can differ

The free survey ends with a written quote at a fixed figure. In a village of weatherboarded cottages and later houses, the roof underneath can make as much difference to the figure as the glass itself. A roof window in a recently re-roofed slope is a different job from the same window in an old roof with irregular timbers, even if the units are identical.

Access plays a part as well. A cottage with a steep, low-eaved roof and a narrow lane in front is harder to reach than a bungalow with a drive. The interior matters too: the longer the run from roof to ceiling, the more lining the light well needs, and the more plastering and decorating you will want afterwards.

Landing and stairs

A roof window over the stair void brings daylight to the landing and the upper treads in one go. The light well has to rise through the ceiling without crossing a chimney breast or a water tank, so we check what sits in the loft before anything else. A landing that is only a short stretch between two bedroom doors can often be lit end to end by a single roof window of modest width. Where the stair turns, the landing can sit under a different rafter bay from the flight, and we trace that line from the loft hatch. If the loft is full and the rafters are tight, a tunnel may be the more practical choice, since its tube can bend around an obstruction where a square shaft cannot.

Hallway

A sun tunnel is a small opening in the roof and a tube down to the ceiling, which suits a narrow hall well. The diffuser can be round or square. Under a tiled pitched roof the flashing is set into the tiles; at the other end, the diffuser sits flush with the ceiling, and you see a bright disc in the plaster and no sign of the roof. Stand in the hall at midday and note where the dim stretch sits: that spot is where the diffuser belongs, and it fixes where the tube leaves the roof.

Loft room

Decide what the room is for before you pick the glass. A bedroom wants a unit that opens and a blind that darkens the room; a study wants a high, even light that falls over a desk without glare on a screen. Opening vents, blinds and the view from a seat are all choices we settle at the survey, standing under the ceiling in question.

Doing two rooms in one visit

If both the landing and the hallway are dark, the two jobs can share one visit to the roof, with scaffold and access set up once. A roof window over the stairs and a tunnel for the hall are separate openings, and each has its own flashing, so the roof is opened in two places and closed again before we leave. Inside, the ceilings are finished around each opening, and you decide whether the splay of the light well is painted white to bounce the light further or matched to the room.

Ventilation and blinds

A roof window that opens lets warm air out of a loft room in summer, and a blind on the same unit cuts the glare on bright afternoons. A fixed unit costs less and suits a landing, where nobody sleeps and the air is already moving through the house. Tell us how you use each space and we will suggest what to open and what to leave fixed.

Nearby, we also work in Ashford, about six miles to the north, and in Finberry, about four miles away. If you are comparing costs for a roof that has never had an opening, fitting a skylight into an existing roof shows the stages once you have chosen the room.