Skylight and rooflight fitting in Hawley, Kent
Hawley lies in the civil parish of Sutton-at-Hone and Hawley, with Dartford to the north. In a house here, a room that sits far from its windows can borrow daylight from the roof above it.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
Where light runs out in a Hawley house
-
1 The through-lounge's middle A lounge that spans the depth of the house is bright beside its two sets of glass. The stretch between them, where the sofa often stands, leans on lamps for much of a winter's day. -
2 A dining room against a wall A dining room set between the lounge and the side boundary may have one small window or none. The table ends up where the light is weakest. -
3 A garden room with a blank back A garden room added to the house has glass on its garden sides and the house wall behind. The strip of floor nearest that wall stays dim.
How deep a lounge can go before it dims
A through-lounge takes the full depth of the ground floor, with a window facing the street at one end and glazed doors to the garden at the other. On a floor plan it looks generous. In daily use the light changes along its length: strong at each end and thin in between. The middle of such a room sits much further from the nearest glass than either end does, and in winter that middle turns grey early in the afternoon.
The layout tells us more than the street name does. What we measure is the distance from the nearest glass to the spot where you want to read, eat or sit, and whether there is a roof directly above that spot.
| Room | Roof directly above? | Where we look |
|---|---|---|
| Through-lounge, rear extension | Yes, over the extension | The extension roof, close to the old wall |
| Through-lounge, bedrooms above | No | A nearby single-storey roof, or a loft tube to a neighbouring hall |
| Dining room beside the lounge | Depends on the extension | The neighbouring roof; survey confirms |
Roof directly above
Some through-lounges have a single storey over part of their length, perhaps an extension added at the back. The flat or pitched roof there is a short step from the dim middle. A rooflight or roof window placed in that roof, towards the old wall, sends daylight onto the floor that the windows cannot reach. Where bedrooms sit above the lounge, no roof covers that stretch. We then look at the nearest single-storey roof, or at whether a tube from the loft could light a hall next to the lounge.
A flat roof rooflight suits one situation, and a roof lantern a wider opening. A roof window belongs in a pitched slope. A pair of smaller units sometimes serves a long lounge better than one large one, because the light is spread in two places along its length. The covering, the direction of the joists and the rooms above settle which one is possible, and the survey is where we find out.
Glass that keeps the room comfortable
More glass overhead means more sun in summer and a colder surface in winter if the specification is careless. The options we talk through include a solar-control coating on a south-facing roof and laminated or toughened panes for safety. Aspect, room use and the size of the opening steer the choice. A blind under a glazed roof can cut glare, and the choice of glass decides how much heat reaches the room in the afternoon.
Judging your own room
You can test a room before we visit. Stand in the dim stretch around three in the afternoon in winter, and note which direction the nearest window faces and how far away it is. Then look up and see what lies above: a flat roof, a pitched slope, a bedroom. Those three notes tell us much of what we need to plan the visit, and a picture of the nearest window with the ceiling above it helps further.
What you see from the sofa
A rooflight over a lounge gives the ceiling a view of the sky, and the frame inside the room is finished flush with the plaster. Finishing detail matters here, because the reveals around the opening are the part of the unit you look at most. We line them and leave them ready for paint, with the angle of the splay chosen to spread the light. If the lounge ceiling follows the slope of the roof, the opening is lined down to the room in one plane. If the ceiling is flat, the lining forms a short shaft of its own.
Dartford Borough Council and the words on a quote
Dartford Borough Council handles planning in Hawley, so it is the body to ask when the outside of a house changes. Whether a rooflight needs an application depends on what sort of house you have and where in the roof the unit goes; the planning permission guide goes through the conditions one by one. For structure, energy and escape, the Building Regulations guide has the detail.
A garden room needs its own mention. Rooms of that kind are sometimes built as outbuildings and sometimes as extensions with a roof that joins the house, and the rules differ between the two. We ask for the paperwork on yours at the survey. Where a lantern is planned over a flat roof, a separate guide on lantern planning and building regs covers the planning route.
Quote words for rooflight jobs
- Upstand
- A low kerb built up from a flat deck, which the rooflight or lantern is fixed to.
- Trimming
- The extra timber framing round a new opening that carries the load of the cut rafters or joists.
- Reveal
- The lined faces round the opening, seen from below, finished for decorating.
- Solar-control glass
- Glass with a coating that cuts the heat from the sun.
Reading a rooflight quote
A written quote for a rooflight job leans on words that are easy to skim. The quote itself names the product, the opening and the finish inside.
Who carries out the notification
Cutting through a roof for a new unit counts as building work. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and a ten-year workmanship guarantee is given in writing when the job is complete.
Rooms next door to the dim one
A rooflight lights more than the floor beneath it. Light that enters a lounge through the roof also travels through an open doorway or an internal opening into the next room along, so the dining room beside a lit lounge gets a share. Doors with glass panels or a wide arch between the rooms help that along. We look at the openings between rooms on the survey, because they decide whether one unit can serve two spaces.
Planning history and your house
Permissions granted when a house was built can carry conditions, and a condition can take away rights an ordinary house has. If you still have the decision notice for your house or extension, keep it handy for the survey. If you do not, the council holds the planning history and we can tell you what to ask for.
From Maidstone to a Hawley survey
Hawley sits roughly 22 road miles from our Maidstone base. There is no charge for our survey visit.
| Roof type | What we check | Unit that suits |
|---|---|---|
| Flat roof | Covering, falls, joist direction | Flat rooflight or roof lantern |
| Pitched roof | Tiles or slates, rafter spacing, lining | Roof window in the slope |
| Glazed roof, ageing | Frame, seals, glass condition | Replacement unit |
The dining room and the garden room
A dining room on the inside of the plan can borrow from the roof of whatever single-storey part sits next to it. A garden room is simpler, because its roof is directly overhead. A flat roof is judged on its covering, its falls and which way the joists run. On a pitched roof the unit is a roof window, and the rafter spacing sets its width.
An ageing glazed roof on a garden room is a third case. The frame, the seals and the glass condition tell us whether the existing roof can be replaced with a modern unit in the same opening, or whether the structure needs work first. On an ageing glazed roof we look at the seals and the glazing bars as well as the glass, since a failed seal can show up before the glass itself looks tired.
Heat, noise and the garden room
Glass overhead changes how a garden room feels. In summer the sun reaches the floor for longer, and in winter the glazed roof loses heat faster than the walls do, so the specification of the glass matters as much as the size. Rain on glass also sounds different from rain on tiles, which is worth thinking about in a room where you sit and talk. We talk through the glass options at the survey, and the quote lists the one we specify.
Replacing a tired glazed roof
Where a garden room already has a glazed roof that has seen better days, replacement is a smaller job than a new opening. The old unit comes out, the upstand or frame is checked for soundness and levelled if needed, and the new unit is set and weathered in. If the frame has moved, the survey picks that up, and the quote covers what the roof needs.
On the survey
We walk each room with you, stand under the roof, look in the loft where there is one and photograph the spots where a unit could land. A quote in writing follows, setting out the product, the roof work and the finish. Access is among the first questions. If the dining room opens onto a narrow hall, we plan where the materials will go and how the floors are protected.
Reaching the roof
How we get to the roof shapes the plan. A single-storey garden room roof is reached by ladder from the garden, while a two-storey slope may need scaffold or a tower, and that goes into the quote as a line of its own. Side access matters too: a gate wide enough for glass panes saves carrying them through the house. If the only way to the garden is through the hall, we agree the route and the floor protection with you beforehand.
Near Hawley
The villages and towns on our list around Hawley are Dartford, Darenth and South Darenth. WhatsApp on 07880 284133 or an email to info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk starts a booking, and so does the quote form.
Lounges, garden rooms and Dartford Borough
Who decides whether a rooflight on my Hawley house needs an application?
Dartford Borough Council. For a house, the answer turns on how far the unit stands proud and where it sits; the planning permission guide spells out when that applies.
Our through-lounge is gloomy halfway down. Where would the light go?
Over the dim stretch if there is a roof there, such as an extension at the back. If bedrooms are above, we look at the nearest single-storey roof or at a loft tube to a neighbouring hall. The visit settles which of those exist.
Our dining room sits between the lounge and the boundary, with bedrooms above. Can a rooflight help?
A rooflight lights the space directly under the roof, so a room with bedrooms above it has no roof of its own. Where it adjoins a lower, one-floor section of the house, light from that roof can reach it through an opening between the rooms.
What goes into preparing a garden room roof for glass?
The deck, the joists and the covering are checked first, because they decide the upstand and the size of the opening. We confirm the details on site and list them on the quote. A flat deck with a good fall is a straightforward base, while a deck that holds water around the kerb needs attention before any glass goes on it.
Which other nearby places do you survey besides Hawley?
See Dartford, Darenth and South Darenth.
Nearby towns to Hawley, Kent
Book your free survey
Tell us about the room that stays dark. We come out, look at the room and the roof, then send a fixed written quote.
Or on 07880 284133, or call 01622 277162
No obligation. We survey before we price.