Skylight and rooflight fitting in Paddock Wood
Paddock Wood is a town of hop growers and railway lines, about 12 miles south-west of Maidstone. Late nineteenth-century houses are often narrow and deep, and the rooms in the middle, the long lounge and the landing above the stairs, are the ones that wait longest for daylight.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
Where does the light stop in a Paddock Wood house?
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1 Rooms in a line behind the front door The settlement developed from the second half of the 19th century, and houses of that period are often narrow, with rooms arranged one behind another. Whichever room sits in the middle gets its daylight from neighbours, never from a wall of its own. -
2 A long lounge lit from the ends Take out the wall between a front room and a rear room and the windows end up at opposite ends. The middle of the floor, where the sofa tends to sit, is the furthest point from both. -
3 A landing with no outside wall On a two-storey house the landing runs between bedroom doors with the stairs below it. It borrows light from open doors, and on a winter afternoon that is very little.
Hops, three railway lines and the houses behind them
A town that grew around one crop and one station.
Paddock Wood is a centre for hop growing, and the town exists because of it. It developed as a settlement during the second half of the 19th century as a result of the local hops industry, and by 1900 it was a local transport hub, with three railway lines at its station. The B2160 and B2161 are the roads that run through it, and the A228, A264, A21 and A26 are all within reach.
Housing from such a short stretch of history tends to follow the layouts of its moment. Terraces and pairs of the late nineteenth century are often one or two rooms wide and several rooms deep, with a staircase wedged in beside the middle room. Later houses often open the plan out, yet some keep one habit: the long dimension runs between the front window and the back window, and the centre of that run lies farther from daylight than any other part of the floor.
| Room | Where the daylight stops |
|---|---|
| Long lounge | Along the centre line, midway between the end windows |
| Middle dining room | At the back wall, once a rear extension covers its window |
| Landing | Everywhere, since no wall of it faces outside |
A kitchen or a family room added across the rear of a house can take the window of the room in front of it. That is why we start a survey in a house like this by finding out what has been built onto the back.
A lounge lit from both ends
This is what you get when the wall between a front room and a back room comes out. Both windows are far from the middle of the floor, so the room is bright at the ends and dim between them. The usual cure is to bring light in from above, and what is possible depends on what the lounge has over its head. On a bungalow or under a ground-floor extension, glass goes straight into the roof above the middle of the room. On a two-storey house with bedrooms over the lounge, the roof is too far above to help directly, so a sun tunnel or a rooflight in a neighbouring extension roof is the way in.
A dining room between two others
When a dining room sits between a front lounge and a rear kitchen, it often has the smallest window in the house, or none at all. If the kitchen behind it is single-storey, its roof stands just beyond the dining room's back wall. A rooflight set near the junction of old wall and new roof lights the kitchen and sends daylight back into the dining room by way of the gap between them. A unit placed over the table lights the spot where people actually sit.
Above the stairwell: the landing
A landing is the space nobody thinks of as a room. It has the stairs on one side and bedroom doors on the other, and it gets daylight only when a door is left open. A roof window in the slope above it gives the upper floor a source of its own, and because the stairwell carries light downwards, the hall at the bottom benefits as well. Where the loft blocks a window, a sun tunnel reaches the same spot through a smaller hole in the ceiling.
What sits above the dark room
The space overhead decides the route more than the room itself does. With a bedroom above, a roof opening cannot reach the room below directly, and the options narrow to glass in a neighbouring extension roof, or a sun tunnel where a route past the room above can be found. With a loft overhead, a tube or a roof window over the stairwell becomes possible. With a flat extension roof overhead, a rooflight or lantern lights the room straight down. Whichever roof is nearest, we note its covering, because it sets the flashing.
Which product reaches which room
These rooms call between them for four products, and the roof decides which one is possible. A roof window lies level with a pitched slope, so it suits a landing or a room under the rafters; the roof window hub goes into the detail. A flat rooflight stands on a raised kerb over a flat roof, the setting on a rear extension, and the flat roof rooflight hub covers that. A roof lantern is a taller, many-sided rooflight for the same kind of roof, and it gives the room beneath a glazed ceiling. A sun tunnel is a narrow tube, so it reaches rooms that nothing else can, with a smaller patch of light at the bottom. The sun tunnel hub explains where that trade is worth making.
Tunbridge Wells, planning and the paperwork
Paddock Wood sits in the borough of Tunbridge Wells, and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council is its planning authority. Whether a rooflight on your house calls for an application is worked out in our skylight planning guide, and we go through the same points against your roof once we are standing under it.
Myth
A landing with no window cannot be lit, because it has no outside wall.
Fact
Glass in the roof directly above the stairwell, or a tube of light from the loft, lights the landing from above, and the stairs below borrow the same daylight.
Why the type of house matters
Permitted development rights belong to houses, and whether yours has them depends on its history. We check how the house was built, whether it has been divided, whether it was created by a change of use, and what its original planning permission said, before saying anything about its rights. The planning guide sets out each of those cases.
Building work inside the roof
Opening up a roof means cutting rafters and building a frame that carries the load they used to carry. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and the Building Regulations guide explains what the checks cover, including the energy limits for different kinds of glazed unit. The council's building control team or a registered building control approver signs the work off, and the completion paperwork reaches you afterwards.
Glass and energy
The performance of the glazing is a question of its own, and the energy efficient rooflight hub covers it. We specify glazing that meets the limit for the kind of unit being fitted, so a roof window and a rooflight can carry different figures in the same house.
What we measure on the day of the survey
At the survey we are looking up as much as across. We note the pitch of each slope, the spacing and depth of the rafters, what the covering is made of, and how the loft is laid out. We also mark where the dark corner of the room sits in relation to the roof above it, because the unit belongs over the dark area.
On a landing, that means the roof window sits over the stairwell so the light can drop through to the floor below. On a long lounge with an extension behind it, the glass belongs near the old back wall, where it covers the dimmest stretch of floor. On a middle dining room it sits over the table.
Kerbs and the finish inside
A flat rooflight or lantern stands on a kerb, or on an upstand built into the roof. The height of it follows the layers of the roof beneath, so on a rear extension we read the falls and the covering before we settle it. A lantern is taller than a flat unit, so the ceiling height and the roof structure have to suit it. Indoors, the lining of the opening is plastered or boarded to match the ceiling, and on a landing job the stairs are covered and the ceiling edge is finished last.
What the quote and the fitting cover
The written quote itemises the unit, the glazing, the roof work around it and the finish indoors. On the day, the opening is cut and the frame set into it, the flashing or kerb is weathered into the surrounding roof, and the lining inside is plastered or boarded to match the ceiling. The room below is protected while the roof is open. A 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing completes the job.
Starting from Paddock Wood
We also work in nearby Five Oak Green, East Peckham and Horsmonden. Pictures of the dark room and of the roof over it are the best opener, and pictures taken with the lights off show the problem as it is. The quote form takes them with a postcode and a short note about the room, and so do WhatsApp (07880 284133) and info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk. The survey is free.
Paddock Wood lounges, landings and sign-off
The middle of our long lounge stays gloomy at noon, even with a window at each end. What are the options?
That turns on what sits above the room. Over a bungalow or a single-storey extension, a rooflight or lantern goes straight into the roof above the middle of the floor. With bedrooms overhead, a sun tunnel from the main roof, or glass in a neighbouring extension roof, is the way in. Which suits is a question of the floor plan as much as the roof, and we examine the roof and the ceiling before recommending one, and a sun tunnel is the narrowest of the routes.
How do I get daylight onto a landing that has no window?
A roof window in the slope above the stairwell lights the landing and sends daylight down the stairs as well. Where the loft is in the way, a tube of light from a rooftop dome to a ceiling diffuser covers the same ground through a smaller hole, and the ceiling around the opening is finished to match the landing. The patch of light it casts is smaller than a window gives, though it still reaches the top step and the floor beneath.
Who do I apply to in Paddock Wood if a rooflight needs planning?
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, which is the planning authority for the town. Our skylight planning guide covers when an application comes into it.
What if the survey finds the roof over my dining room is unsuitable?
Then the quote, if you want one, names a different position or a different type of unit. We find that out at the survey, so nothing is quoted for a spot the roof cannot take.
Who signs off the work once a rooflight is in a Paddock Wood roof?
The local authority's building control team or a registered building control approver does that, once the notification has been made, and the completion paperwork then comes to you.
Nearby towns to Paddock Wood
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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
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