Skylights and rooflights in Rochester

The hallway with no window

A hallway runs from the front door to the foot of the stairs, with doors off it that are usually shut. Its only daylight comes through whatever glass sits in the front door. In a house built close to its neighbours there is no side wall to add a window to, and the stairs rise through a void that has no outside wall either. A roof window over the stair void, with a lined shaft running down past the loft floor, sends light onto the flight and into the hall below, as long as the stairs are open to it. Before the day we check what the hatch leads to: the water tank, the pipework, the insulation depth and whether the floor is boarded, since each changes the route a lined shaft can take.

Where the loft is full of tanks, pipework or cut timbers, a sun tunnel takes up less space, and even a short run changes a narrow space a good deal. Our sun tunnel guide explains what to expect from one. If the loft has already been turned into a room, there is no shaft to build: the roof window lights the loft room itself, and the stair below borrows from it through an open flight or a glazed door.

What the shaft does to the light

Daylight from a roof window does not simply drop straight to the floor. The lined shaft between the roof and the ceiling works as a reflector, and a pale finish on its walls sends the light on down. At the bottom the shaft usually flares, which spreads the patch across more of the wall and stair. A narrow, deep shaft gives a tighter beam; a short, wide one gives a softer glow. We draw the shaft for your loft before quoting, since its depth comes from the house itself.

The through-lounge

Opening a front room to a back room gives a single long space with a window at each end. The strip across the middle, where the dividing wall used to stand, is lit by neither. When the back of the house carries a single-storey extension, its roof is the answer: a flat rooflight positioned close to the line of the old wall puts daylight onto the middle of the lounge. It sits on an upstand that we build or check before the glass is ordered, and the size of the opening follows the direction the joists run. Under a full two-storey section the roof cannot reach the room directly, and the better route is a brighter landing and an open stair, so light borrowed from above travels down.

A pale, matt lining around a rooflight spreads the light more evenly than a dark one, and we agree the colour and the depth of the splay with you at the survey, since the splay sets how wide the patch of daylight becomes on the floor.

Reading the ceiling above a stair

The ceiling over the stairs is often a different height from the rest of the house, because the flight rises into the roof space. That height decides how much of a lined shaft is needed. We measure from the landing floor to the underside of the rafters before choosing between a window and a tunnel.

The landing

The landing sits between the bedrooms with a wall on each side, which is why it can stay dim. A roof window above it, set into the back slope where it cannot be seen from the street, is usually the cleanest answer. We confirm the position against the rafters from the loft before anything is cut. If the loft is boarded, the boards along the line of the shaft have to come up. Bathrooms and box rooms that open off a landing like this pick up some of the spill when their doors stand open. A roof window lights the floor and the stair rail together, so the bedroom doors can stay closed without the landing going dark.

Fixed or opening

Warm air rises through a stairwell and collects at the top, so an opening roof window on the landing doubles as a way to let it out. A fixed unit has nothing to open, which suits a shaft that only has to carry light. The roof windows page sets out the choice, and a unit that opens by motor, covered in our electric opening rooflights section, is worth a look when the window would be too high to reach from the stairs.

Working in a lived-in house

With a hallway job everything arrives through the front door and goes up through the loft hatch, so the work area starts at the entrance. We lay protection down the length of the hall and stair, keep the loft hatch dust-sheeted while the opening is cut, and finish by lining the shaft ready for your paint. Tell us whether the loft has a tank or a hatch that is hard to reach.

A town with a long building history

With an older house, we look first at how it was built and what the roof is made of, then work out what will suit it.

Conservation areas in Rochester include Historic Rochester, New Road, Rochester and Star Hill, Rochester. Inside one, a rooflight is still possible: an area does not by itself remove permitted development rights, but an Article 4 direction can. Our conservation area guide shows how the council weighs a slope and a style. We check the address you give us before saying anything firm.

What shows from the street

Councils tend to care most about the roof slopes that can be seen from the road or a public path. A unit on the back slope of a terrace is usually out of sight, and a flush-fitting conservation rooflight lies close to the tiles when a slope faces the street. We photograph the slope from the ground at the survey so that you can see what the neighbours would see.

Flats and listed houses

We ask early on whether a house is listed. Listing is recorded against the building itself, and a neighbour's status says nothing about yours.

For a flat or maisonette the conversation starts with an application, since the householder rights belong to houses. A listed house keeps its Class C rights, but a new or altered roof window will almost always need listed building consent, which the council decides; our listed buildings guide describes it.

Sign-off on the work

Opening up a roof is building work in the eyes of the regulations, and the Building Regulations guide lists what gets checked. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, so a finished job leaves a certificate you can hand to a buyer.

What helps us before the visit

Tell us the street, roughly how old the house is and which room is the dark one. A photo of the landing ceiling and one of the loft hatch with the light on are enough to plan the visit around. We still measure everything ourselves on the day, because rafter spacing and loft floor height cannot be read from a picture, and the position of the opening depends on both.

Energy and paperwork

A new roof window takes the window limit of 1.4 W/m²K, or Window Energy Rating band B at minimum, while a rooflight or roof lantern takes 2.2 W/m²K. A rooflight is the glazed unit set out of plane with the roof on a kerb or upstand, and a roof window sits in plane with the slope; the two have different heat-loss limits, which is why the unit is named on the quote. A new roof window has to meet the energy limit set for its type, and the Part L and rooflights page sets out the numbers. Keep the completion certificate with the deeds to the house: a buyer's solicitor can ask to see it.

From first message to finished ceiling

You get a free survey first, then one fixed written price covering the unit, the roof work and the decoration indoors, and a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing once it is done. For a Rochester house, message 07880 284133 on WhatsApp or email info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk.