Skylight and rooflight fitting in Sheerness
Sheerness began as a fort at the mouth of the Medway and became a dockyard town, with the Thames Estuary beaches running along its northern edge. Its houses have their own dark spots, and the roof is where daylight can come in.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
Mile Town, Marine Town and the dockyard streets
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1 Terraces built close to the yard A Royal Navy dockyard stood here from 1669 until 1960. Terraces of the Victorian type are usually one room wide and several deep, and a rear extension tends to take the middle room's only window. -
2 Bathrooms with no outside wall In a house with a landing running down the middle, the bathroom often sits between two bedrooms. Where a loft lies above it, daylight can reach it from the roof. -
3 Long lounges, light at the ends A through-lounge gets light at the front and the back, and the stretch between the two stays dim. Glazing overhead reaches the part the windows cannot.
A fort, a dockyard and the houses behind them
The shape of the town explains where its rooms lose their daylight.
The first structure in what is now Sheerness was a fort built by order of Henry VIII to stop enemy ships entering the River Medway and attacking the naval dockyard at Chatham. After the raid on the Medway in 1667 the older fortification was strengthened, and in 1669 a Royal Navy dockyard was established in the town itself. Warships were stocked and repaired there until it closed in 1960. The town lies on the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey, with the outlet of the Medway to the west and sandy beaches along the Thames Estuary to the north.
A place with that history grows outward in layers, and a rooflight fitter reads those layers as house types. What they share is the plan: rooms in a row, one window to a room, and a landing or hall with no wall to the outside. The Sheppey Light Railway opened in 1901 and connected the new Sheerness East station with the rest of the island.
What to have ready for the first message
- The room that is dark Say which room it is and what is around it: kitchen, landing, bathroom.
- The roof above it Flat felt, tiles or slate, if you know. Photos from the garden are enough.
- Your postcode It tells us which conservation area, if any, to check you against.
- Anything on the planning file A condition, a listing or an earlier extension, if you have the papers to hand.
Halls, stairs and the landing between
In a two-storey terrace the hall is a corridor with a wall on each side, and the stairs climb out of it to a landing that is equally closed in. The front and back bedrooms take what daylight there is, and the landing borrows from whichever door is ajar. A window cut into the roof above the stairs, or a tunnel through the loft, is the usual route to daylight for hall and landing together. Which of the two fits depends on how far the loft floor sits from the ceiling below.
A landing with a boxed stairwell below it takes the glass well: the light drops down the stairwell and brightens the hall as well as the landing.
Flat roofs over extensions
A flat roof is read on top before anything is priced: the covering, the falls, the direction of the joists and whether the deck is warm or cold. Those details set the upstand and the product. A lantern or flat rooflight stands on a kerb built up from the deck, so the height of that kerb is worked out once the layers of the roof are known, and the glass is then chosen to suit the room beneath it.
On a flat roof the unit is only half the job. Water has to leave the roof freely round the kerb, and the fall of the deck decides which side of the opening sits highest, so we check where the water runs before the position is fixed.
Where the central rooms lose out
Once a house has a kitchen extension, a conservatory or a new rear bedroom, the room that used to face the garden faces a wall instead. The windows are still there, but they now look at a wall. A flat roof over the new space can carry a rooflight or a lantern that throws light back across the join with the old house. Where the extension has a pitched covering instead, glazing set into that slope does the same job.
Marine Town, Mile Town and the dockyard area
Planning applications in Sheerness go to Swale Borough Council. Conservation areas carrying the town's name include Sheerness: Marine Town, Sheerness: Mile Town, and Sheerness: Royal Naval Dockyard and Bluetown. Boundaries are drawn street by street, so the council's map is what we read before saying anything about a particular house.
Words from a conservation-area job
- Article 4 direction
- An order from a council withdrawing certain permitted development rights in an area.
- Local planning authority
- For Sheerness, Swale Borough Council.
- Flush rooflight
- A unit set low in the slope so it sits close to the covering.
What a conservation area changes
Living inside one does not by itself take away the permitted development rights of an ordinary house; only an Article 4 direction does that. If an application is needed, the unit, its slope and the way it is set into the covering matter more, and the council weighs what can be seen from the street. We explain the difference in our conservation area rooflight guide.
The conditions for a roof window on a house, and the cases where a flat or a converted building falls outside them, are set out in the planning permission guide.
If the house is listed
A listed house keeps its Class C rights on paper, yet a new or altered roof window on one will almost always need listed building consent. We ask about listing at the first message, because it changes the route. The guide to listed building rooflights explains how that consent works.
How an application is judged
When an application is needed in a conservation area, the council usually looks first at the slope that faces the road. A unit on the rear slope, set flush with the covering, draws less attention than one on the front. The Class C limits on projection and height still guide the design, and we draw the proposal to suit them.
The box room under the slope
A box room is a small third bedroom, often at the front or the back above the hall. It tends to have a single narrow window, and it is easily the dimmest room on the first floor. If the box room sits against a pitched slope, a second source of daylight can be set into that slope without altering the front of the house. Where the box room is part of a loft added above two storeys, escape normally goes by a protected staircase, with the roof window playing no part in it.
A box room used as a study, a nursery or a dressing room looks very different with proper daylight. In a size code such as MK04, the letters give the width and the digits the height, and we choose the size against the rafter spacing so that the frame fits between members where it can.
For a loft room that has been converted, the escape route and the stair are matters for Building Control. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and the Building Regulations guide lists what is checked.
Through-lounge, bathroom and box room
A through-lounge is one long room made by knocking the front and rear reception rooms together. It gets daylight at each end and very little in the middle, which is where the sofa usually ends up. Glazing in the roof directly over that middle stretch lights it from above, and if the room is under a pitched roof the window can sit in the slope overhead. If a rear extension forms part of the room, the rooflight can sit close to where old wall meets new roof.
In a through-lounge the table and the sofa often sit at the two ends, with the middle left as a walkway. A unit over that walkway lights the floor between them. If the room is long enough for two units, the pair is spaced to match the rafters.
| Room | Roof over it | Option to discuss |
|---|---|---|
| Through-lounge | Pitched slope, or an extension roof | Roof window or flat rooflight over the middle stretch |
| First-floor bathroom | Loft above, or a slope | Sun tunnel, or a roof window with obscured glass |
| Box room | A pitched slope | Roof window between the rafters |
Choosing the unit for a long room
The size matters more than the number. A long room is easier to light with one well-placed unit than with several small ones scattered along it, because the light then falls as a single patch with a soft edge. We mark the centre of the dim stretch on the ceiling during the survey and look at what sits above it: a joist, a rafter, a stack or a boxed-in pipe. Anything in the way moves the glass a little, and the layout is drawn on the quote.
The bathroom between the bedrooms
A bathroom in the heart of the first floor is often windowless, or it has a small obscured pane borrowed from a side wall. Where there is a loft above it, a sun tunnel can bring daylight down through the roof space to a diffuser in the ceiling. Where the bathroom sits under the slope, a unit with obscured glass does the same. Our guide to sun tunnels in a bathroom covers the detail. Ventilation is a separate matter, and we plan it with the unit at the survey.
Making good inside
Once the unit is in, the opening gets a lining that returns the ceiling or slope to the frame, with clean reveals around the glass. The surfaces are left ready for paint, so you are not waiting for a second trade to come and finish the room. Dust sheets go down before the first tile is lifted, and the hall and stairs are covered along the route we carry materials.
Paperwork at the end
Where the work was notifiable, you receive the sign-off, and the 10-year workmanship guarantee comes in writing. The solicitor acting for a future buyer will probably ask for both, so keep them with the deeds.
Getting to the island
The quote after a visit is a single written figure. Messages go to 07880 284133 on WhatsApp or to info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk, and the quote form is there as well. The same run can take in Halfway Houses, Queenborough and Grain.
Mile Town boundaries, bathrooms and the island
What is the run from Maidstone to Sheerness, and is the survey still free?
It is about 19 miles by road, north-east. Surveys on the Isle of Sheppey are free.
What should I check first if my house sits in Mile Town?
Whether the house falls inside the conservation area boundary at all, since boundaries are drawn street by street. Swale Borough Council holds the records, and we go through them with you at the survey.
Our bathroom sits in the middle of the first floor with no window. What are the options?
A sun tunnel if there is a loft above it, or a roof window with obscured glass if the bathroom sits against a slope. We measure the roof space and the rafters to see which fits. Our bathroom sun tunnel guide goes into it.
Which nearby places can you reach on the same visit?
Halfway Houses lies a mile or so to the south, Queenborough to the south-west and Grain to the north-west. If you have neighbours with the same dim hall or landing, a single trip to the street can cover more than one house.
Nearby towns to Sheerness
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Or on 07880 284133, or call 01622 277162
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