Skylight and rooflight fitting in South Ockendon
South Ockendon's old village around the green gave way to prefabricated homes and then, in the late 1960s, to concrete-panel housing, and later to new estates beside the railway. In houses like those, the places that go without are the landing, the kitchen against a shared wall and the room built on at the back.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
Places in a South Ockendon house that need light from above
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1 The landing between two walls A house in the middle of a row has a shared wall on each side. Stairs and landing inside that plan may have no outside wall at all. -
2 A kitchen against the party wall A kitchen extension with its worktops along a shared wall has no window on that side. A rooflight above the run puts daylight on the work surface. -
3 A garden room at the back A room built onto the back takes light through its glazed walls and nothing from overhead. If the roof is flat, that is where the glass can go.
From village green to rows of eight
South Ockendon is a town in the borough of Thurrock in Essex, close to the border with Greater London and just outside the M25. The Domesday Book of 1086 lists it as Wocheduna. Until the late 1940s the village centred on its green, with the Norman church of St Nicholas of Myra and the adjoining Royal Oak, a 14th-century tavern with a 17th-century northern extension. The housing described below came later.
Myth
The rooms in the middle of a terrace can only be lit from the front and the back walls.
Fact
The party walls stay blank, but the roof above each room is a third face. A roof window or rooflight lights the room from that direction without leaning on the front or back wall.
The Flowers' Estate terraces
In the late 1960s a large Greater London Council estate, the Flowers' Estate, went up in Lecaplan concrete construction. It replaced prefabricated homes with new dwellings that were pre-fabricated too, though of a superior design. The Lecaplan Type B form is a pre-cast, large-panel concrete terrace built in rows of eight, to a design by J C Tilley and made by W. & C. French. Count along a row of eight and six of the houses have a neighbour on each side. Those six have a front and a back and nothing between, so a deep room or a stairwell has no side window to help it. The two end houses have a side wall, so we ask which place in the row your house holds. If you are unsure whether your home is a Lecaplan Type B terrace, count the houses in your row and tell us what you find, since the answer helps us plan the visit.
Newer estates by the station
West of the railway, next to Ockendon station in the Belhus Ward, stood the 'Aveley' plant. That ground has been developed into new housing estates, with street names taken from famous Ford vehicles to match its history. The railway dates from 1892, built as a through line from Tilbury Dock to the Midlands, and is now a major commuter route between Southend and Fenchurch Street. A house on one of the newer estates raises its own questions, from the age of its roof covering to whether a conservatory or garden room has been added since it was built, and we ask both before we visit.
Older houses in the village
The old village around the green is a different case from the estates. Houses and cottages there do not repeat a pattern, so what we know about a row of eight tells us little about them. Each is surveyed from scratch: the roof covering, the structure, the loft and what the building has been through.
Why the middle of a row goes dim
A mid-row house is lit from two faces. Front rooms get the street, back rooms get the garden, and everything between depends on what the doors let through. On the first floor that is the landing, a bathroom or the top of the stairs. A rooflight or roof window above any of them does the job that a side window would do in a semi.
Rooms with no window at all
Certain rooms are boxed in by shared or internal walls on every side, and no window can be cut into any of them. An internal bathroom, a first-floor landing and a box room opening off the stairs can all be like this. Daylight from above is the only kind that can reach them. A roof window over a landing, or a sun tunnel over a bathroom ceiling, supplies it, provided the loft and roof overhead leave a clear path from the sky to the ceiling. We trace that path at the survey, starting from the room and working upward through the floor above and the loft.
Light for a kitchen against the party wall
A kitchen extension across the back of a mid-row house has a shared wall on one side, and cabinets tend to go along a blank wall. So the worktop run ends up on the part of the room with the least glass. The garden doors are at the far end, and the cook stands in the shade of the cupboards. A flat rooflight laid along the line of the worktop puts daylight on the surface where the chopping is done. A pale worktop and splashback return some of the light to the room. A roof lantern over the centre of the room lights the floor instead, and the choice depends on what the room is for.
| Room | Light it has now | What the roof can add |
|---|---|---|
| Landing | What the open bedroom doors give | Roof window beside the stairwell, or a tube-type sun tunnel |
| Kitchen extension | Garden doors at the far end | Rooflight along the worktop, or a lantern over the middle |
| Garden room | Its glazed side walls | Flat rooflight over the part furthest from the glass |
Fixed or opening
A kitchen can want a unit that opens, since steam gathers under the ceiling. A fixed unit lets light in and nothing else. The electric opening rooflights page describes the motorised kind, and whether you want one depends on how the room is used and how high the unit sits above the floor.
Following the worktop
A long, narrow unit can follow a worktop run, while a square or rectangular lantern sits where the ceiling is highest. The opening in the roof has to line up with the joists. If the worktop run and the joists run the same way, the opening can follow the run. If they cross, the opening needs a trimmed frame, and that goes into the quote as roof work. The size follows from how deep the room is from the garden doors and from what the covering and joists allow, so two kitchens of similar floor area can need different openings.
The garden room
A garden room added to the back is glazed on its sides, so it has light from the horizontal and none from above. Overhead is the one surface with no glass in it. Where the roof is flat, a rooflight from our flat roof range, set over the part of the floor furthest from the glazed walls, lights the corner that the walls cannot reach. We measure the covering, the fall and the line of the joists before choosing a size. A flat roof has a gentle fall towards its outlet, and the rooflight is set so that water still runs away from it.
The stairwell and the landing
On the first floor of a mid-row house the stairwell can be the darkest place. A roof window placed high on the rear pitch can light a landing where the loft above is shallow. The lining inside the opening can be splayed, which spreads the light along the landing. Where the roof sits far above the ceiling, a sun tunnel sends light down through the loft in a tube.
Planning and Building Control
Thurrock Council decides planning matters for South Ockendon; the conditions for rooflights are in our planning guide, which also covers flats. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable.
At the far edge of our patch
South Ockendon is in Essex, roughly 28 miles out of Maidstone and towards the outer edge of the 30 road miles we cover. Surveys here are arranged as a planned visit. Before we come, a clear route to the loft hatch saves time on the day, and it helps to know the age of the house and whether it has been extended. If your home is a flat or maisonette, tell us at the start, because the planning position differs and the guide explains how.
If your house has no side access, tools and glass go through the house, and we agree on the day how to protect the hall and the floors. On a row of eight that is the question for the six middle houses. For the end pair, the side may offer a way round.
Five stages for a house in a row
- The room you describe Tell us which room is dim and whether the house is mid-row, at the end, or on a newer estate.
- Inside, then up top We check how far the windows reach, then the covering, the structure and the loft.
- One written figure A quote that names the product, its size, the glass, the work on the roof and the finish indoors.
- Opening and fitting The opening is formed, the unit goes in and the reveals are lined.
- Handover The Building Control notification where the job needs one, and a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing.
We also survey in Aveley, Purfleet-on-Thames and Chafford Hundred.
Booking starts with a WhatsApp message to 07880 284133, a note to info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk, or the quote form further down. Say which row or estate the house is on and which room you want brighter, and add the best days for a visit; a house with a boarded loft or a flat roof that someone has already patched is worth a mention too.
Mid-row houses, worktops and lanterns
We live on the Flowers' Estate. Does the concrete-panel construction affect a rooflight?
The opening goes into the roof, so what we examine is the roof structure and its covering. That check happens at the survey for every house. If the loft has been boarded or lined, tell us, since that changes what we can see from above.
A lantern over our extension: do we have to apply to Thurrock?
Thurrock Council is the local planning authority. A lantern stands proud of a flat roof, which usually puts it outside permitted development and leads to a planning application unless Thurrock says otherwise in writing. The reasoning is set out in our planning guide. Tell us the size you have in mind and we will say what it means for the roof.
My worktop runs along the party wall and that end is always dim. Where does the rooflight go?
Above or just beside the line of the worktop, at the dim end. Joist direction and the roof's fall decide the exact spot, so they get measured before anything is quoted. A unit right over the worktop puts the strongest light on the surface, while one nearer the room's centre lights the floor more evenly, and you can tell us which matters more.
What suits a landing in the middle of the house?
Over a shallow loft, a roof window high on the rear pitch fits the landing well. A sun tunnel suits a house whose roof sits a long way above that ceiling, and the sun tunnel page shows how the tube works. We look up through the loft hatch from the landing to judge which of the two will reach. A landing is a place to pass through, so a modest unit is enough.
Nearby towns to South Ockendon
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