Rooflights and skylights for Southborough homes
Southborough lies just north of Tunbridge Wells, in High Weald country that carries the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty designation, with High Brooms and the A26 running through it. From its older streets to the Barnetts Wood estate, a utility room, a dining room or a loft room with no window of its own can borrow daylight from the roof.
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- 10-year workmanship guarantee
Three building eras and the rooms they leave dim
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1 Houses from before the board of health Southborough separated from Tonbridge in 1871, when its own board of health was formed. Houses of the decades before that are often deep from front to back, so a dining room can sit a long way from the garden. -
2 Urban district houses, from 1894 The town became an urban district with its own elected council in 1894. Houses of the Victorian and Edwardian years that followed can have lofts with space for a room, and a roof window can light one. -
3 Estates of the 1990s Lambersart Close, on the new Barnetts Wood estate, was unveiled in 1997. Estate houses of that decade can include a utility room off the kitchen with no window of its own.
Weald ridges, furnaces and older houses
A long industrial past, and rooms a long way from a window.
High Weald scenery surrounds the town, which lies within that designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Little is known about the district before the Norman Conquest, because it was the most sparsely populated part of the Weald, held back by almost impenetrable forest. Industry came later. The Vauxhall Furnace was operating from at least 1552, near Mote Farm in what is now Vauxhall Lane, and Brook (Broakes) Mill opened in 1553. Older houses tend to be deeper from front to back than their windows suggest.
Older houses of this kind often gained a scullery or lean-to at the back, and later a flat roof over it, so a utility room can end up where a back window used to be. A utility room also tends to hold the boiler, and a flue or vent may leave through the roof close by, so we check what passes through the roof before an opening is set out.
Myth
A rooflight can only go into a roof that was built with one in mind.
Fact
A new opening is framed with extra timber to carry the load of the rafters or joists that were cut, and the roof structure is checked at survey.
The utility room
A utility room is where the washing machine, the boiler or the back-door boots end up, and it is often squeezed into whatever space is left between the kitchen and an outside wall. If it is boxed into the centre of the floor it may have no window at all. Glass in the roof is the way round that. Over a flat roof, a small rooflight on an upstand does it. Over a pitched roof, a sun tunnel reaches down through the loft space and ends in a diffuser fitted to the ceiling, and its slim route suits a room that is only a couple of metres across. A rooflight, as the building rules describe it, is a glazed unit sitting out of plane with the roof on a kerb or upstand; we carry the roof covering up the upstand so rain runs away from the opening.
If a tunnel has to bend round a rafter or a duct, the choice between a rigid and a flexible tube is covered on our rigid or flexible sun tunnels page.
The dining room
In a house that is deep from front to back, the dining room often falls in the middle, behind the front room and ahead of the kitchen. Its window may face a side passage a metre or two from the neighbour's wall. When that room is also where the family eats, homework gets done and guests are seated, the dim end of the table is felt every day. A flat roof outside the room, perhaps a later extension, can take a rooflight or a lantern; a pitched roof can take a roof window. A glazed internal door or a pane over a door can borrow a little light from a hall, but only glass overhead reaches the dim end of the table directly. The flat roof rooflights and roof windows pages list the choices.
From the urban district to the Barnetts Wood estate
After the 1894 change to an urban district, with its own elected council to manage its affairs, the town kept growing. Houses of the Victorian and Edwardian decades are usually laid out with the dining room behind the front room and ahead of the kitchen, while estate houses of the later twentieth century more often put it at the back, open to the kitchen. The two layouts go dark in different places. In the older plan the middle room loses out; in an open plan the dining end, furthest from the garden doors, does.
Estate houses of the 1990s can come with a utility room off the kitchen, and with a bathroom that has a single small window or none. Glass in the roof, whether a window or a tunnel, puts daylight back without altering the walls. A roof window can open to let steam out, whereas a sun tunnel brings light only, so a bathroom with a tunnel still needs its own extraction.
Low glass or a raised lantern
On a flat extension roof the dining room gets either low flat glass or a raised lantern. A lantern adds height. On a flat roof it usually stands more than 150 mm proud, which normally puts it outside permitted development. The details are on the roof lantern planning page. A flat rooflight sits lower, and the upstands and kerbs page explains what it is mounted on. For the room itself, the better choice is the one over the place people sit, since a patch of light on an unused part of the floor does little.
The glass is chosen for the room as well. A south-facing dining room with bright afternoons calls for different glazing from a north-facing one, and the specification is talked through at survey and written into the quote. Furniture matters just as much: a table pushed against a wall wants the light at the wall end, while a table in the centre wants it overhead, so we mark the likely table position with you before choosing the size of the opening.
What sets the figure for a dining room opening
- Flat roof or slopeA flat roof calls for an upstand; a slope calls for flashings.
- Size of the openingA wide opening needs more structure around it than a narrow one.
- Lantern or flat glassA raised lantern and a flat rooflight are different products with different fixings.
- GlazingThe glass specification for the room and the roof.
- Ceiling finishLining the reveals and making good the plaster.
Loft rooms, and who decides in Southborough
Where a loft room has just a gable window, the far end of the room stays dim. Glass in the slope lights the stretch between. Where the ceiling slopes, a window placed low in the slope lets you look out while sitting on the bed as well as lighting the room, and we mark that height with you in the room. The loft is lived in, so Building Regulations apply more closely to it than to a landing: the rules for the stairs, for getting out in an emergency, and for energy performance are set out in our guide to the Building Regulations. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable.
The town lies immediately north of Tunbridge Wells and includes High Brooms, with the A26 passing through it. Booking takes one message, with the room and the address: the quote form, WhatsApp on 07880 284133, or email to info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk.
| Question | Who decides | Where we start |
|---|---|---|
| Is a planning application needed? | Tunbridge Wells Borough Council | The type of house and its planning history |
| Does the work meet Building Regulations? | The council's building control team or a registered building control approver | The structure, the energy standard for the unit and, in a loft room, the escape route |
| Is the house listed? | The council, through listed building consent | The listing details for the address |
| Which glazing suits the room? | You, with our advice at survey | The room's aspect and the roof above it |
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council holds the planning decisions for the town. Whether you need to ask is covered by our planning permission guide.
A loft room usually has more than one job. It may be a bedroom, a study or a play space, and the use decides the size and number of windows and whether any of them should open for air. A study with a desk under the slope wants daylight falling at the desk, while a bedroom wants it kept clear of the pillow end. We sketch the room with you and pencil the openings on the ceiling before a figure is set.
Work in a loft room happens over a finished ceiling and floor. The stairs and landing are covered, the opening is cut from the outside, the roof is made weathertight around the new frame, and the lining inside follows. If a job runs into a second day, how the open roof is covered overnight is agreed with you beforehand.
Royal Tunbridge Wells, Rusthall and Tonbridge are close by, and each has its own page: Royal Tunbridge Wells, Rusthall and Tonbridge.
Dark utility rooms and lofts
Does a survey in High Brooms cost anything extra?
No extra charge applies. High Brooms is part of Southborough, the A26 passes through it, and the survey is free for any address we cover. Tell us which room is the problem when you get in touch, and the visit can start there and move on to the rest of the roof.
What do you fit in a utility room that has no window?
It depends on the roof above. Under a flat roof, a small rooflight on an upstand; where a pitched roof covers a loft, a sun tunnel running from a dome on the slope to a diffuser in the ceiling. Our page on how sun tunnels work shows what to expect from one. Either unit goes in without any cutting through a wall.
Our loft is now a bedroom. What changes for the roof window?
The escape route from a loft bedroom in a two-storey house normally goes by the staircase, and Building Regulations do not accept a roof window as the escape. The Building Regulations guide goes through what is checked. The stairs, the protected route and the height of the house are all measured at survey.
Where does a planning enquiry for a Southborough house go?
It goes to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. Before anything else comes the question of whether an application is called for, and that follows from what kind of house it is and what its records show. The planning guide covers that.
Our dining room is in the middle of a Victorian house. Which roof option reaches it?
The roof above decides it, and the same question applies to any room that has lost its window. A flat extension roof can take a rooflight or a lantern over the table, and a pitched roof a window in the slope. A first floor above the room rules out an opening in the roof for that room, in which case we look for another way to bring light across from elsewhere.
What suits a Southborough bathroom that has only a tiny window?
Where the bathroom has a slope overhead, a roof window over the bath or the basin lights it, and the glass can stay clear because it looks at the sky. Where a loft lies above, a sun tunnel does the job, and the bathroom keeps its own extraction.
Nearby towns to Southborough
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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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