Skylights and rooflights in Staplehurst
Staplehurst sits within Maidstone borough as a village and parish, with a shopping parade at its southern end, a school on Gybbon Rise and a station on the South Eastern Main Line. A house on any of those streets may have a dining room, a kitchen extension or a bathroom with little or no daylight of its own.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
Along the parade, round the school, near the station
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1 Behind the village parade The shops at the south end of the village include a butcher, an optician and the King's Head, a public house dating back to the 18th century. Buildings that mix shops with rooms behind or above them often have inner spaces with no outside wall. -
2 Family roads by the school Staplehurst School stands on Gybbon Rise, close to the village centre shops. A family house with a growing household is a candidate for a rear extension, and the extension takes the old dining room's window. -
3 Streets near the station The station sits on the line between Ashford International and Charing Cross, via Tonbridge. A house within walking distance may gain a loft bathroom or a rear kitchen extension, and both can end up without a window.
The dining room that lost its window
The village centre and the streets around it hold houses with deep plans.
Staplehurst is about 9 miles south of Maidstone. The part people think of as the village heart is towards the south, where a parade of independent shops, eateries and a pub from the 18th century line the street. Behind a frontage like that, buildings run back a long way and the rooms in the middle of them get nothing from the street. Some older houses have a front room, a middle room and a back room strung out in a line.
The middle room of such a house is typically the dining room. A side passage or a back yard once supplied its window. A kitchen extension built across the rear of the house covers that outlook, and the room that used to be pleasant at breakfast loses its daylight. People often decide to knock through to the new kitchen, which helps a little, but the light from the extension's own glass rarely carries more than a few metres.
Roof words worth knowing before a quote
- Rooflight
- Glazing that stands up from the roof on a kerb or upstand. Roof lanterns count as rooflights.
- Roof window
- A window that lies flat with the roof around it, sharing its pitch and orientation.
- Upstand
- The raised edge of a flat roof around an opening, which lifts the glass clear of standing water.
Bringing daylight down from the extension roof
The extension's roof is usually flat, and it covers the space between the old dining room's wall and the new rear wall. A rooflight placed where the old wall meets the new roof sends daylight into the kitchen and, through the opening, back into the dining room. We position it by standing in the dining room at survey and looking up at the line of the old wall. If the opening between the rooms is wide, the light spreads across the table. If there is still a wall with a door in it, the light lands in the doorway and the first part of the room.
Not every house has a flat roof behind it. Where the extension has a pitched roof, set a roof window into the slope instead. A rear slope leaves the front elevation of the house untouched, which keeps the street view as it was. Its splayed lining spreads light into the room. A lantern over a larger opening gives a taller, more open ceiling. Whichever it is, the roof beneath matters as much as the glass, and the survey records it before any price is set.
Extensions in the roads by the school and station
A family house, here as anywhere, may well have been extended. A growing household wants a kitchen that holds a table, and the only direction to build is back. The result is a deep ground floor with doors and glass across the rear and a gap in the middle that neither reaches. The village is home to businesses in an industrial park near the station and in the north of the village, and the line out of the village runs to London, so a kitchen may also have to serve as a place to work at a laptop.
Extension roof terms you may be quoted
- Kerb
- The frame, usually timber or insulated, that raises a rooflight above the deck.
- Lantern
- A raised glazed roof, often with a pitched profile, set over an opening in a flat roof.
- Light shaft
- The lined passage between a roof opening and the ceiling below, splayed to spread light.
A kitchen that needs a ceiling to work
For a kitchen extension of that kind the conversation is between a flat unit and a taller lantern. A flat rooflight is a low glazed unit on an upstand, quick to build and light on the structure. A lantern is a taller glazed roof, and it usually stands more than 150 mm proud of the flat roof it sits on. That height is why a lantern normally needs planning permission, as the roof lantern planning page explains, while a low rooflight often sits inside the permitted development limits set out in the planning guide.
The decision turns on what you want the room to feel like. A lantern gives height, and its glazed sides throw light in several directions at once. A flat rooflight gives you light and leaves the line of the roof alone. The comparison of a roof lantern and a roof window goes through the trade-offs for a roof like yours.
Light across the table
Where the glass sits relative to the table matters more than its size. A rooflight directly above a dining table puts the brightest light where plates and faces are, which is flattering in daytime and calls for good lamps after dark. Set it a little back towards the old wall and the light spreads along the room, so the kitchen end and the dining end share it. We mark the position on the floor with tape at survey, and you can stand in it and decide.
Doing it while the extension is built
If you have a builder working on the extension, tell us early. A rooflight opening formed in the structure while the roof is being made is simpler than one cut into a finished roof. If the extension is already built, we fit through the existing deck, check the joists and add framing around the opening. The covering is lifted and re-dressed around the upstand, so the finished roof is sealed as one.
The pitch of a rear roof changes things too. A lean-to roof on an older house can be fitted with roof windows, as long as it is steep enough, and our minimum pitch guide sets out the limit.
Windowless bathrooms, the conservation area and sign-off
A house that has been altered can end up with a bathroom that has no window, and the roof is the simplest way to improve it. In a loft bathroom, a roof window above the bath or shower puts sky overhead while you wash. On the ground floor, a sun tunnel passes through the loft above and drops daylight through a small ceiling diffuser. The sun tunnel in a bathroom page goes through how that works with an extractor fan and steam.
A roof window opens, which helps with moisture, and a tilting or top-hung design gives ventilation without leaving the bathroom open to the weather. A fixed unit does not open.
| Bathroom position | What is above it | Likely option |
|---|---|---|
| Loft room under the slope | The roof slope itself | Roof window above the bath or shower |
| First-floor internal bathroom | A loft void | Sun tunnel from the roof slope |
| Ground-floor shower room behind a kitchen | A flat extension roof | Small flat rooflight or a short tunnel |
Fitting over a bath or shower
A roof window above a bath needs thought about steam, splashes and reach. The handle should be somewhere you can reach from the floor. We position the unit so that the opening sash does not swing across a shower head, and so the lining can be tiled or painted to match the room. In a loft bathroom, the slope of the ceiling at the head of the bath matters: a unit that begins too low can feel closed in, while one set higher gives a clear view of sky when you lie back.
The Staplehurst conservation area
A conservation area carries the Staplehurst name. Should your house fall inside its boundary, that does not by itself remove the right to fit a rooflight under permitted development; only an Article 4 direction does that. Where an application is needed, the council weighs the style of unit and which slope carries it. The guide to rooflights in conservation areas shows what that involves, and we check the position of your address at survey.
If a building started life as a shop, barn or office and was later converted to a house, its permitted development rights can differ from an ordinary house. Tell us how the building began and we will check.
Who handles what in Staplehurst
Planning questions for the village go to Maidstone Borough Council, and the skylight planning guide shows when you would need to apply. The structural and energy side is dealt with under the Building Regulations, and we handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable. A free survey comes first and a fixed written quote follows. A 10-year workmanship guarantee, in writing, covers the work.
Surveys run in Marden to the west as well, with Headcorn east of the village and Sutton Valence to the north-east. To arrange a visit, WhatsApp 07880 284133 or write to info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk, or use the quote form.
Dining rooms, bathrooms and kitchen roofs
Our dining room went dark after the back of the house was extended. What are the choices?
Light from the extension roof, placed near the old wall, reaches both rooms. A flat rooflight or lantern suits a flat roof. A roof window does the same job in a pitched one.
How do I get light into a bathroom that has no outside wall?
From above. With a loft room, a roof window sits over the bath. On the first floor a sun tunnel reaches down through the loft. We check the space above the ceiling at survey before we suggest either, and where the bathroom has an extractor fan we plan the route for its duct as well.
Who deals with planning for Staplehurst rooflights?
Maidstone Borough Council receives applications for the village. Whether one is required turns on several tests, including the kind of house and how far the glass stands up from the roof; the planning guide walks through the tests.
What happens to the loft when you fit a roof window?
A section of insulation is moved aside around the opening and laid back against the lining. Stored items near the work area need clearing for the day, and we protect the ceiling and floor below. Afterwards the loft is left tidy, with boards and boxes back where you want them.
Is the lantern or the flat rooflight better over a kitchen island?
A lantern gives height; a flat unit gives the cleaner roofline. Because of its height above the roof, a lantern normally needs planning permission and a low flat unit often does not, which is worth weighing before you choose. We go through both at the survey.
Can the survey cover houses on the roads near the station?
Yes. The roads near the station fall within the village we survey.
Nearby towns to Staplehurst
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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
No obligation. We survey before we price.