Skylights and rooflights in Swanley

The post-war stock

The majority of the housing development took place from the post-war period to the late 1980s. That spans four decades, so there is no single house type, but homes of those years are often laid out around a central staircase, with a landing between the bedrooms and a back bedroom that looks over a garden which may still hold an old fruit tree. A long garden full of mature trees puts the back of the house in shade at different hours depending on the season, and the front rooms get the opposite pattern.

Victorian houses and shops in the centre were demolished to make a new town centre. The Victorian church of St Mary the Virgin is the Anglican parish church of Swanley, and the Roman Catholic church of the Holy Apostles was registered for worship in 1965, replacing a church hall used since 1931. In 1962 a new fire station opened, and a new post office followed two years later.

The stairwell and the back bedroom

A stairwell without a window is the plainest example of what a roof can do. Light from the hall below reaches the stairs only when the doors are open, and the landing above is dim by mid-afternoon. Glazing in the roof above the landing sends light down the full flight, to the hall as well. Where the roof is pitched and the loft has not been converted, that is a modest job. A converted loft changes the position, because the stairs may now lead into a room, and escape rules for a loft on a two-storey house come into play.

The back bedroom can lose light to an old fruit tree. Branches near the glass reduce the sky the window can see, and leaves in summer make it worse. Glass fitted in the roof over the room looks at the sky above the canopy. Whether that is the right answer depends on which way the roof faces and how much of the room lies under the slope. In summer the leaves hold light back; in winter the bare branches let some through, which is when a room without a roof opening feels the loss most. A back bedroom used as a study or a nursery shows the difference quickest. The same room looks different in January and in July, so we ask when it is used before we pick the position.

Where the planning conditions are set out

For a house, a rooflight or roof window may be possible without a planning application. That depends on the depth by which the unit projects above the roof slope, where it goes, what type of building it is and what is on the house's planning history. Each condition is explained in the planning guide for skylights, and a raised lantern has its own planning and Building Regulations page. Your own roof is checked against both during the visit, which means the route is settled before you commit to a price. Swanley is also close to the Greater London boundary, so if you are unsure which side of it a property falls on, tell us the postcode and we confirm the council from it.

A roof opening is building work

A new opening in a roof changes how the structure carries its load. The rafters or joists that were cut have to be carried by new timbers around the opening, the unit has to meet an energy standard that depends on its type, and in a loft room there are fire and escape questions. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable. What each check involves is laid out in the Building Regulations page. Cutting through a ceiling joist and a roof rafter in a house of the 1960s or 1970s is routine work, but the trimming has to be sized for the opening, which is why the span is measured before the unit is chosen.

Words you will meet on the paperwork

One pair of terms is easy to mix up. A roof window sits in the plane of the roof and a rooflight sits on a kerb above it, so a lantern counts as a rooflight. That distinction decides which energy limit applies and which planning route is likely.

With a stairwell, glazing in the slope is the straightforward answer when the slope lies directly overhead. If the stairs run beside a party wall, the opening may have to shift along the slope. The lining below it is then angled to carry the light down to the landing, and the surfaces are finished ready for paint. The other choice is a sun tunnel, useful where the rafters and the landing do not line up, since the tube can angle away from the structure to reach the ceiling below.

Light along a garden room

A garden room joined to the house by a wide opening has glass at one end and the old rear wall at the other. Daylight falls away with distance from the glass, so the stretch next to the house is the darker one. Glass in the roof over that stretch fixes it, either flat or as a lantern. The deciding factor is height. A lantern rises further above the roof and normally calls for an application, whereas a low flat rooflight on a house fits inside the permitted limit more readily.

The back bedroom above it

A bedroom above a single-storey garden room often has a window onto the garden roof and the sky beyond. If that room is dark, the answer may be a roof window in the main slope above it, or, when the room sits under the flat roof of an extension, a rooflight in the ceiling above. In some houses the bedroom also has the stair coming up beside it, so a single unit in the right place can brighten the landing and the room together.

A roof window going into a back bedroom of an existing home takes the window limit of 1.4 W/m²K under the energy rules, or a Window Energy Rating of band B at the least. Rooflights and lanterns are held to 2.2 W/m²K. We specify the glass to suit, and the figure appears against each unit in the quote. A bedroom also asks for blinds, so we talk through fitted blackout options at the same visit, since the choice of window decides what can be fitted to it.

Making the stairs and the room work together

When a stairwell and a back bedroom are both dark, the two jobs can sometimes share a roof. The landing usually sits beside the bedroom, so one slope may reach both, and the choice is between a single larger unit and two smaller ones. We draw both options on the plan and compare how the light would fall at the start and the end of the day. A larger unit lets in more daylight, but it also needs more trimming of the roof timbers; two small ones spread the light and keep each opening simple. The quote shows the difference in writing so you can compare.

Neighbouring places

Neighbours we visit include Hextable, Joyden's Wood and Crockenhill. After a free survey you receive one fixed written quote, and our work carries a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing. To book, WhatsApp 07880 284133, or email info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk. The quote form reaches us as well.