Skylight and rooflight fitting in Tenterden

What an older town house does to its daylight

Houses from the 1700s and early 1800s tend to give a street front one or two rooms wide and let the plan run a long way back, with a passage or a stair somewhere in the middle. Walls are thick and windows were cut modestly. The upshot is a dining room or a second reception room with a single window onto a side passage or a yard, and a far wall that never gets much of what comes through it.

If that room sits under a single-storey back wing with a pitched roof, the answer is on the other side of the ceiling. A roof window in the slope drops light straight onto the table and sideboard, and the room reads as one that has a view of the sky. If the back wing is roofed flat, a low rooflight or a small lantern does the same work, and our guide to flat roof rooflights covers how those are built.

When the loft is in the way

A dining room with a bedroom above it has no roof of its own. Here a sun tunnel may be the route: a reflective tube runs up from a ceiling diffuser, crosses the loft and ends at a dome set in the roof. It is a smaller source than a roof window, and it asks the loft to have a clear run between rafters and joists, which we check from the hatch at the survey. A bend in the tube round a rafter costs some of the light, so the straightest run is the one we look for.

For a house of this age, one detail matters before any product choice. Tenterden has a Grade I church and a long run of historic building, so we take care over what shows from the street. We work from the back slopes and flat roofs of a house, the parts a street never sees, and we leave the front elevation as it is unless you ask otherwise and the council agrees.

Where the glass sits in the room

We choose the position from inside, with the bed, the wardrobe and the door swing in mind. A roof window with its lower edge near the bedside can be opened to look out. Set higher up the slope, it sends light further across the floor but sits above eye level. Your chosen height is a balance, and the right answer depends on whether you want a view or just a brighter room. The rafters decide the width: a window sized to fit between two rafters is simpler than one that asks us to cut and trim them.

A back bedroom wants air as well as light, so a window that opens suits the room. A top-hung or centre-pivot roof window can be turned or tilted to clean the outer pane from inside, and a blind fitted to the frame handles the early summer mornings. We confirm the opening type, the blind and the glass against the room at the survey, and the choice is yours.

When the slope is a rear one, the glass faces away from the street, so the front of the house keeps the same look from the road. If you have a loft room as well, our guide to cutting the first opening into an older roof covers what changes when no window has ever been there.

Consent and sign-off in Tenterden

Ashford Borough Council is the local planning authority here, so questions about the outside of your house go to it. The position for a house, a flat or a converted building is set out in our planning permission guide.

A new opening in a roof is also building work, and a new or replacement roof window must meet the window limit of 1.4 W/m²K (or Window Energy Rating band B) in Part L. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and the Building Regulations guide sets out what the inspector looks at.

Glass overhead, glass at the wall

A roof lantern or a flat rooflight gives the room a second source of light from a different angle. The garden-side glazing shows the view; the glass overhead lights the seating and carries the sky across the ceiling. A lantern stands up from the roof on a kerb and adds height inside. A flat rooflight sits close to the roof and suits a lower room. Our page on roof lanterns goes into the shapes and frames.

A lantern over a flat roof typically rises more than the 150 mm that Class C allows, which usually puts it outside permitted development and leaves planning permission to apply for, unless Ashford confirms otherwise. The roof lantern planning guide explains why, and a rooflight or lantern is held to 2.2 W/m²K under Part L. If the garden room is an outbuilding that is separate from the house, we check at the survey what rules apply to it. An outbuilding may have no loft at all, so the survey also looks at what the walls and beams can carry before a lantern is suggested.

A lantern lined with plaster and painted white throws daylight down into the room, and a lantern with exposed timber or a dark liner holds some of it back. Both look good, and which you pick depends on the colour of the walls and furniture you already have. A kerb height and a ceiling line are the two measurements that make the lining sit square, so we take them twice on site.

Getting materials to the back garden

A terraced or mid-row property may have no side access wide enough for a pane of lantern glass. Then everything comes through the hall, and the route may need floor protection and a plan for the door frames. We walk it with you before we quote, because a carry through three rooms and a narrow garden gate is a different job from a drop at an open side gate.

If you live outside the centre, we also cover Biddenden, Benenden and Northiam. Our WhatsApp line is 07880 284133 and the email address is info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk. The quote form asks for the basics and books the survey.