Whitstable skylights and rooflights
Whitstable sits where the Swale meets the Greater Thames Estuary, five miles north of Canterbury. A house on any of its streets has rooms that sit furthest from a window, and the roof above them is the way to bring daylight in.
- Free survey, fixed written quote
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
Dark rooms, sorted by building era
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1 Victorian terraces: the buried stair Whitstable had a direct rail route to London from 1860, and terraces of that era are often narrow and deep. The staircase sits between two party walls with no window of its own. -
2 Interwar semis: the long landing Semis from the 1920s and 30s generally put the stairs against a side wall, and the landing runs back to a bedroom door. A window at one end leaves the middle of that run in shade. -
3 Bungalows: the hall with six doors A single-storey roof sits close above the rooms. The hall that serves them has doors on both sides and no window, which makes it a good candidate for a sun tunnel.
Stairwells, halls and the back bedroom
The rooms in a Whitstable house that borrow all their light from somewhere else.
A staircase between two party walls has no way of getting daylight except from the doors that open onto it. A landing on the same stair is in the same position, with bedroom doors on either side. That is the usual arrangement in a terrace, and the Victorian pattern runs like this: a front room on the street, a middle room, a back addition, and bedrooms stacked above. The town gained a direct rail route to London in 1860 when a station opened on what is now the Chatham Main Line, and houses put up in the decades around then are often built to that long, narrow plan. Whitstable is a town in the Canterbury district on the north coast of Kent, five miles north of Canterbury and two miles west of Herne Bay.
Myth
A roof window in the back bedroom will make the room too bright and too hot to sleep in.
Fact
How a room feels depends on which way the slope faces, the glazing chosen and whether a blind goes in. We ask about all three at the survey and size the opening to the room.
Light that comes down the stairs
With a terrace staircase the roof is the only outside surface left. A window let into the back slope directly over the landing sends daylight down the well to the hall. Where the loft is deep and the roof window would sit awkwardly, a sun tunnel can do the same job through a narrower opening. Both leave the street elevation untouched, which matters in a town where the front of a house is part of what people notice. In the same way that a landing can be lit from above, a hallway in a bungalow can be fed by a tube that runs through the loft to a ceiling diffuser. In a bungalow the only thing above the hall ceiling is the roof space, so a sun tunnel has no floor above it to cross. The doors off a bungalow hall take up the wall space a window would need. A bungalow roof sits close above the ceiling, so the tube between dome and diffuser is short and the opening in the roof is small.
The back bedroom under the roof
The back bedroom is the other space that surprises owners. In a house where the loft has been converted, the room often has a single small window in a gable or dormer cheek, with the sloping ceiling closing in on the side nearest the floor. Set into the back slope, a roof window brings daylight to the part of the room where the bed and wardrobe actually sit.
Where that loft room belongs to a two-storey house, escape shapes the design. Converting the loft adds a floor more than 4.5 m up, which normally calls for a protected escape route down the staircase. Approved Document B does not accept a loft roof window as that route. Our Building Regulations guide explains how this and the energy rules apply to a roof opening, and we go through your loft at the survey.
Where the sun falls over the estuary
Whitstable has open water to the north, and the sky over it is wide. A roof slope that faces south collects strong light for much of the day, while a slope facing north receives an even, cooler light that rarely glares. For a back bedroom that matters: south-facing glass benefits from a blind and a suitable glazing specification, and a north slope can stay unshaded. We ask which way each slope faces, and what the room is used for, before we suggest a size.
The roof also sits close to open water, so wind has more to push against than it would inland. We specify the fixings and flashings with that exposure in mind and check the condition of the surrounding tiles or slates on the day of the survey. We keep to a size that sits between the rafters wherever we can.
Canterbury City Council, and the conservation areas near the town
Planning questions about the outside of a Whitstable house go to Canterbury City Council. Building work on a roof is a separate matter, checked under the Building Regulations. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and the local authority or a registered building control approver signs it off.
From message to handover on a roof opening
- Tell us the room Send a photograph and the address by WhatsApp on 07880 284133 or by email.
- Survey at the house Free survey of the room, the loft or ceiling void and the roof covering.
- Written quote Unit, glazing, roof work and finishing inside, set out in one fixed written quote.
- Opening and fitting Roof opened, frame fitted and flashed, and the reveals made good inside.
- Notification and guarantee Building Control notification handled where notifiable, plus a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing.
Planning for a roof window or a lantern
On a house, a flat-lying roof window or rooflight usually needs no application provided it keeps inside the height and projection limits of the national rules. A roof window follows the plane of the slope, while a lantern stands up from the roof. A lantern is a different animal: sitting on a flat roof it generally rises past the 150 mm projection limit, so the council's permission is the normal route unless it tells you otherwise. The full list of conditions, including the ones that apply to side slopes and to flats, sits in our skylight planning permission guide. The lantern position has its own guide on roof lantern planning and Building Regulations.
Conservation areas around Whitstable
Conservation areas in and around the town include Church Street, Whitstable Town, South Whitstable and Tankerton, as well as an area covering the Canterbury and Whitstable railway and Whitstable Station, and we check your own address with the council.
Should an application prove necessary inside any of these areas, attention falls on the slope chosen, how the unit lies against the roof covering and how slim the frame is. Our guides to conservation area rooflight planning and Article 4 and rooflights cover how those rules work.
Before the work begins
The order of work is straightforward.
Matching the unit to the roof above the room
Whitstable lies about 27 miles from Maidstone, eastward, so the town is within reach of our base. The product that suits a house comes from what sits above the room, so the survey starts in the dark space and then follows the line of sight up to the roof. In a terrace that line usually passes through a landing ceiling, a loft hatch and then the rafters.
| Space to light | Roof above it | Unit to consider |
|---|---|---|
| Terrace stairwell | Pitched, tiles or slates over a loft | Roof window in the back slope, or a sun tunnel |
| Loft back bedroom | Sloping ceiling that is the roof itself | Roof window between the rafters |
| Bungalow hallway | Pitched roof with a loft above the ceiling | Sun tunnel with a ceiling diffuser |
| Rear extension | Flat roof on joists | Flat rooflight or roof lantern |
What sits above the stairwell, hall and back bedroom
Over a terrace stair the roof is usually pitched, with tiles or slates on rafters and a loft behind. A roof window let into the back slope can often sit between the rafters, and it is the usual choice when you want a view of sky as well as light on the stairs. A sun tunnel suits a hallway where the loft is too deep or too cluttered for a window to sit well, because the opening in the roof is far smaller. The tube ends in a diffuser in the ceiling, which looks like an ordinary ceiling light from the hall.
Over a back bedroom in the loft, the roof is the ceiling. Here a roof window brings in the light and the view of the sky, and it can also give ventilation when it opens. How steeply the slope rises decides which product is allowed, and our guide to pitch limits for roof windows sets that out.
Glazing choices follow the room. Over a stairwell, a fixed unit is enough, since the aim is daylight and nobody needs to reach it. Over a bedroom or a bathroom, a unit that opens lets stale air out, and an electric opening rooflight suits a spot too high to reach with a pole.
Extensions and flat roofs
A kitchen or garden room added to the back of a house often has a flat roof. That is the place for a flat roof rooflight or, where the room is large enough and planning allows it, a roof lantern. The upstand, the roof covering and the direction of the joists all affect the choice, and we measure them before pricing. The direction the joists run decides which sides of the opening need new timbers, and the upstand around the glass is built to suit the covering.
If you are just outside Whitstable, we also work in Canterbury and Boughton under Blean. To start, use the quote form, or write to info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk.
Terrace stairs, estuary light, conservation rules
Our street falls in the South Whitstable conservation area. Can we still have a roof window?
It can be possible. Being inside a conservation area does not by itself remove permitted development for a rooflight on a house; an Article 4 direction can. We check your address with Canterbury City Council, and the choice of unit and slope matters more if an application is needed.
Who decides whether a rooflight on our Whitstable extension needs planning permission?
Canterbury City Council takes those applications. On a house, whether you need to apply turns on how high the unit rises above the slope, and our planning guide explains the tests. Over a flat roof, a lantern will normally call for an application.
The landing and stairs in our terrace have no window. Where would a roof window go?
On the rear slope, over the landing, so that daylight drops down the stairwell to the hall. The same opening lights the top of the stairs too. If the loft is deep and cluttered, a sun tunnel through the same space can do it with a smaller opening.
How does escape work for a bedroom in the loft of a two-storey house?
Emergency escape windows count under Approved Document B only for floors up to 4.5 m above the ground. Turning the loft of a two-storey house into a bedroom puts a floor above that height, so the normal answer is an enclosed escape route running down the staircase, and the loft roof window is not accepted as an escape.
Which nearby places do you cover from Whitstable?
We survey in Canterbury and in Boughton under Blean.
Nearby towns to Whitstable
Book your free survey
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.