Flat rooflight on an extension roof against a rendered house

Alrewas

Skylights and rooflights for village homes in Alrewas

Beside the Trent and its canal, 19.7 road miles from Derby to the south-west.

A village home office often ends up in a back bedroom or a loft with one small window. Tell us where your desk sits and we start the survey there.

Book a free survey

Home offices tucked into roof space and back bedrooms

Stairwell with a white banister beneath a roof window — A stairwell with a white banister, where the roof window is the only daylight on the way up.

Nursery with a white cot below a roof window — A nursery corner by the cot, where the room stays softly dim with one window overhead.

VELUX windows and the other fittings Alrewas roofs can take

Rooms in the roof suit roof windows, VELUX windows included; for heritage frontages, conservation rooflights; for warmer studies, energy efficient rooflights; and for glass out of reach, electric opening rooflights.

VELUX is the name many people use for any roof window, and it is a good place to start. VELUX sizes are coded, and in MK04 the letter carries the width while the digits carry the height, which lets us match a unit to your rafter spacing. A study needs daylight on the desk and a view that does not glare on the screen. An energy efficient unit keeps the room comfortable at the desk in winter, which matters when you sit still for hours.

The full guide

An Alrewas desk, from the chair to the ridge

Working from home puts you in one chair for most of the day, and the light in that chair becomes a daily fact. What follows traces one desk in one village house, all the way to a finished ceiling.

The chair
What pushes a quote up
Sequence on site
Consent

Callout 1

Light for the person sitting still

A desk wants different light from a worktop or a basin. You sit at it, so you are low and still, and your eyes spend hours on a screen. Steady, indirect light works best, arriving from high up and a little off to one side. A window right behind the screen causes glare. A window behind your own back puts your shadow on the keyboard.

What we note at your desk

Chair position: where your head and screen sit
Sloping ceiling: height at the desk edge
Screen position: to keep glare off it
Window opening: size, and whether it needs a motor
Blind or shade: for bright afternoons

At the survey we sit in the chair. We mark where your head and screen sit on the floor plan, then look up to see what the roof offers. Often the ideal position is a slope that gives light from the side, with the glass above and to the left or right of the desk.

If the desk is in a roof room, the sloping ceiling matters. A VELUX window set into the slope will see more sky if it is placed high, and give a better view if it is placed lower. We usually talk through both, because some people want a view and others want only light.

You may want the desk to move. We will say if the room works better with the desk turned, because a small change inside can improve the daylight more than a larger opening in the roof.

A window behind your own back puts your shadow on the keyboard.

Callout 2

What shapes the cost of a village job

People ask for a price before anything else, and we do not give one without seeing the house. A rooflight job is shaped by a handful of facts that only a survey can establish. Getting these right is what lets the written quote stay fixed on the day.

Access matters in older villages. A narrow lane or a shared drive changes how materials arrive and where scaffolding stands. A listed or protected building adds consent steps. A thick stone wall, as in many older houses and barn conversions, changes how the internal lining is finished.

Roof structure matters most. If the opening sits between two rafters, the work is simple. Should a rafter need cutting, a trimmer goes in and the structure around the opening is rebuilt, which means rebuilding the structure around the hole, a bigger job. Inside, a loft with a boarded floor and a lining to fit adds work too.

The size and type of the unit comes into it, naturally, but it is rarely the biggest factor. The list below sets out what moves the cost, and you will see each of these at the survey.

Ask for the quote in two parts if that helps, the rooflight itself and the finish inside, so you can see which part is which.

What changes a quote for a village house

Rafter positionA cut rafter needs a trimmer and more labour.
Unit size and typeLarger or motorised units cost more to buy and fit.
How deep the well runsA longer well needs more lining and insulation.
Getting up to the roofTight lanes or steep roofs need more equipment.
Finish insideA skimmed, painted-ready lining takes longer than a plain one.

Callout 3

A fitting day, from slates to plaster

On the day, the work moves from outside to inside, in an order that keeps the house dry. A single plain unit with nothing awkward about it normally occupies the roof for a day, sometimes two.

The covering is lifted first around the marked opening, then the rafters and trimmers are set out, and the frame is fixed. Flashings go on before the covering is dressed back around them. Only when the roof is watertight does the work move to the ceiling or the sloping lining.

That sequence matters because weather can change within a day, and an open roof is a risk. We cover and protect the opening at every stage and do not leave it exposed overnight.

Inside, dust sheets protect the floor and the desk. Anything that must move is moved before work begins, so ask us at the survey which items to clear. You can stay in the house while the work goes on, though the room below the opening will not be usable.

From first lift to finished lining

Dust sheets first
Sheets over floors and furniture, and the desk moved aside.
Slates and tiles lifted
Covering lifted, rafters and trimmers set to the survey marks.
Frame set and flashed
Frame secured, flashings fitted, covering dressed back around it.
Close in
The roof is watertight before any internal work begins.
Plastering the well
Light well lined, plastered and left ready for decorating.

Callout 4

Lichfield planning, Building Control and the village setting

Lichfield District Council decides planning for Alrewas. A house rooflight generally falls within permitted development, subject to limits explained in our planning guide, so read it before settling on a slope. If you live in a flat or maisonette, that householder route is closed to you. A listed cottage is another matter again, and listed building consent comes first. Think too about whether your lane is a conservation area; if so, ask Lichfield whether Article 4 has been used on your lane.

Building Control is the second track. Fitting a rooflight where none existed means altering the rafters, which is building work; the council, or else a registered building control approver, gives approval, and the paperwork is ours to file whenever it is notifiable. Part L also governs a like-for-like replacement, which has to reach the thermal figure for its own type.

A Trent-side village of cottages, converted buildings and country homes

Alrewas is a village of about 2,800 people in Lichfield District, Staffordshire. It sits beside the River Trent, five miles north-east of Lichfield and seven miles south-west of Burton-on-Trent, and it lies just inside the boundary of the National Forest. The Trent and Mersey Canal, built between 1766 and 1777, runs through it. The A38 passes the village on the line of the old Roman road, Ryknild Street.

The village has older buildings of real character. One example is the William IV, a pub that was three cottages until the 1830s. Nearby, Orgreave Hall is a brick-built country house in the parish. A rooflight plan for a building like that begins with respect for what is already there. Conversions of cottages or outbuildings often give you a loft room with beams, low eaves and no wall for a window, and that is exactly where a VELUX window or conservation rooflight earns its place.

A village house is rarely the same as the one next door. Extensions have been added, lofts have been boarded and roofs have been re-covered at different times, so the covering in front of us decides the flashing, not the age of the house. The age tells us where to look first, and the survey tells us what is true. Neighbours' roofs are no guide either, and the house next door may have been re-roofed in a different decade, since a shared ridge line can hide very different timbers underneath. So every job begins with a visit, and the quote is written only afterwards.

Many village homes also have a room that was never planned as an office. A box room, a back bedroom or a spare landing corner becomes the place where the laptop lives. These rooms tend to have one small window and no way to add another in the wall. The roof is the one direction left open, and a rooflight above the desk makes use of it without taking up any floor space.

A home office is one of the commonest reasons to want more daylight, and it is worth thinking about how the room is used through the year. In winter, a low sun may reach the desk for only part of the day, so the unit needs a good thermal rating to keep the room comfortable. In summer, a blind or a north-facing slope keeps the glare down.

Fradley began as a hamlet in the ancient parish of Alrewas and grew into a village of its own, so you may live nearby and be unsure which side of the line you are on. Either way, you are about 19.7 road miles from Derby, within the area we cover.

The survey costs nothing, the quote once written stays fixed, and a ten-year workmanship guarantee comes in writing too.

Alrewas questions about desks, daylight and roofs

Where should a roof window go relative to my desk?

Usually above and to one side, so light reaches the desk without shining straight at the screen or throwing your shadow across the keyboard. We sit in your chair at the survey and judge the position from there. Sometimes turning the desk gives a better result than moving the opening.

What does the VELUX code MK04 actually mean?

The letter carries the width and the digits carry the height, so MK04 is one particular size. Matching that code against the rafter spacing happens at the survey, and the size is printed in the written quote, ready for you to check against the delivery.

Can a barn conversion or old cottage take a rooflight?

Often yes, but the structure and the setting are checked first. A listed building needs consent first, and an Article 4 direction can come attached to a conservation area. Lichfield District Council can say what applies at your address. Low in the slope, a conservation rooflight keeps older roofs looking right.

Will the roof be open to the weather during the work?

The opening is protected at each stage, and the roof is made watertight before any internal work begins. With one simple rooflight, the roof is ours for a day or perhaps two, weather permitting. We watch the forecast with you before agreeing the date, so nothing is left exposed overnight.

Does the firm cover Alrewas if I live nearer Lichfield?

Yes. Our area is Derby and about 30 road miles around it, and Alrewas is 19.7 road miles away by road. Lichfield sits a few miles further from Derby, still inside that radius. Use the survey form or WhatsApp on 07880 284133 to tell us where you are, and we will arrange a visit.

Nearby

Book your free survey

Where do you want the light? Tell us in the form: the worktop, the stair, the desk.

No obligation. We survey before we price.
We cover Derby and 30 miles around.