29.0 road miles south-east of Derby, with two greens and a brook.
Anstey runs from big houses on Bradgate Road to small terraces and suburban estates. Tell us where the bed sits and we plan the light from there.
Book a free survey
Older terraces are the place for conservation rooflights; bedrooms under the roof suit roof windows and VELUX windows; and a bedroom beside a stair can borrow daylight from a sun tunnel.
A bedroom wants a gentler kind of daylight than a kitchen. Nobody needs a bright beam over the bed, but a good rooflight makes a morning feel like morning, and a blind lets the room go dark when it should. In an older terrace a low-profile unit sits lying flat to the slope, which leaves the street view alone. On newer roads, where lofts are larger and roofs simpler, a standard roof window may be the easier choice. Either way the position over the bed gets decided first, and the product follows.
The full guide
A bedroom has a different test from other rooms. Light arrives while you are lying down, looking up, and often half asleep. This guide follows a rooflight above the bed through the roof, the planning rules, the fitting and the sleeping room itself.
Callout 1
Try lying on the bed and looking at the ceiling. That is the view a rooflight above you would give, and it is not the same as a window in a wall. You see sky, cloud and the tops of trees, and the light falls across the room from above instead of from the side.
Where the bed sits changes the answer. A rooflight directly over the pillow gives a bright start to the morning, which some sleepers like and others do not. One placed towards the foot of the bed lights the room without shining on your face. A unit over the dressing area, between bed and wardrobe, lights clothes and mirror and leaves the bed in softer light. We lie down on your bed at the survey, or as near as is practical, and choose with you.
Blinds belong in this conversation from the start. A bedroom needs to go dark at night, and a blackout blind fixed to the frame does that far better than a curtain hung nearby. Opening and closing it by pole or electric control is a decision that affects the unit we order, so we raise it early.
Fresh air counts too, and a roof window that opens lets a warm bedroom cool at night. We show the choices against your ceiling height.
Lying back and looking up shows exactly what a rooflight over the bed would give.
Callout 2
Anstey's history shows in its housing. Hosiery was made here from the eighteenth century into the nineteenth, and by 1845 about 300 people in the village worked as framework knitters. The old industrial part of the village is full of small terraced houses, and their roofs carry that story too. Rafters may be modest in size, spacing may vary, and later alterations may show in the timbers.
A rooflight in an old roof is therefore set out from what is actually there. We look at the rafters in the loft, work out which one or two must be trimmed, and size the opening to leave the rest sound. Flashing is chosen to suit the covering found up there, and any brittle tiles or slates beside the opening are changed for a match first.
No two roofs can be assumed to match, even in one row. A previous owner may have added a dormer, re-covered the slope or boxed in the chimney breast. The survey records what is there on that house, with photographs for the file.
In a small terrace the bedroom under the roof can be tight. Headroom, the angle of the slope and the position of the stair opening all affect where a unit can sit, and a low-profile one may fit where a standard one would knock against the ridge board. We take those measurements before suggesting any size.
Callout 3
Anstey lies in the Charnwood district, so planning is in the hands of Charnwood Borough Council. Its website, charnwood.gov.uk, is the authority on any particular road. The village centre has two greens and many older buildings, but we do not name or assume a conservation area. The question about your house goes to Charnwood, and the reply reaches you unedited.
House rooflights usually come under permitted development, which has its own conditions. Those sit in our planning guide, with links through to official sources. Flats and maisonettes follow different rules, and a listed house will need its own consent route for most changes. Where a conservation area applies, an Article 4 direction can switch permitted development off, and the council is the one to say.
Building Regulations are handled apart from planning. Once the rafters are altered, the council or a registered building control approver has to be told, and we send that wherever the work requires. The steps below show how a booking runs.
Bed, loft and roof are all looked at in one visit.
A fixed written figure that stays as printed.
Building Control is notified where the work requires it.
Opening cut, unit flashed in and made weathertight.
Light well lined and plastered, ready to decorate.
Callout 4
Some of Anstey's houses have rooms in the roof, and some owners are thinking of adding one. A roof window can light such a room very well, but it does not solve everything, and one rule matters for safety.
Approved Document B sets a height limit of 4.5 metres above the ground for using a roof window as a room's exit. Turn the loft of a house with two floors into a room and its floor lies past that, which makes a protected stair the necessary exit, and the window then only brings daylight. Single-storey homes with rooms upstairs, bungalows and chalet bungalows among them, stay within the limit, so their roof windows can be the exit too. Wherever that is the plan, the clear opening must reach 0.33 square metres with neither side under 450 millimetres.
There is a practical side too. A room in the roof needs enough headroom to be used, which often decides where a unit can go, because the opening must sit where the slope is high enough to stand under. Measurements start at the floor, go onto the plan, and we tell you honestly if a position is too low to be comfortable.
The rule bites on conversions. A room that is already a bedroom, wanting only more light, does not usually raise it. A brand new loft bedroom does, so mention it when you first write and the visit will cover the stair and escape route as well as the window.
On the slope, one plain unit usually keeps the roofers busy for one or two days. Our 10-year workmanship guarantee is in writing, and the quote comes after the survey. To arrange a visit, use the survey form and mention the bedroom.
Roughly 7,000 people live in Anstey, and one road tells much of its story. Near the top of Bradgate Road stand large houses. Lower down they give way to terraced houses in the old industrial area, and further out towards Link Road the streets turn to modern suburbia. Three kinds of housing, three kinds of roof, and three different conversations about where light is missing.
The village has two greens, a top green and a bottom green, and its name appears in the Domesday Book. It grew from two settlements, each tied to a separate manor, and the nineteenth century added hosiery factories. Small terraced houses fill the old industrial area, and in them a bedroom under the roof can be the only room there is space to add.
The larger houses higher up the road have more generous plans. Their dark spots are likely to be inner landings, rear bedrooms and bathrooms on the half-landing, and their roofs leave more freedom in where a unit can go.
There are also pre-fabricated post-war council houses in the village. The roof and ceiling construction of a prefabricated house needs a careful look before an opening is planned. We check what the loft contains and how the ceiling is built, then set the opening to match.
The Rothley Brook flows through the village on its way to the River Soar, with two old bridges, the Packhorse Bridge and King William's Bridge. Tree cover near the brook can change how much sky a rooflight sees, so we look up from the bed, not out across the garden.
Newer building towards Link Road has a different character again. Roofs there are simple, lofts are larger and rafters sit at an even spacing, so the opening can be positioned exactly over the dark spot with little compromise. The sky is the main variable, since neighbouring houses stand close.
Whichever kind of house yours is, we start at the bed and work upwards.
Only if you let it. A blackout blind on the frame shuts out dawn completely, and the unit can sit towards the foot of the bed so sunrise does not fall on your face. We settle the position together in the bedroom itself, and the blind is chosen at the same time.
Only within a height limit. Above 4.5 metres from the ground, which is where a converted loft in a two-floor house sits, the exit has to be a protected stair. Rooms in a bungalow roof stay beneath that height, so a roof window can serve them. Which side of the line your house falls on is checked before any design is settled.
Yes, once the right rafters are trimmed and the opening is sized to suit. We look in the loft first, since older timbers vary in size and spacing. Where slates or tiles round the opening are brittle, matching ones go in during the work, giving the unit sound surroundings.
We do not name one, because we have not confirmed any. Only Charnwood Borough Council can settle it, with your address sent across before our visit. If one applies, permitted development may have been removed and an application could be needed. We report what the council says.
Yes. Opening roof windows let a warm bedroom cool at night. Electric opening versions can be run by remote control, which helps when the unit is out of reach. We compare options against your ceiling height at the 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.
Fill in what you like. We send it as one tidy message from your phone.
