19.8 road miles east of Derby, a former hosiery town with its own market.
Loft bedrooms and back bedrooms wake you with a grey wall. Point out where the bed stands, and the rooflight is planned outward from the pillow.
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For bedrooms, roof windows and electric opening rooflights with blinds; for older roofs, conservation rooflights; and VELUX windows, energy efficient rooflights or sun tunnels where the landing needs help.
A bedroom asks for something different from a kitchen. It wants daylight to wake by and a way to shut that daylight out at night. A roof window with a fitted blackout blind does both, and an electric opener on a high unit saves reaching with a pole when you are half asleep. A sun tunnel suits the landing outside the bedroom, which is often the darkest part of the upper floor and does not need a window that opens.
The full guide
Bedrooms are where you notice light twice, at waking and at sleeping. Here we show how the rooflight finds its place above the bed, how the roof and the rules around it are checked, and what happens on the day.
Callout 1
A bed is the one thing in the room you rarely move, which makes it an easy spot to plan around. It also asks for the most contradictory things from a rooflight. You want soft daylight at seven in the morning and complete darkness at eleven at night.
Where the window sits in relation to the bed settles most of that. A window directly above the pillow throws sunlight on your face at dawn. A window lower down the slope, above the foot of the bed or the floor beside it, lights the room without waking you. We stand where the bed will sit, or sits now, and look up to choose.
Blinds do the rest. Blackout blinds that grip the frame edges hold the room dark through light summer evenings. A pleated blind softens the light in the day. Electric operation is worth considering where the glass sits high, since reaching a cord above a bed is awkward.
Sloping ceilings also decide the layout. In a loft bedroom the headboard usually sits under the low part of the slope, and the window sits higher up, where you can stand and see out.
Small details change the feel of the room. A paler lining reflects more light toward the bed, while a darker one keeps the room moody and restful. Neither is wrong. It depends on whether you read in bed, work from it, or only sleep there.
You want soft daylight at seven in the morning and complete darkness at eleven at night.
Callout 2
A bedroom in the roof catches the sun first and loses heat last, so comfort has to be planned along with daylight. The glass, the orientation and the shading work together.
The slope direction tells you how the room will behave. An east slope brings morning sun, which suits some people and wakes others too early. A south slope is brightest, and in summer the warmest. A north slope is even and cool. We cannot change the direction of your roof, but we can choose the glazing, the size and the blind to suit it.
Part L sets separate thermal limits for roof windows and for rooflights, but a bedroom that gets cold at night rewards a unit that does better than the minimum. A well-insulated frame and a warm inner pane also keep the glass clear of condensation.
External shading, such as an awning blind, stops heat reaching the glass at all and works far better than an internal blind on the hottest days. If you sleep badly in summer, tell us. It changes what we recommend.
Callout 3
The sequence on the day is built around keeping the bedroom usable afterwards. The bed is moved, the floor is covered, and the opening is made from the outside before anything is cut indoors.
Plain single rooflights tend to mean a day on the roof, occasionally two. A long light well through a boarded loft, or a lining that wants plastering, means more work indoors; the written quote says so beforehand.
Dust matters in a bedroom, and so does noise from the roof, so the room is closed off from the rest of the house and cleaned as the work goes. Rain on glass is the other thing people ask about. A rooflight over a bed can sound louder in a downpour than a wall window does, and a thicker pane or a triple-glazed unit reduces it. Tell us at the survey if that bothers you, and the quieter glass is priced beside the standard pane. By the end of the visit the roof is watertight and the opening is finished, and you can see the sky from the bed.
Bed moved, floors and wardrobes covered, doors sealed from the landing.
Tiles or slates come up and the opening is framed to the survey marks.
Flashings fitted and the roof closed in before any work indoors.
Splayed lining fitted, insulated and plastered ready for paint.
Blind or electric opener set, and tested from the bed.
Callout 4
Gedling Borough Council decides planning matters in Arnold. Rooflights on houses are usually permitted development, within limits spelled out in our planning guide, so that is the page to read before choosing a slope. Householder rights of that kind are absent in a flat or maisonette. Listed homes need listed building consent first. If a street falls in a conservation area, Gedling can tell you whether Article 4 has switched permitted development off.
A conservation rooflight often suits a sensitive roof, because its shallow profile settles close to the covering and keeps the roofline calm.
Building Control is separate. Opening the roof structure for a new unit is building work, signed off by the council, or by an independent registered building control approver, with the filing done by us wherever it is due.
Bedrooms in the roof also deserve a thought for fresh air. An opening sash gives a way to cool the room at night, and we note the option for every unit in the quote.
Arnold is a market town in the Borough of Gedling, with about 40,000 people. The 1086 Domesday Book names the place Ernehale, and later centuries made it a hosiery town with numerous factories. Since 1968 it has had a market. The Home Brewery, set up by John Robinson, was one of the better known names, with a Robin Hood logo on its beer mats.
That industrial past left a town that grew in stages. The A60, Mansfield Road, runs through it, and the old Daybrook and Arnold station, once a junction on several lines, stood where a retail park now stands. The nearest active railway station is at Bulwell.
The useful point for rooflights is that Arnold's housing spans many eras. A town that has grown for centuries has houses of many ages, with roofs to match. Some roofs are pitched over a loft turned bedroom. Others have extensions at the back with flat roofs. The survey reads each house individually.
Loft bedrooms are the most obvious case for a roof window. A converted loft often has a small gable window or none at all, and the sloping ceilings leave less wall space. A roof window brings daylight into the middle of the room and gives a view of sky from the bed.
Upstairs landings are another. Under a loft, a windowless landing can get daylight from a sun tunnel that runs down through the roof space and leaves little to see from the street. It suits places where you want a bright landing but have no need of a window that opens.
Behind the house, a flat-roofed extension holding a bedroom or bathroom suits a flat roof rooflight. The survey checks the roof structure first, so the new opening is framed properly and weathered at the edges. A ceiling that has been plastered for years also needs care, because the lining must be matched to the old plaster so the join disappears under paint.
The questions we hear about bedrooms are small ones. Will the blind fit? Can the window be reached? Does it open far enough to cool the room? Each is answered at the survey, with the actual ceiling and the actual bed in front of us.
Arnold lies 19.8 road miles east of Derby, well inside our radius. Bring your questions about blinds, openers and glazing. Those details shape how the room feels long after the work is finished, and the written quote can be adjusted before it is fixed.
Whatever the house, you will see the spot, the roof and the plan before you see a price. Your quote arrives fixed, and a ten-year workmanship guarantee is set down alongside it.
Not if it is planned for sleep. The position over the bed and the choice of blind do most of the work. Blackout blinds in side channels keep the room dark, and an electric opener works high glass without stretching. Tell us your waking time and your slope direction at the survey.
It can be, when the landing has a loft above and you want daylight without a window that opens. A sun tunnel carries light down a tube through the roof space. A roof window delivers more daylight and a view, at the cost of a larger opening. The survey decides which fits your landing and your roof.
Often not, as permitted development covers many house rooflights in line with the conditions our planning guide links. A flat has no such right, and conservation areas can lose it through Article 4. Gedling can confirm your address. Building Control runs separately, and its notice is something we sort out.
Yes. Blinds, electric openers and the glazing level are all agreed at the survey and written into the quote, so nothing arrives as an extra. If you are unsure, we can talk through morning sun, summer heat and how often you will reach the window, then recommend a combination.
A misted unit has usually failed at the seal, so the glass is beyond repair and the unit can be replaced like for like. The new unit must satisfy Part L's thermal test for its type. We also check the flashing and the lining while we are there.
Where do you want the light? Tell us in the form: the worktop, the stair, the desk.
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