Roof lantern on a paved terrace below a brick semi

Ashbourne

Ashbourne skylights and rooflights for market-town houses

13.3 road miles north-west of Derby, near the Peak District's southern edge.

A market town of old streets and mixed roofs. Tell us which spot stays dim, whether a basin, a stair or a bed, and the survey begins there.

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Windowless bathrooms, narrow stairs and loft rooms with a single dormer

Kitchen dresser and table with shelves of crockery — A kitchen dresser and table at the back of the room, where the shelves stay dim.

Galley space with a rooflight over a white worktop — A galley kitchen where the white worktop sits in shade beneath a plain ceiling.

What suits an Ashbourne roof

Loft bathrooms usually begin with roof windows and VELUX windows, while older roofs may suit conservation rooflights, a steamy bathroom may want electric opening rooflights, and the hallway underneath can use sun tunnels.

Ashbourne has been a market town for a long time, and its housing shows it. The older houses ramble, the later ones were added decade by decade, and the roofs vary to match. In any of them the bathroom or landing may sit wherever the plan left room, against a party wall or deep in the middle. A window in the roof is a direct fix for that, and where the room already sits under the slope, it is often the only way to get daylight to the right place. Loft, covering and the exact position of basin or stair all come first; the size of the unit is decided after.

The full guide

Ashbourne bathrooms: basin first, roof second

A bathroom in the roof is a common answer to a growing household, and also a common source of disappointment when the only window faces a hedge. This is the order we work in: the basin, the slope above it, the fitting, then the rules.

Beside the mirror
The slope above
Planning and consent
Down to the hall

Callout 1

Light for the mirror, not just the room

A dark bathroom gets described as a room problem, yet the trouble usually lives in one place. It is the basin and mirror, where you shave, put on make-up, check your face or brush a child's hair. A window that lights the bath end of the room does little for that spot, and a ceiling spotlight throws shadows under the eyes.

Roof window or fixed rooflight over a basin

Roof window that opens

Vents steam straight out
Reachable by a pole or a switch
Needs clear space under the sash
Matches the window next door

Sealed rooflight

Slimmer, with no opening part
Suits a bathroom with extract fan
Fewer seals to look after
Cannot air the room

A roof window positioned above or just ahead of the basin gives soft light from overhead, which is the most flattering kind for a mirror. With the glass set in the slope, the room needs no outside wall, which lets an inner bathroom have daylight too. Privacy is rarely an issue, since the angle looks up at sky and not across at neighbours, and frosted or tinted glass is available where an overlooking slope matters.

The survey starts at the basin. We stand where you stand, mark the spot on the floor, and look up to see which rafters and which slope lie above it. Then we measure the ceiling height, because the angle of the slope inside the room decides how much of the sky the window actually sees.

Steam is the second thing a bathroom plan has to answer. An opening roof window vents steam straight away, and a motorised one can be set to open from a wall switch when the ceiling is out of reach. Extract ventilation is a separate matter, but the window helps it.

The mirror is the spot that matters, so the survey starts at the basin.

Callout 2

Reading a roof in a town chartered in 1257

A market town that has been trading since the thirteenth century does not have one kind of roof. Ashbourne was granted a market charter in 1257, and the houses that make up the town today were built in many different periods. The survey is where we learn the house, so we go into the loft and read the roof itself.

We check the rafters first, since a roof window needs an opening framed between them, and rafters of different ages are not always evenly spaced. Older roofs may have timbers that were never meant to line up with a modern frame, in which case the opening is trimmed to suit the roof, not the other way round. Next the covering is identified, since slate, plain clay and interlocking concrete tiles all take different flashings. We check the insulation, because a roof window creates a hole in the thermal layer that has to be closed properly with a lined and insulated light well.

We check the position of any chimney stack, water tank, soil pipe or vent that might interfere with the line of the opening. A pipe that looks harmless from the room below can sit right where a rafter needs cutting, which the survey is there to catch.

The last check is the slope itself. Which direction it faces decides how much sun the basin gets and whether the bathroom warms in summer. A slope facing east gives morning light, which suits a bathroom well.

From survey to a finished ceiling

Survey the spot and the roof
We mark the basin, check the loft and agree where the opening goes.
Quote in writing
A fixed quote lists the unit, the flashing and the finishing.
Open up the slope
Tiles are lifted, the rafters trimmed and the frame fitted.
Weatherproof first
The unit and flashings go in before anything inside is touched.
Line the light well
Insulation and plasterboard close the shaft and finish the reveal.

Callout 3

Council, consent and the order of checks

The planning authority for Ashbourne is Derbyshire Dales District Council, whose website at derbyshiredales.gov.uk publishes its conservation areas and planning guidance. Your address is looked up there ahead of the survey, which tells us if the house is listed, within a conservation area, or neither.

For an ordinary house outside any designation, a rooflight usually falls under householder permitted development. Those conditions have their own page, our planning guide, which also links the official sources. Permitted development at householder level excludes flats and maisonettes, and any listed Ashbourne house must secure listed building consent before work starts. A conservation area with an Article 4 direction loses permitted development, and the council can say which streets are touched.

Building Regulations are a separate matter. Because a fresh opening alters the roof's construction, the law treats it as building work. Notifiable work is reported by us to a registered building control approver or the council, and we see the approval through. Under Part L, a straight swap counts as a controlled fitting. Ashbourne roof windows are tested against 1.4 W/m²K or, by the other route, Window Energy Rating band B. A fresh rooflight answers to 2.2 W/m²K.

None of this is a reason to hold off. It is simply the order the checks go in, and we do them in that order so there are no surprises when the roof is open.

Callout 4

When the stair needs help as well

A bathroom in the roof often leaves the stair below it just as dark as before. If the stair is straight and the loft opening sits above it, a second rooflight over the stairwell lights the flight and the landing together. Where the stair turns, a sun tunnel can send daylight down a lined tube to the hall ceiling, leaving a tidy finish indoors. We price each opening as its own line in one quote, so you can decide on one or both. Whichever you choose, the ceiling gets the same care: the light well is lined and plastered to match the room, and a pale reveal throws the daylight further across the bathroom.

Houses of many ages around the Market Place

The town council meets at Ashbourne Town Hall in the Market Place, in the Derbyshire Dales. The town's market charter dates from 1257, and in medieval times it was a frequent rest stop for pilgrims walking St Non's Way. Henmore Brook, a tributary of the River Dove, flows through the middle of the town, and Ashbourne Green and Sturston are hamlets close by.

For the housing, the useful point is that a town with this much history rarely has a single type of home. The built-up area has grown over several centuries, and the former factory site by the old railway goods yard has been redeveloped as housing and a light industrial estate. Ashbourne once had its own railway station, closed to regular passenger traffic in 1954, and the line itself was lifted after milk trains ceased in 1965. Today the nearest stations are Uttoxeter and Derby.

What we do with that is look at each house on its own terms. A house in the older part of the town may be listed, or sit inside a conservation area, and either one changes the route to a rooflight. A house on a newer street is more likely to have a standard roof structure, with trussed rafters, where the opening is framed in a particular way. Trussed rafters are not built to be cut freely, so a new opening may need a structural trimmer designed for that roof. We check which kind you have in the loft, because it affects the size and position that are possible.

Tourism is an important part of the town's economy, thanks to its closeness to Dovedale and the Peak District, so a house may be let to visitors. A guest in a holiday let notices a bright, fresh bathroom, and a roof window above the basin delivers it. Whatever the use, the process is the same. Survey, written quote, fixed price on the day, and a ten-year workmanship guarantee in writing.

Ashbourne roof window questions

Can a bathroom in the roof have a window without looking into neighbours?

Yes. A roof window looks up at the sky, so it does not look across at the next house. Frosted or tinted glass is available if a slope overlooks anything. We note sight lines at the survey and recommend the glass that suits the basin position.

Does a roof window mean telling the council?

It depends on the house. A property that is listed or inside a conservation area needs checking first. Outside those cases permitted development frequently covers it, under conditions explained in our planning guide. Building Control is a separate track, and we file the notification where one is needed.

My loft has trussed rafters. Can I still have a rooflight?

Often yes, but the opening must be designed with the structure in mind, because trussed rafters carry load in a particular way. The loft inspection shows what framing the opening would need, and you hear that before the figure is set down.

Is it worth lighting a guest bathroom in a holiday let?

A bright, well-ventilated bathroom is a good thing to offer a guest. An opening roof window vents steam, and daylight over the mirror helps. We fit the same unit and give the same ten-year workmanship guarantee in writing for rented property.

Could a sun tunnel light a hall below a loft room?

It can. Up top a sun tunnel is a modest dome, down in the Ashbourne hall it is a diffuser in the ceiling, with a reflective tube crossing the loft between them. It suits a hall or landing that sits under a loft used for storage or a loft conversion, where a window is not practical.

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

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We cover Derby and 30 miles around.