Three flat rooflights on the roof of a brick extension

Calverton

Calverton landings lit by rooflights or skylights

22.7 road miles north-east of Derby, a village that grew around its colliery.

Calverton's post-war estates can have landings and bathrooms with little daylight. Tell us which spot is dark and the survey begins there.

Book a free survey

Colliery estates, cottage rows and landings with no window

A first-floor landing where the only light comes up the stairs from a glazed front door.

A bathroom tucked between two bedrooms, lit by a small frosted pane that never quite reaches the basin.

The rooflights that suit Calverton roofs

Estate houses take VELUX windows or any other make of roof window. The older cottage roofs call for conservation rooflights, hallways under a loft take sun tunnels, and a rear extension gets flat roof rooflights.

Calverton is a village of two kinds of house: the estate homes built as the place expanded, and a smaller group of older cottages with a very different roof. The first kind has a plain pitched roof with a loft above the landing, which is the easy case for glazing in the slope or a mirrored tube. The second kind needs more care over how the new glass sits against the slope, so the survey looks at both the roof and the front elevation before anything is priced.

The full guide

Daylight for a village that grew in stages

A house built for a mining family and a house built for a commuter ask the same thing of a rooflight: put the daylight where someone actually stands. This guide walks through four Calverton situations, from the landing to the council.

Dark landing
Cottage rows
Window or tunnel
The council

Callout 1

Starting at the top of the stairs

On a typical Calverton estate house the landing is a corridor with doors on both sides and nothing above it but the loft. Stand at the head of the stairs on a bright morning and the light that reaches you has already been to the front door, down the hall and back up. It is enough to find the bathroom, and not enough to make the space feel like part of the house.

What goes on the landing plan

Head of the stairs marked: the head of the stairs, marked on the floor
Ceiling to rafters: the loft depth the shaft has to cross
Hatch and tank: anything the opening must clear
Roof pitch: decides the window size and flashing kit
Shaft sides: splayed to spread light across the hall

That is the spot we measure from. A roof window set over the landing sends a shaft of daylight straight down the stairwell, so the hall below brightens as well as the landing. Because the opening sits above a space nobody sleeps in, glare in the bedrooms never comes up.

Reading the ceiling before the roof

The first thing we check on a landing job is what sits between the ceiling and the rafters. A shallow loft with insulation laid across the joists is simple. A loft with a water tank, a run of cables or a stored-away lifetime of boxes is still workable, but the light shaft has to be planned around it. The shaft is drawn onto the floor plan first, which lets you judge the daylight's landing point from the sofa instead of the loft.

The shaft is the part people forget. The roof window is the glass; the shaft is what carries the light from it to your landing ceiling. Angle the sides of the shaft outward, so it widens on the way down, and the daylight reaches further across the floor than a straight-sided box would allow.

When the landing is also the route to a loft hatch, the opening is kept clear of the hatch frame, so the two never clash.

A landing with a roof window above it stops being a corridor and starts feeling like a room.

Callout 2

Knitters' cottages and the listed ones

Calverton has a group of listed buildings, one at Grade II* and the rest at Grade II, and among them are houses and cottages that were once knitters' homes. Anyone who has seen a framework knitters' cottage will know the look: a long first-floor window designed to bring in as much light as a small wall could hold. They were built around daylight, and the people who lived in them would understand exactly why you want more of it upstairs.

If your house is on that list, or next to one, the rooflight conversation changes. Listed status means listed building consent for most alterations, and the council's conservation officer will want to see the position, the size and the type of glazing. The flush profile of a conservation rooflight, level with the slope instead of standing proud, is why it is the first thing to discuss.

Houses that are not listed but sit beside one

A house can be unlisted and still sit close to a listed neighbour, which is worth bearing in mind when choosing what is visible from the street. We would rather you asked early. The survey is free and the roof can be looked at from the road, the garden and the loft before any commitment is made.

Whatever the age of the house, we place the opening on the rear slope where the roof layout allows, so the view from the front stays as it was.

Callout 3

Framed glass or mirrored tube

Two products answer the landing problem differently. The better fit depends on the loft depth above the spot and on how much daylight you are after.

A roof window is a framed pane in the slope. You get a view of the sky, a sash that can swing open, and a wide wash of daylight when the shaft is splayed. A sun tunnel works differently: a little dome catches the sky, a mirrored tube carries it down, and a flat diffuser finishes the ceiling. Hardly any timber is disturbed, which helps where the pitch is awkward or the rafters sit tight together.

On the Calverton estates, both have a place. We walk through the choice at the survey, with the loft open, so you can see the distance the light has to travel.

Fresh air as well as daylight

Steam lingers in a bathroom with no outer wall. An opening sash lets damp air escape while the daylight comes in, whereas a tube stays shut, so a steamy bathroom tips the choice toward the window.

Whichever you choose, the finish at ceiling level matters. A neat plasterboard return around the shaft, painted white, makes the opening look like part of the house rather than a hole that was cut afterwards.

Two ways to light one landing

Framed pane in the slope

Clear sky view
Can open for air
Needs rafters trimmed
Lights a wider area

Dome, tube and diffuser

Small opening in the roof
Fits between existing rafters
Does not open
Gentler, even light

Callout 4

Planning and Building Control in Gedling

Gedling Borough Council is the body that decides planning questions in the village. On a house, a rooflight commonly counts as permitted development, subject to conditions that live in our planning guide instead of here. A flat or maisonette sits outside householder rights altogether, and a listed building brings its own consent route.

If your street falls under an Article 4 direction, the council may have taken those rights away, so put the question to them before ordering. The council's planning pages are at gedling.gov.uk. Gedling Borough Council can confirm if your street falls within a conservation area, or is covered by an Article 4 direction. A conservation area on its own leaves these rights in place, while an Article 4 direction takes them away.

Building Control is a separate question

Planning settles whether a rooflight may go in; the Building Regulations settle how it is built. Forming a brand new opening in the roof is building work, and it goes through the local authority or a registered building control approver. Our team files that Building Control notification when the job calls for one, and fits to current standards.

A tired Calverton unit replaced in its existing opening is still regulated under Part L, and the incoming glass has to match the current thermal standard. Roof windows must reach 1.4 W/m2K (Window Energy Rating band B is the alternative test), and rooflights must reach 2.2 W/m2K.

The houses Calverton built as it grew

Calverton is a village of about 7,300 people, and its housing records the way it expanded. Before the colliery opened, the place was a farming and framework knitting community, and the older cottages and a former hosiery factory still stand among the later streets. Some of them are listed.

The colliery changed the village. A colliery estate was laid out between Mansfield Lane, Crookdole Lane and Park Road East, and a council estate went up between Park Road, Lee Road and Flatts Lane. Those are the streets where houses are likely to date from the same period of building.

When the pit closed, Calverton took on the character of a large commuter village, and newer homes were added. That gives a mix we meet in the survey: an old cottage with a hand-framed roof, a mid-century semi with a straightforward loft, and a newer house where the roof is a manufactured truss.

What that means for a rooflight

The estate houses are the most direct match for a roof window above the landing or a sun tunnel over the bathroom. The roof has an even pitch, the loft is accessible, and the rafters follow a regular pattern. Trussed roofs on newer homes need a different approach, because a truss cannot be cut the way a rafter can, and the opening has to fit between members or be designed with an engineer's input.

The older cottages need patience. Their roofs may carry slate or clay, and the light that matters most is in the rooms upstairs where a small window has to do a big job. On the rear slope, a flush-glazed conservation unit can lift a bedroom or landing and leave the street view alone.

Every Calverton survey begins in the dark spot and then climbs into the loft to learn what the roof will allow.

Landing, cottage and council queries from Calverton

Can a rooflight go over a landing on a Calverton estate house?

Usually, since the loft over a landing tends to be reachable. At the free survey we look at everything between ceiling and rafters, from insulation to tanks, and plan the shaft round it. The position is drawn out for you before any figure is discussed.

Do knitters' cottages need listed building consent for a rooflight?

A listed cottage needs the council's blessing before most alterations. An unlisted one follows the ordinary house rules. Either way, put the idea to Gedling Borough Council first; we can help you describe the opening you have in mind.

Is a sun tunnel enough for a small inside bathroom?

It can be, because a tunnel carries a soft, even glow down a narrow shaft. It stays shut, though, so a bathroom with a steam problem may suit an opening window better. Both get compared at the survey, with the loft hatch open.

Who handles the Building Control paperwork in Calverton?

That is our job where the work is notifiable, using the local authority or a registered building control approver. Part L treats a straight swap as controlled fitting, and the new glass must reach the stated U-value.

What does Calverton's paperwork say once the survey is over?

You get a fixed written quote, so the figure on the day is the figure you were given. It names the unit, its position, the ceiling finish and the Building Control step. The 10-year workmanship guarantee is also put in writing.

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.