Opening rooflight on a flat roof above a conservatory
Cheadle

Lighting Cheadle's dark landings with rooflights and skylights

24.1 road miles west of Derby, in the Staffordshire Moorlands.

Houses in an old market town often keep their stairs and landings as dark as the day they were built. Tell us which corner stays dark, and we start measuring there.

Book a free survey

Older rooms with small windows and long, shaded stairs

Beamed loft bedroom with a roof window
A beamed loft bedroom, dim under the slope with a single roof window.
A back room that looks onto a neighbour's wall and needs the lights on by mid-afternoon.

Rooflights we fit for Cheadle roofs

For landings and bedrooms under a pitched slope, roof windows, VELUX windows and conservation rooflights; for windowless stairwells, sun tunnels; and electric opening rooflights where the opening sits out of reach.

A market town collects houses from several periods, and each period asks for something different from a rooflight. A slim conservation frame sits low on an older slate or tile slope and keeps the roofline tidy. A standard roof window suits a loft bedroom with a steady pitch. Beneath a loft that has to stay closed, the stairwell is a job for a sun tunnel, with a mirrored tube taking daylight down. Which one fits depends on the corner you want lit, so that is the first thing we ask about.

The full guide

A Cheadle house, from the landing upwards

In an older house the stair is the part nobody planned the light for. It sits at the core of the house, far from any outside wall, which leaves the roof as the one surface that can reach it. This is how the landing, the loft and the rules fit together.

Section drawing: a conservation rooflight in a slate roof, with daylight falling on the landing at the top of the stairsA two-storey house cut through from the roof to the ground floor. Numbered callouts: 1 Top of the stairs; 2 Shaft through the loft; 3 Warm glass, cold roof; 4 Staffordshire Moorlands rules.1. Top of the stairs12. Shaft through the loft23. Warm glass, cold roof34. Staffordshire Moorlands rules4
Section drawing: a conservation rooflight in a slate roof, with daylight falling on the landing at the top of the stairs
  1. Top of the stairs
  2. Shaft through the loft
  3. Warm glass, cold roof
  4. Staffordshire Moorlands rules

Callout 1

Why the landing is the room that never gets daylight

Stand on the landing of a typical older house at midday and look around. There is a front bedroom behind one door, a back bedroom behind another, and a bathroom behind a third. The stair comes up in the middle of all of it. No outside wall touches the landing, so no window can be fitted there, and with the doors closed the space relies on a bulb.

Opening roof window or fixed rooflight for the stairwell

Opening unit with a handle

  • Lets stale air out of the house
  • Reach needed to operate it
  • Pole or electric control available
  • Slightly deeper frame on the roof

Fixed pane, no moving parts

  • Fewer parts to move or wear
  • Suits a high, out-of-reach position
  • No ventilation from the unit
  • Slim, low profile

This is why people describe a house as dark upstairs when the bedrooms themselves are bright. What stays dim is the landing and the top flight, where you need to see each step edge. A rooflight set directly above the stairwell puts a patch of daylight on the treads and across the floor, which does more for the feel of the house than a bigger window in a bedroom would.

The first job at the survey is to stand on the spot and decide where the light should fall. After that we go up into the loft and check what the timbers and boarding will permit. Sometimes the best position is a little way up the slope from the stairwell, with a lined shaft bringing the light down at an angle. That is a normal thing to do and it keeps the opening away from a purlin or a chimney breast.

Choosing the unit means weighing a window that opens and gives a view against a fixed pane that is simpler to fit and has no moving parts. Both are laid out below.

Nobody planned the daylight for the stair, so the roof has to do it.

Callout 2

Getting daylight from the slope to the floor

Between a rooflight in the slope and a landing ceiling there is usually a loft, and the light has to cross it. In a loft that is open, the crossing is simple: the rooflight sits above the landing and the cone of light falls straight down. In a loft that has been boarded for storage, or has a water tank or pipework in the way, a light well is built. This is a lined shaft from the opening in the roof down to a new opening in the ceiling, boarded and insulated on every face.

The shaft is more than a tube. If it is left uninsulated, warm air from the landing meets cold board in winter and condensation follows. We line it with insulation, board it and plaster it, and angle the reveal so that more of the light reaches the floor. A splayed reveal catches a wider spread of daylight than a straight one, and a white finish keeps it bright.

On the roof, the size of the opening is governed by the rafter spacing. Cutting one rafter is routine and the trimmers around it carry the load. Cutting two needs more thought, and the survey records where each timber runs. If the best position for the light falls awkwardly across a rafter, we shift the unit or choose a narrower one rather than weaken the roof.

The following list is what we write down in the loft before a quote is drawn up.

What gets measured in a Cheadle loft

Landing floor
where the daylight should land
Rafters either side
decides the opening width
Loft boarding and tank
may need a light well
Covering on the slope
sets the flashing kit
Ceiling insulation
for the shaft lining

Callout 3

Glass that keeps the stairwell warm

An old house loses heat through its roof, and a rooflight is a thin layer set into a thick one. The glazing therefore matters more than it first seems. Energy performance falls under Part L. The yardstick is the ordinary window limit for roof windows, while 2.2 W/m²K covers rooflights and lanterns. We fit units that meet the figure for their type, and the quote names the glazing so there is no argument later about what went in.

Beyond the legal figure there is a comfort question. A low-emissivity coating on double glazing is enough for a landing. In a bedroom under a south-facing slope, a solar control coating takes the edge off the summer heat. If the house is on a road with traffic or the rooflight sits above a child's bed, laminated inner glass brings extra strength and cuts a little noise.

Condensation is the other thing to plan for. A warm-edge spacer in the sealed unit and a well-insulated lining around the frame keep the inner pane above the temperature where moisture settles. The cost of those details sits in the quote rather than in a surprise after fitting day.

What pushes a Cheadle rooflight quote up or down

  • Size of the openingWider openings need longer trimmers and a larger unit.
  • Light well through the loftA boarded loft means building, insulating and plastering a shaft.
  • Glazing specificationCoatings and laminated panes add to the unit.
  • Handle, motor or fixedManual, pole or electric operation changes the unit and the wiring.
  • Scaffold or tower accessA tight rear route or steep pitch means more setting up.

Callout 4

Planning and Building Control in Staffordshire Moorlands

Anything to do with planning in Cheadle goes through Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, whose website is staffsmoorlands.gov.uk. Before the survey we look up your address there, since one street can carry controls that its neighbour does not.

A house that is not listed generally benefits from permitted development for rooflights, though the small print matters. Rather than repeat it, we keep it in one spot, our planning guide, which points to the government's own wording. Different treatment applies to flats, maisonettes and listed buildings, and a conservation area may have had its freedoms withdrawn by an Article 4 direction. The council has the final say on all of these.

Separately, the Building Regulations come into play whenever a new opening alters how the roof is built. We make that notification, with the local authority or a registered building control approver as the recipient. A like-for-like swap is still controlled fitting, so the new glass has to reach the Part L figure for its type.

If the street side is the only slope that works, we start by suggesting a slim conservation frame and read the council's guidance together.

Neighbours matter on a terrace. We tell you if scaffolding will stand on shared ground, and we suggest letting next door know before the day.

What the town's roofs ask of a rooflight

Cheadle is a market town in the Staffordshire Moorlands, a town of about 11,400 people, and it has been trading for a long time. A market charter and annual fair were granted in 1250, and the settlement is named in the Domesday Book of 1086. The town also sits near the Peak District National Park area, which brings walkers and climbers through.

A town that old has a centre made of buildings from several centuries, and the streets behind the centre fill up with later houses. The practical result for a rooflight is variety. One road may hold older brick terraces with narrow stairs, while the next is lined with twentieth-century semis whose lofts have been converted or could be. Further out, estates have wider plans and plainer roofs. Coal and building materials left Cheadle on a branch railway that opened in 1901, the town having waited almost thirty years for it. The line is now closed, and the nearest station today is Blythe Bridge on the Crewe to Derby line. Cecilly Brook Local Nature Reserve lies near the centre of town, which gives some streets there a green edge.

What covers your roof varies from street to street, so the survey looks at the roof itself. In an older brick terrace the rear slope is the safer choice, with a conservation frame if the roof is traditional. A twentieth-century semi usually has a plain pitched roof that suits a roof window set over the stairwell or the bedroom. Where an extension has gone on behind the house, a flat rooflight or lantern can light the table or worktop at the back.

Wherever the dark spot sits, the starting point is a person standing on it. We note the room, the ceiling height, the loft beyond and the route to the roof, and the written quote sets out each one.

Cheadle homeowners ask

Which Cheadle council decides if a rooflight needs permission?

The council responsible is Staffordshire Moorlands District Council. Houses often benefit from permitted development, whose conditions we gather in our planning guide. Other routes apply to flats, listed buildings and conservation areas, which is why we look up your address before anything else.

My landing has a boarded loft above it. Can daylight still get through?

Yes. A lined light well can run from the roof opening to a new ceiling opening, boarded, insulated and plastered so that it does not become a cold shaft. A loft that is fully used may not spare the room for a well, and a sun tunnel takes much less.

Is a fixed rooflight better than one that opens for a stairwell?

It depends on reach and ventilation. A fixed unit has nothing to wear out and suits a high position. A unit that opens lets the heat that builds up in a stairwell escape, and a pole or electric control reaches it when it is too high to touch.

Will a rooflight make the landing colder in winter?

A properly fitted modern unit meets the Part L figure for its type, and the lining around the opening is insulated. A cold landing usually comes from an unlined shaft or poor flashing, which is why both are in the written quote.

How soon after the survey can the fitting happen?

The survey produces a fixed written quote. After you accept it we agree a date and order the unit; the roof stage of a simple single unit generally takes a day or two, then the inside is lined and plastered.

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.