Brick extension with a long sloping glazed roof
Cotgrave

Rooflights & skylights for Cotgrave's miners' estate homes

22.4 road miles east of Derby, beside the Grantham Canal and old pit land.

Cotgrave's colliery estate was purpose-built, and the room where everyone eats is often the dimmest. Tell us where your table stands and we start there.

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A planned estate, and a table far from the window

Steep carpeted staircase rising into a narrow stairwell
A steep carpeted staircase rising into a narrow, shaded stairwell.
A kitchen-diner where the table sits in the dimmest corner of the room.

Units for a house laid out like yours

Beneath a sloping roof, a VELUX window or one of the other roof windows does the work, with flat roof rooflights and roof lanterns over extensions, and misted rooflight replacement for units that have clouded.

The family table is the place in a house where the day gathers. Meals, homework, bills and chat all happen at it, usually at hours when the light is poor. When the table sits in the middle of a plan, beneath a sloping roof, a VELUX set above or just beside it can change the whole room. When the table lives in a single-storey extension, glass in the flat roof, or a compact lantern, takes over. We look at your table, your roof and your ceiling, and suggest the one that fits all three.

The full guide

Cotgrave, from the table outward

A dining table is easy to move but hard to light, because the room around it is fixed. This guide starts at the table, then follows the money, the work on the day and the rules that apply in the borough.

Section drawing: a VELUX roof window with its flashing kit in a pitched roof, with daylight falling on the dining tableA two-storey house cut through from the roof to the ground floor. Numbered callouts: 1 Dining corner; 2 Price factors; 3 On the day; 4 Borough sign-off.1. Dining corner12. Price factors23. On the day34. Borough sign-off4
Section drawing: a VELUX roof window with its flashing kit in a pitched roof, with daylight falling on the dining table
  1. Dining corner
  2. Price factors
  3. On the day
  4. Borough sign-off

Callout 1

Finding the right place over a table

When people say their dining room is dark, they usually mean the table. The walls and floor may be fine. The problem is that a table is a large flat surface, and when it sits more than a few feet from a window it falls into shade.

Roof types and the unit above a dining table

A first match between roof and unit.
Roof over tableUnitOpensLight feel
Pitched roofVELUX windowYesAngled, even
Steep dormer slopeRoof windowYesStrong overhead
Flat extensionFlat rooflightOptionalDirect, broad
Larger extensionRoof lanternOptional ventTall and airy
Roof space aboveSun tunnelNoSmall, steady

Glass in the slope is the direct fix, though it need not be exactly overhead. A unit set slightly towards the lit side of the room sends a diagonal beam across the table, and people sitting around it see the light fall on the plates and faces, not into their eyes. Straight overhead the light is steady, if a touch fierce in summer, so we talk through blinds at the survey.

There are practical limits. The table has to sit under a roof that can take the window, which means a sloping ceiling or a space above that can be opened up. If the room below is in the main house, the opening goes between rafters. A table in a flat-roofed extension is another case. The glass sits on a kerb, and a roof lantern is simply the larger version.

The simplest test is to sit down. Take a chair to the spot where the table stands, sit as you would for a meal, and look up. The roof above you is the roof we are working with, and you will already have a feel for where the light needs to arrive.

During the visit we stand where the table is, look up, and mark on the ceiling where a window would put light on the surface. That settles the position before any quote exists.

A table wants light on its surface, not simply somewhere in the room.

Callout 2

Why one VELUX job costs more than another

People ask about price before they ask about anything else, and fairly. We do not quote figures on this page, and the quote we write after the survey stays fixed in writing. What we can set out here is what moves the number, so you understand why two houses on the same road get different answers.

Size comes first. A larger opening means longer timbers, a bigger unit and a wider light well. Next is the roof covering, because slate and the two kinds of tile all take different flashing. Access matters too. A low roof reached from a driveway is a simpler job than a tall one reached over an extension. The ceiling below counts as well. A clean reveal, plastered and painted, needs more work than a simple lined shaft.

Glazing choices add to the unit. A laminated pane is tougher and quieter, a coated pane holds heat in, and an electric opener means a motor plus wiring. A blind, in blackout or pleated form, completes the window.

Finally there is the question of how many windows. Two windows ordered for the same job share access and a single visit. Some households pair one over the table with another above the kitchen worktop or the stairs, and it is worth saying so at the survey, as both can sit on one fixed quote.

Timing plays a part as well. If the room is about to be redecorated or fitted with a new floor, it makes sense to fit the window first so the finishing is done once. We are glad to fit in with a decorator's dates and say so when we agree the visit.

What moves a VELUX quote up or down

  • How big the hole isA wide opening means long timbers and a deeper shaft.
  • Roofing materialFlashing differs between coverings.
  • Reach and accessTall or awkward roofs need more equipment.
  • Glazing and blind choiceLaminated, coated or electric options add to the unit.
  • Number of windows in one visitA second window shares access with the first.

Callout 3

What happens once you say yes

After the survey and the written quote, the work follows a clear order. The practical part on the roof is often one or two days for a plain single window, and the rest depends on how the room is finished. We tell you the dates in advance and tell you what to move.

On the first morning, we put protection down in the room below and clear the area under the opening. The roof is opened from outside, and the opening is framed and the unit fixed. By the end of the first day the roof is weathertight with the window in place.

Indoors, the shaft that links the frame to the ceiling is formed, insulated and lined. The ceiling edge is finished, and you are left with a neat reveal rather than a raw hole. If your room is being decorated at the same time, tell us, and we can time the work to suit.

Before leaving, we open and close the window, check the seals and take you through the controls. The ten-year workmanship guarantee is in writing, along with the paperwork for Building Control where the job is notifiable.

From survey to a working window

  1. Free survey

    We stand at the table, look up and check the roof from outside and the loft.

  2. A price fixed before work

    You receive one price in writing, set out for the room and roof.

  3. Weathertight by evening

    The opening is framed, the unit is fixed and the roof is made watertight.

  4. Indoor finish

    The shaft is insulated and lined, and the ceiling edge is made good.

  5. Hand-over

    We show you the controls and leave the guarantee and paperwork.

Callout 4

Planning and Building Control in the borough

Cotgrave falls under Rushcliffe Borough Council for planning. On a house, a roof window is generally treated as permitted development, with conditions you can read in our planning guide. No householder rights apply to a flat, and a listed home follows its own consent route.

The Cotgrave record we hold covers a Saxon church and ancient sites but names no conservation area, so none is claimed here. Unsure about your road? The council can confirm whether Article 4 has switched off the usual rights.

Building Regulations come on top. Opening up the slope for new glass interferes with the rafters, and that is notifiable work. Word goes to the borough or to a registered building control approver, which we arrange. Exchanging old glass for new is controlled fitting in Part L's eyes, so the glass going in has to pass the limit for its kind. For a lantern the figure is 2.2 W/m²K, whereas the tighter window yardstick applies to roof windows.

Nothing in the Building Regulations asks for daylight in an English house, so the choice is about comfort for the table and the people round it.

A colliery town built around its estates

Cotgrave is a Rushcliffe town of about 7,800 people. The settlement is old. Cotgrave's origins may be in the Iron Age, a sixth-century Anglo-Saxon burial ground has been excavated at Mill Hill north of the old village, and there was certainly a Saxon church a century before the Norman Conquest. The Roman Fosse Way passes a mile to the east.

The modern town, however, owes its shape to coal. Cotgrave Colliery was sunk in the 1960s and abandoned in the 1980s. Large numbers of miners and their families were moved from other mining areas of England, especially the North East, to live on a large purpose-built housing estate. A shopping parade called the Precinct was built at the same time, with a Co-op and a library among its units. The old pit land has since been landscaped as a country park, and a long section of the Grantham Canal that runs by the town has been partly restored.

For a rooflight, planned estates have a useful quality, which is repetition. Estate houses are often built to repeated plans, so a layout that works at one address often works at the next, and a neighbour's experience tells you something about your own roof. The same plan also repeats the same difficulty, which is a dining area at the back, away from the garden window, in a room that is deeper than it is wide.

Later changes have altered the picture. A pub called the Black Diamond, built in the early 1980s and closed in 2006, was demolished and replaced with housing known as Diamond Cottages. Extensions at the rear of older homes, often with a flat roof, bring their own questions, and glass in the flat roof, or a small lantern, answers them.

Every roof is different once you are on it, so the free survey looks at yours. We check the covering, the timbers and the room, and the quote that follows is fixed.

Cotgrave table and dining-room questions

Should the window sit right over the table?

Not always. A unit just to one side of the table gives a diagonal beam that falls across plates and faces, where one directly above can feel like a spotlight on bright days. Both positions get marked up at the survey so you can choose.

The dining area sits in a flat-roofed extension. What suits it?

A flat roof rooflight on a kerb gives broad overhead light, and a roof lantern gives a taller, more open feel. A rooflight with a vent helps in summer. We compare the two for your extension on site.

How do I read the code stamped on my VELUX?

Reading a label like MK04, the first part describes width and the number describes height. Matching it lets us pick a replacement that suits the old opening, and we still measure on site.

Can I choose the blind at the same time?

Yes, and it is worth doing. Blackout, pleated and roller blinds all run in tracks fixed to the frame. Your choice goes on the written quote, so the blind turns up with the window.

What does the paperwork look like at the end?

You receive the 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing, along with the Building Control paperwork where the work is notifiable. The fixed quote you signed is what you pay.

Nearby

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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.