Rendered bungalow with a dome rooflight in the tiled roof

Handsacre

Handsacre landings and halls, daylit by skylight and rooflight

25.3 road miles south-west of Derby; the Trent and Mersey Canal skirts the village's north side.

Name the corner of the house that stays dark, be it landing, hall or back kitchen, and the survey begins there.

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Dark corners in a village house with small windows

Kitchen with wooden units and a roof window over the worktop — A kitchen with wooden units, where the worktop sits in shade away from the glass.

A bathroom under the roof with no outside wall to put a window in.

Rooflights we fit around Handsacre

Pitched roofs take roof windows, VELUX windows or low-profile conservation rooflights; windowless landings and bathrooms suit sun tunnels; and a flat roof rooflight suits an extension built onto the back.

Handsacre's roofs vary from house to house, and the visit is how we learn which one you have. A pitched roof over a loft usually means a roof window or a conservation rooflight set into the slope. Out the back, a kitchen or utility under a flat roof can be lit by one flat rooflight, or by a compact lantern when the room is wide enough. Where there is no clear route to the roof from the room below, a sun tunnel can still bring daylight down. We choose by what is above the spot, not by what is easiest to fit.

The full guide

Handsacre stairs and halls, lit from the roof

Ask a village household where the house feels dark and the reply is seldom a whole room, but a single place such as the stair head, the hall or the corner by the sink. Here is how a rooflight gets from the roof to that one place, what it takes to do so, and what the rules ask along the way.

Top of the flight
Slope and loft
Planning and Lichfield
Down the stair

Callout 1

A landing that borrows light from shut doors

In a lot of two-storey houses the staircase is windowless. The landing gets whatever drifts out of the bedrooms when their doors are open, and on a grey afternoon that is very little. What households ask for is practical rather than technical, namely to tell where the top stair is without a lamp on.

What nudges a landing job up or down

Opening widthExtra width asks for heavier trimming and a bigger shaft.
Shaft lengthA boarded loft floor lengthens the lined shaft.
Type of unitFixed, opening and electric versions are priced differently.
Surface we cut intoSlate, plain tile and interlocking tile each need their own flashing.
Ladder and scaffold reachA tight side passage slows the handling of glass.

That is the right way to think about the job. Fit a rooflight over the stairwell and its daylight runs down the flight, over the landing floor and into the hall when the stair is straight. The same unit placed over a bedroom would be a pleasant window and do nothing for the landing. So the first visit is spent standing on the landing, looking up, then going into the loft to see what sits above that exact place.

What we find in the loft decides the rest. Rafters set the width the opening can take without major structural change. A purlin or a water tank can push the position a little to one side. Insulation at the ceiling has to be dealt with, since between roof and ceiling the shaft gets a lining and its own insulation, which keeps its walls warm.

Where the loft holds stored boxes, the shaft is built through them and the boards are cut back around it. If the loft is a converted room, the rooflight can serve the room as well as the stair, and the sizing changes accordingly. We write all of that into the quote before anything is ordered.

The aim is a visible top step, whatever the unit is called.

Callout 2

Reading the roof before choosing the unit

The roof tells us what is possible. Plain tiles, concrete interlocking tiles and slate are all cut and flashed differently, and the flashing kit has to match the covering or the joint will not stay watertight. The covering is checked from inside the loft and again from the garden, and we look at the age of the battens near the opening, since a rooflight is only as sound as the roof around it.

The direction of the slope matters for how much light arrives. A slope that faces open sky across the garden gives a bright, even result. A slope close to a taller neighbour or a tree gives less, and we size the unit a little larger to allow for it. We would rather tell you that at the survey than have you notice it in November.

Roof window or rooflight

The words overlap, but the rules treat them differently. A roof window is the kind that opens and pivots, and it takes the window limit for heat loss. A rooflight, including a lantern, takes a slightly more generous figure. Either way the unit must meet current Part L when it goes in, and replacing an old unit directly is held to the same standard as a new opening.

Callout 3

Planning, listing and the district council

Planning decisions for Handsacre rest with Lichfield District Council. The usual basis for a rooflight on a house is permitted development, though it carries conditions of its own, which the planning guide lays out beside the official source. Flats and maisonettes stand differently, because householder rights do not stretch to them.

Two Grade II listed bridges cross the Trent and Mersey Canal near the village, though a bridge is a structure, not a house. A listed home is another matter, since consent is needed for most alterations to it, rooflights included. If the property is inside a conservation area, ask the planning team whether householder rights still apply there, because Article 4 may have been used to take them away. We can tell you what to ask them.

Building Regulations come separately. A new opening through the rafters counts as building work by itself, and the notification goes, through us, to the local authority or a registered building control approver wherever the work is notifiable. Swapping one unit for another of its kind brings its own Part L limit into play.

What to have ready before the survey

The spot: where you stand when it feels dark
House type: house, bungalow, flat or listed
Your roof surface: a photo from the garden helps
Loft access: hatch location and clear floor
Planning status: any listing or conservation area

Callout 4

Getting daylight down to the hall

A hall is often the darkest room on the ground floor, because the front door is the only opening and it is usually shut. Where the stair climbs straight out of the hall, one rooflight over it can serve both, as daylight drops through the whole stairwell and the hall brightens with no bulb on.

If the stair turns, or if a bedroom sits over the hall, the light stops at the landing. A sun tunnel can still help. A sun tunnel collects light under a little dome up on the roof and sends it along a mirrored tube into a flat diffuser set in the ceiling. Nothing of the sky shows, yet the space reads differently, and the hole through the roof is small. For a hall that matters, since it often has no other source of daylight.

How it finishes indoors matters as much as the glazing. Boards, insulation and plaster form the shaft, with its sides splayed so the opening melts into the ceiling. We discuss the finish at the survey so the result looks like part of the house.

Rooms at the back of a house are worth a second look. A utility or a downstairs washroom often has a small window onto a side passage and little else. If the roof above is a lean-to or a flat section, a compact rooflight or a sun tunnel can lift the whole room, and the work does not touch the main roof of the house.

A village on the A513, between the river and the canal

Handsacre has about 4,800 residents and sits on the A513, the road between Tamworth and Stafford. The Trent and Mersey Canal skirts around its northern edge, High Bridge carries the road to Mavesyn Ridware over the River Trent on the village edge, and the West Coast Main Line runs through. The nearest station is at Rugeley, about four miles to the north-west.

A survey looks at the roof, because houses of different eras show their age there. Older brick homes bring steeper slopes, small windows and compact stairs, which suits a roof window over the landing. Interwar and post-war semis often have a straightforward pitched roof with a usable loft, where a rear-slope roof window will serve a bedroom or the stair. Newer estate houses may have a shallow pitch and a modest loft.

Many homes of every age have gained a single-storey extension at the back, and these tend to have flat roofs with a dark middle. A flat rooflight over the table or the worktop is the usual answer, since a window in the wall cannot reach the centre of a deep room.

Bungalows are worth a mention. With no stair, the dark spot is usually a hall or a bathroom, and a sun tunnel can serve both without any structural work in the main roof frame. Where a bungalow's roof space becomes a bedroom, a roof window can act as its escape window, but only where the floor is 4.5 m or less from the ground.

For a house on the canal side of the village, the position of the slope is worth thinking about. A south-facing rear slope gets strong light but also strong summer sun, so glazing choice comes into it. We cover glazing choices in our guide to energy efficient rooflights.

What Handsacre homeowners ask us

Can you light a hall that has no window at all?

Yes. If the stair runs straight up from the hall, a rooflight above it sends light down to both. If the hall sits under another room, a sun tunnel sends daylight from a small roof dome to a diffuser set in the hall's ceiling. The right choice becomes clear once we have looked at what sits above the ceiling.

Will a rooflight make the loft colder in winter?

A properly specified rooflight meets current Part L limits, so it is not a weak point. Insulation and a lining go into the shaft that joins roof to ceiling, and the flashing is matched to your roof covering. A poorly done opening is the usual cause of cold spots, which is why the build-up is itemised on the quote.

Do I need to tell Lichfield District Council before the work?

On planning there is often nothing to submit for an ordinary house, though Building Regulations still apply. We deal with the notification for a new roof opening, passing it to your council, or else to a registered building control approver. A listed home, or one in a conservation area, should hear from the council about planning before anything else.

My bungalow has a bathroom in the middle with no window. What suits it?

A sun tunnel is usually the neat answer. The opening in the roof is small, with a short run through the roof space to a diffuser in the bathroom ceiling. There is no glass to clean from the room and no structural change to the ceiling beyond the diffuser hole.

How long does fitting a single rooflight take?

Up on the roof, a straightforward single unit is typically a one-to-two day job. Boarding and plaster around the shaft indoors can take longer. The written quote after the survey is fixed, and the figure on it is the figure you pay.

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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.