23.8 road miles south-west of Derby, a cathedral city of red Georgian brick.
In many houses, dining tables end up in the dim half. Name the table and the survey starts at its edge.
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Historic roofs call for conservation rooflights; family houses take VELUX windows or another make of roof window; a rear extension can carry a roof lantern above the table; and a stair or hall that has no roof above needs a sun tunnel.
A city centre of listed buildings and a ring of newer suburbs make for two different conversations. In the centre, the first questions are consent and appearance. In the suburbs, they are size, position and how the loft is arranged. Both start the same way: with a free survey and a look at the table, the stair or the bed that wants the daylight.
The full guide
Meals, homework and paperwork all end up at the table, and a table in a dim room is a poor place to sit. This guide begins there, then covers what shapes the quote, how the options compare and the council.
Callout 1
Much of Lichfield's centre was rebuilt in red brick in the Georgian period, and many of those buildings are still to be seen. Extend the back of such a house, or knock two rooms together, and the dining table often lands in the middle of a space with a window at one end only.
The table is where we begin, because it is the one piece of furniture the whole household gathers at. Daylight at the table changes the feel of the room for homework, for a meal and for an evening with the papers out. A rooflight directly above or just beyond the table does what a distant window cannot.
A window centred above the table lights it evenly but can look severe if the ceiling is low. A window set slightly off-centre, beside the table sends the light across it at a slant, which flatters food and faces. Both positions go on the floor plan, and you pick whichever feels right.
Under a vaulted or open ceiling the shaft is short and the opening can be generous. With a flat ceiling and a loft overhead, the shaft grows longer and the finish around it carries more weight.
A rooflight above a table becomes a dark panel after sunset, so the lighting plan matters. Pendants hung beside the opening, not through it, keep both sources working. If you are replacing the ceiling light fittings, mention it early, so the electrician and the roof team agree the layout.
Put the glass above the table and a meal gets daylight from the first course to the last cup of tea.
Callout 2
Two rooflight quotes for neighbouring houses can be far apart without either being wrong. The differences come from the roof, the glass and the way into the loft, and a free survey finds them before any figure is written.
Listed or sensitive roofs need a type of rooflight that sits flush with the covering, such as a conservation rooflight, and these cost more than a standard roof window. Newer houses with machine-made tiles take a standard unit and an off-the-shelf flashing kit.
Size has an obvious effect, but so does shape. A tall, narrow window and a wide, short one can have the same area and need different framing. The pitch of the roof controls how much of the opening is visible from inside and how far the window is from head height.
Some factors are yours to choose: the glazing grade, the opening method and the blind. Others are set by the house, like the roof covering and the access. We separate the two in the quote, so you can see what is a choice and what is a given.
No figure appears on this page because the right one depends on all of this. After the survey you get one fixed written quote, and that figure is the one on the day.
Callout 3
Lichfield's roofs are not all one kind. An older brick house may carry slate or clay tile on a steep pitch. A house from the interwar years tends to have a hipped tile roof. A later estate house can have a shallower pitch, and sometimes a loft that is already in use.
The table below sets out what tends to suit each. It is a guide, not a ruling; a survey may find a reason to choose differently, and the listed status of a house overrides everything.
Where the frame meets the roof is the one place a rooflight can leak. A good installation pairs the frame with a flashing kit cut for your type of covering, sound timber trim and a damp-proof layer beneath. The kit for a plain tile is not the kit for a slate, and a mismatched kit is the commonest cause of trouble later.
Comparing quotes? Ask which kit is named and whether it suits your covering. A vague answer is worth probing.
| Roof | Suits | Frame | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Historic slate | Conservation rooflight | Slim metal | Consent first |
| Interwar hipped tile | VELUX roof window | Timber or white | Easy loft access |
| Estate shallow pitch | Low-pitch roof window | Standard | Check headroom |
| Flat rear roof | Flat rooflight or lantern | Kerb | Over the table |
Callout 4
Lichfield District Council handles planning for the city, and its website is lichfielddc.gov.uk. For an ordinary house, a rooflight is typically permitted development, with limits gathered in our planning guide. Anyone in a flat or maisonette is a separate case, and so is every listed building, of which the city has a good many.
The centre has over 230 listed buildings, including many Georgian examples. For one of those houses the council must grant listed building consent ahead of most alterations, and a rooflight counts as one. The council's conservation team will look at where the opening sits, what it looks like from the street and what it does to the roof structure. We prepare the information; you or your agent make the application.
Beyond the listed core, a conservation area may have lost the usual rights to an Article 4 direction. No conservation area for Lichfield is named here because none has been verified, so the district council is the one to ask about your street.
Building Regulations treat a brand new roof aperture as building work, approved by the local authority or a registered building control approver, and we send the Building Control notification wherever one applies. Part L also controls a straight replacement, aiming at 2.2 W/m2K for rooflights, while roof windows aim at 1.4 W/m2K; certification can come through a competent person scheme.
A listed house deserves extra care on the energy side too. Raise it at the survey, and whatever is agreed goes into the written quote.
Lichfield is a cathedral city of about 32,600 people, known for its three-spired medieval cathedral and as the birthplace of Samuel Johnson. The city kept its old importance as a church centre, and its industrial development has been limited, which is part of why so much of the old fabric survives.
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, much of the medieval city was rebuilt in red-brick Georgian style, and those buildings are still there to see. They form much of the centre's listed core. Behind the fronts, the roofs vary from house to house.
The first council houses in the city were built in the Dimbles area in the 1930s. A large housing estate went up at Boley Park in the south-east in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Darwin Park, to the south-west of the centre, is a recent development of mixed housing designed in the early twenty-first century. The city also has suburbs such as Chadsmead, Nether Stowe, Sandfields, Streethay and Leomonsley.
Each building period leaves its own roof, and we read it at the survey rather than assume. Older construction means cut rafters; later estates can mean factory-made trusses; and the newest houses carry thicker insulation, which changes the depth of the light shaft.
A trussed roof cannot be cut like a rafter roof, so the opening has to fit between the trusses or be designed with an engineer. An older roof can usually be framed around. Insulation depth is the third variable: the thicker the roof, the longer the shaft and the more the splay matters for spreading the light.
The city's rail links and main roads make survey visits straightforward from our Derby base, and the A38 runs between the two. Wherever your house stands in Lichfield, the table is where we begin.
Ventilation deserves a thought before the glass is chosen. A bathroom or kitchen builds up steam, and a rooflight that opens lets it leave through the top of the room. If the spot is out of reach, a powered opening unit worked from a wall switch or handset avoids the pole and the stretch.
If the house is listed, yes: the council must consent to most alterations, a new roof opening among them, and its conservation team weighs position and appearance. An unlisted house follows the ordinary planning rules for houses.
Both work. Straight above, the light is even yet can feel stark under a low ceiling. Off to one side it crosses the table at a kinder angle. Both go on the floor plan so the choice is made before anything is cut.
They are made to sit flush and look right on a historic roof, with slim metal frames and a detailed finish. That craft adds to the unit. For a visible slope in a sensitive setting, they are usually the right type.
Yes, and it is a natural fit. A lantern or flat unit above the table suits a single-storey extension well. We inspect the roof structure at the survey and frame the opening on a kerb to keep water out.
It either shifts sideways of the new opening or is replaced with a layout that works alongside it. Mention it when we visit, and the cable run gets coordinated before any ceiling lining goes up.
Where do you want the light? Tell us in the form: the worktop, the stair, the desk.
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