Roof window in an old clay-tiled roof above brick terraced houses

Newton

Skylights and rooflights for Newton's coalfield homes

16.9 road miles north of Derby, a mile south of Tibshelf.

Newton grew with coal mining, and its homes have changed since. Whichever corner of yours is gloomy, the survey starts there.

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Back rooms, box rooms and desks pushed against dim walls

Corner of a small bathroom with a tiled splashback — The corner of a small bathroom with a tiled splashback, lit by little daylight.

A rear dining room whose only daylight arrives sideways and stops at the table.

Choosing for Newton's roofs

Most Newton jobs lead to VELUX windows or another roof window in a room under the rafters, a flat roof rooflight on a rear extension, or a sun tunnel for a hall or bathroom, with energy efficient rooflights worth a look when replacing old glass.

Pitched roofs of tile or slate over brick and sandstone walls are the staple of a village like this. Some have loft rooms already, some have lofts waiting for a use, and plenty have an extension at the back that took a room off the daylight rather than adding to it. The right unit depends on which of those you have, and it is named, with its size and position, in the written quote.

The full guide

The Newton desk, and the slope above it

A desk is a fixed point. You sit at it for hours, in the same chair, facing the same wall, and the light that reaches it is the light you work in. A dim desk is not a small annoyance. It is the reason the study never gets used. Here is how to light that one chair from the roof.

The working chair
Tiles, timbers and pitch
Who to ask
Glare and warmth

Callout 1

Putting daylight where the screen and page sit

Working from home has turned many a spare bedroom into a study, and the spare bedroom was never planned with a desk in mind. It has one small window, usually at the side, and the desk is pushed to whichever wall is free. Light from a side window crosses the room, loses strength, and leaves the desk in the dimmest part of it. Switching the lamp on at lunchtime in March is the sign.

What gets noted around a Newton desk

Desk and chair position: fixes where the glass sits
Which way the monitor faces: avoids glare on the monitor
Headroom under the slope: sets the lower edge
Sunniest hours of the day: guides glazing and blind choice
Rafter positions: decide the width of the unit

A roof window above the desk changes the geometry. Light comes down from overhead, so it spreads across the surface evenly instead of arriving from one edge. It also reaches into the back corner of the room, which a side window never does. The aim is to avoid two faults. Glare on a monitor comes from a bright window right behind or in front of the screen, and a shadow across the page comes from light behind your working shoulder. So the unit is placed slightly to one side of the chair, high in the slope, so that the light falls across the desk and not onto the screen.

A loft room has a sloping ceiling, so the headroom at the desk matters. The window is positioned in the slope so the glass starts wherever the ceiling is tall enough to stand under it and finishes near the ridge. A short window high in the slope is a different object from a long one reaching down to the eaves. At the survey the desk is marked on the floor, the chair is imagined in place, and the roof window is drawn so its lower edge clears your head.

If the desk is not in a loft room but in a first-floor box room with a loft above, the light reaches it by a boxed shaft. That is more work than a loft room but achieves the same result, and the lining inside is finished like any plastered ceiling.

A desk needs even light from above, not a single bright edge from the side.

Callout 2

What the roof above a Newton study is made of

The geology under Newton has left its mark on the buildings. The area sits on the Pennine Middle Coal Measures, a mix of mudstone, siltstone, sandstone and coal seams. The sandstone was used as a building material, especially before the industrial era, and the mudstone let local collieries, Blackwell among them, make their own bricks. That means the older houses are likely to be stone or brick, and the roofs above are what the years have put on them: slate, clay tile, or later concrete tile.

Each covering is cut differently. Slate wants a flashing that tucks into the courses. Plain clay tiles need a kit made for their small, curved profile. Concrete tiles are bigger and heavier, and a kit made for that thickness gives a clean seal. A VELUX window comes with flashing kits for these variations, which is part of why it suits a village of mixed roofs. The covering gets identified on the survey visit, and the matching kit is ordered from that.

The structure matters just as much. Older houses may have rafters at irregular spacing, and a few have had loft work done by earlier owners. A window that suits the rafters is easier and tighter to fit than one that cuts across them. In a loft with trusses, the opening may be limited by the web of the truss, and then the position is decided by what the structure allows, not what the drawing wants.

The slope and the aspect of the roof decide how much light arrives and when. A south-facing slope is bright and warm, and a window there often wants a blind or solar-control glass. A north-facing slope delivers an even, gentle light through the day, which suits long hours at a desk.

What shifts the cost of a desk window

Size of the windowA larger unit needs wider trimmers and heavier glass.
Tile or slate typeSlate and clay tile need more careful flashing than plain concrete tile.
Loft or box roomA boxed shaft adds work compared with a window in a loft room.
Opening typeManual, electric and solar-powered units differ in cost.
Access to the roofScaffold or a hoist may be needed where there is no easy route.

Callout 3

Bolsover District Council, and what to ask it

Planning in Newton is decided by Bolsover District Council, and its website is bolsover.gov.uk. On most houses a rooflight can go in as permitted development, though conditions apply, and the planning guide points to the official wording. Flats sit outside that arrangement, and a listed property has to get consent first for nearly anything. Some conservation areas have lost their permitted development through an Article 4 direction. An older or unusual house in Newton is worth a quick question to the council about conservation areas and Article 4 directions. We make that enquiry for your address.

Building Regulations are a separate matter. Opening up the roof for a new window alters its structure, which is building work needing sign-off from the council or from a private registered approver. Part L reaches replacements too, since a swapped window must still meet a heat-loss ceiling, with 2.2 W/m²K as the top figure for a true rooflight, while the tighter 1.4 W/m²K governs a roof window. Any notification that is due goes in before work begins.

A bedroom in the loft brings a safety rule. When a loft bedroom needs an escape route, a roof window is accepted only when the floor it serves is at most 4.5 m off the ground, and the open sash must leave 0.33 m² clear, with no dimension under 450 mm. Higher floors rely on a protected stair, and the survey establishes which of the two situations you are in.

From the survey to a working desk

Walk-through
The desk, the room and the roof are seen together, and the position of the window is agreed.
Written price
The unit, flashing kit, lining and any scaffold go into a written quote that stays fixed.
Paperwork
The Building Control notification, if one is due, is dealt with before work starts.
Slate, tile and timber
The opening is formed, the window set and flashed, and the roof made weatherproof the same day.
Plaster and paint
The lining is boarded and finished, so the desk is ready for use once the room is tidy.

Callout 4

Keeping the desk comfortable from March to September

An overhead window brings more light and, on a bright day, more heat. A roof room without any control can get uncomfortable in a heatwave. A blind is the first remedy, a pleated or roller blind that runs in channels at the side of the frame, so it sits close to the glass and stops the sun there rather than in the room. Outside blinds and shutters work better still, as they hold the heat before it passes the glass.

Glass can be chosen as well. A solar-control coating reflects part of the sun's heat without darkening the room much. A laminated inner pane adds strength and quiets rain on the roof. In winter, a window with a warm-edge spacer and a good coating keeps the desk side of the glass at a comfortable temperature, so you are not sitting beside a cold surface.

If you want ventilation, a roof window that tilts open at the top lets stale air out as warm air rises. A model with a higher pivot lets you open it and still sit below it. An electric or solar-powered opening unit suits a window you cannot reach from the desk chair, and a rain sensor closes it by itself.

For a replacement, old windows with failed seals or condensation between the panes are usually replaced, and a new unit in the same opening is a cleaner answer than patching the frame.

Newton's houses, built on coal and sandstone

Newton is a village of roughly three thousand people in the civil parish of Blackwell, in the Bolsover district of Derbyshire, about a mile south of Tibshelf. It is one of four villages, or wards, that make up the parish, the others being Blackwell, Hilcote and Westhouses. The parish council has twelve members across the four wards and meets monthly. The B6026 runs through Newton and effectively links the villages south-east of Chesterfield with junction 28 of the M1, which passes immediately to the east of the village but gives no direct access.

The ground explains much of what you see. Newton lies mostly on the Pennine Middle Coal Measures, and the presence of coal accounts for the growth of the population in the industrial era. Sandstone was used as a building material before then, and mudstone let local collieries make bricks. To the east the village is overlooked by two Nottinghamshire hills, Whiteborough Hill and Strawberry Bank. Two watercourses run down the area and reach the River Amber at Oakerthorpe.

For a rooflight these facts translate into practical expectations. We do not match a house type to a street in a village we can only read about, but we can say what the survey will probably find: stone or brick walls, a roof that has been recovered at least once, rooms of modest depth, and extensions built on later. Sandstone walls are thick, which means the reveals around a roof window are less of an issue than the structure of the roof itself.

Newer houses are usually brick with concrete tiles, wider plans and lofts that are boarded or already converted. These take roof windows with the least fuss because the rafters are regular. Here the usual jobs are a bigger window for a loft bedroom, a second window to balance the first, or a replacement for glass that has failed.

The same three questions run through all of these. Where does someone sit or stand, what is overhead, and what lies between? The answer is nearly always found in the roof, and the first visit is free. If you already know the spot, name it on the survey form. Nearby Tibshelf has a page of its own.

What Newton homeowners want to know

Will a roof window make a box-room study uncomfortable in July?

On a sunny south slope it can, which is why glazing and blinds are settled at the start. Solar-control glass and a blind running close to the pane hold back much of the heat, and a window that vents lets the warm air escape.

My Newton house has thick sandstone walls. Does that complicate a rooflight?

Not usually, because the window goes in the roof, not the wall. Thick walls mean a deeper eaves detail, which the survey takes into account. What matters is the rafters and the covering, and we check both before quoting.

Can you fit a VELUX window to a roof with concrete tiles?

Yes. VELUX flashing kits are made for different coverings, including concrete tiles, slate and plain clay. The kit is chosen to suit your roof and listed in the written quote.

Is Building Control involved when I replace an old roof window?

Part L applies to a like-for-like replacement, so the new unit must reach the efficiency level set for its type. If the job is notifiable, the notification is sent for you.

What happens if the survey shows the rafters are in the wrong place?

Timbers can be trimmed around properly, so the window can usually still go where the desk needs it. Should the position have to move, you hear about it before the quote is written, together with how far the light shifts.

Nearby

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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.