Roof window set into a slate roof above neighbouring terraces

Nottingham

Daylight for Nottingham lofts through skylights and rooflights

16.0 road miles east of Derby, a city of lace, hills and long suburbs.

Nottingham is a big city with every kind of roof in it. Name the dim room and say where the bed or desk stands, and the survey starts from there.

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City terraces, converted lofts and bedrooms that miss the sky

Writing desk and chair under a roof window — A writing desk and chair under a roof window, in a room that stays shadowy.

White banister running along a narrow landing — A white banister along a narrow landing, shaded and short of daylight.

Rooflights for a city's worth of roofs

For bedrooms and loft conversions, VELUX windows or another roof window; where a street looks sensitive, conservation rooflights; for flat-roofed extensions, flat roof rooflights or, given the room, a roof lantern; and walk-on rooflights where a terrace sits over a room.

About 300,000 people live in the city, and the building stock shows it. Twentieth-century public and private housing estates have engulfed former villages, so every address is its own job. Popularity is no guide to the right product. What matters is which unit lands daylight on the bed, the basin or the stair in your house.

The full guide

A Nottingham bedroom, from the pillow up

People talk about a bedroom being dark, but they usually mean one corner of it. The bed, where you wake, or the dressing area, where you choose what to wear. A roof window in the right slope fixes the corner you care about, and the choice of unit depends on the street.

Over the bed
Protected streets
Heat and glazing
Escape routes

Callout 1

Waking up under real daylight

Rooms under the slope pose their own puzzle. The ceiling slopes, the walls are short and the only window is often a small one in the gable end. Daylight arrives from one side, the far end of the room stays dim, and the bed tends to end up there.

Bedroom wishes and the units that answer them

What you want from the room, and what answers it.
Wish	Unit	Extra
Light from above	Roof window	Blind in channels
Fresh air at night	Electric opening	Rain sensor
View from bed	Centre pivot	Low sill position
A cooler room	Solar control glass	External blind

A roof window changes where the light comes from. Instead of a thin beam along the floor you get light from above, which spreads more evenly. Placement relative to the pillow matters. Straight overhead can be too bright at a summer dawn, while a position to one side gives a gentler wake-up and sky overhead as you sit up.

Dark when you want it

Bedrooms also need to go dark for sleep. Blackout blinds on side tracks close tight to the glass and turn bright to dark in seconds. The frame has to take the fittings, which is why blinds are settled at the survey and not afterwards.

Sill height

Too low and you feel exposed; too high and the view from bed disappears. We measure from the pillow, not the catalogue.

A dressing area as well

Some bedrooms hold a second spot, a wardrobe wall or a dressing table. In a small room one window can serve both. In a longer room a pair side by side lights the whole length, and the second unit shares the scaffold time with the first.

Measure from the pillow, not from the catalogue.

Callout 2

Nottingham City Council and sensitive streets

As a unitary authority, the planning authority here is Nottingham City Council, which also runs a building control service here, though a registered building control approver can be used instead. On a house, permitted development often stretches to a rooflight, with its conditions set out in the planning guide. Flat dwellers cannot lean on permitted development at all, and the council's consent is needed before most work on a listed building. If your street may be a conservation area, ask first, because the council can withdraw permitted development there through an Article 4 direction. Planning information is at nottinghamcity.gov.uk.

Why a low profile helps in a city

A conservation rooflight lies flush with the covering on a narrow frame, often with a glazing bar, which keeps a street-facing slope looking much as it did. Some owners choose it on an ordinary older terrace simply because it looks right there.

Building Control

Opening a new hole in the roof is building work that needs a sign-off, from a registered building control approver or the council itself, and we post the notification where it applies. Swapping a unit like for like counts as controlled work too.

Callout 3

Glazing that keeps a loft bedroom comfortable

Approved Document L puts roof windows already in houses on a benchmark of 1.4 W/m²K; a B on the Window Energy Rating label also satisfies it. Rooflights and lanterns are given 2.2. We specify to those figures first, then choose the glass for how the room works.

A loft bedroom must stay warm in winter and bearable in summer. A low-emissivity coating keeps heat in, solar control glass cuts gain on a south or west slope, and a laminated outer pane takes the rattle out of rain. Each choice is talked through at the survey and set down in the fixed quote.

Two ways to keep cool

The cooling decision usually comes down to two approaches, set side by side below.

Staying cool in a Nottingham loft bedroom

Solar control glass

Built into the glazing unit
Works every day, no action
Slightly tinted view
Cuts glare as well as heat

External blind

Stops heat before the glass
Raised and lowered as needed
Exposed to weather
Can be electric or manual

Callout 4

Bedrooms in the roof and getting out safely

Once a bedroom goes in the roof, Approved Document B governs the way out. Height decides whether a roof window can be the exit, and the floor can sit no further than 4.5 m up from the garden or pavement. The opening needs 0.33 m² as a minimum once clear, with no edge under 450 mm, whichever way you measure it. Bungalows and chalets can meet that. For a house with two full storeys under the loft, a protected stair is required and no window can stand in for it.

That second case is a structural job. Where the loft already works as a bedroom and you wish to add or replace its window, we check the opening against the figures above.

Light for the stair itself

A protected stair is enclosed in fire-resisting construction, which makes it dark by nature. A rooflight over the stairwell can light it from the top and make the whole route feel safer. If it applies to your house, we raise it at the survey.

Talking it through

Escape rules are easy to misread, so the survey puts the figures on paper. You see the height above ground, the clear opening and the stair layout, and decide with the numbers in front of you.

Nottingham's housing, from the Lace Market to the suburbs

Nottingham is historically associated with lace-making, bicycle and tobacco industries. The Anglo-Saxon settlement was originally confined to the area now known as the Lace Market, and the city has grown outward ever since. The Council House in the Old Market Square was built in the 1920s, and during the twentieth century new public and private housing estates and urban centres engulfed former rural villages.

The city sits on low hills in the lower valley of the River Trent. South of the river the city has also expanded. Clifton and Wilford, also south of the Trent, were incorporated into the city in 1951.

For a rooflight, this history is mostly a reminder of variety. Around the centre, the canal-side to the south of the city is adjacent to the railway station and holds repurposed nineteenth-century industrial buildings, and roofs on buildings like those can be complicated. The estates built later are often more regular, with repeating roof forms that suit a plain roof window set into the rear pitch. Roofs in the same street can have been re-covered at different times.

The best way to deal with a place this varied is to survey every roof. We look at the covering, the rafters, the loft and the ceiling beneath, and we mark the opening from inside. Any concern about the roof is raised at the survey, well before the day, and the written quote reflects whatever we find.

If you are not sure whether your building is flats, a house in multiple occupation or a single dwelling, say so. Householder permitted development rights do not reach flats, and shared roofs often have separate ownership arrangements that affect who can agree to the work.

Nottingham is also a city of trams, a railway station and a large conurbation, which affects us in a practical way. Access for a scaffold tower or a delivery can be tight on a street with parked cars, so we ask about parking and access at the survey. A narrow terrace with no rear access may need a different plan for getting the unit to the roof than a semi with a driveway.

Sherwood Forest lies to the north of the city, and the surrounding country has plenty of trees. Overhanging branches shade a roof slope and drop leaves into the gutter, which affects both the light you receive and how often you clear the flashing. We note nearby trees on the survey sheet and talk about which slope will serve you better.

Nottingham City Transport is the largest publicly owned bus network, and the city has a tram system, but none of that touches a roof. What does touch it is the weather, so we ask about exposure on the survey. A slope facing the prevailing wind needs flashing done carefully, and we choose the kit with that in mind.

A loft that is already boarded and lit is far easier to survey than one full of stored boxes. If you can clear a path to the rafters before we call, we can measure the spacing, check the timbers and see the underside of the roof covering, which saves a second visit and keeps the written quote accurate.

Nottingham bedroom and loft questions

Can a Nottingham terrace take a bedroom window in the roof?

Often it can, though escape rules apply, and height off the ground is one of them. A house with two full storeys under the loft needs a protected stair. The survey settles it with figures on paper.

Which council do I deal with, the city or another?

That depends on your address. The city boundary is tightly drawn and leaves out several suburbs, so a Nottingham postcode can sit under a different council. Give us the street and we find the authority before advising on planning or Building Control.

Is a conservation rooflight reserved for listed houses?

No, it suits any older roof where the look should stay. A listed building needs the council's consent for most changes, and on a protected street an Article 4 direction may have removed permitted development. The planning guide explains more.

Will tight parking or a narrow street stop the job?

No, they make access harder but not impossible. At the survey we ask about parking, rear access and where a tower can stand, then plan how the unit reaches the roof. Whatever is agreed goes into the fixed written quote.

How do I keep a roof-window bedroom dark enough to sleep?

Choose a blackout blind on side tracks fixed to the frame. It closes tight to the glass and shuts out dawn light. We plan the fittings at the survey so the frame and ceiling lining leave room for them, and nothing has to be bodged later.

I live in a flat. Can I still have a rooflight?

Possibly, but householder permitted development rights do not extend to flats, so permission may be needed, and the roof may belong to a freeholder or management company. Ask them and the council first, then book a survey.

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.