23.6 road miles south-east of Derby, a Soar-side village built round the old A6.
Quorn kitchens at the back of narrow cottages can be dark at the worktop. Point out the counter where the knives come out and the survey begins there.
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Over kitchens, roof windows and flat roof rooflights come first; roof lanterns suit a wider extension; VELUX windows and electric opening rooflights deal with steam and height.
A worktop is a working surface, so the light over it needs to be bright, even and free of glare from the wall cabinets. A rooflight does that better than a window on the side wall, because it lights the counter from above instead of from the edge. Where the kitchen is a single-storey addition at the back, the roof over the room is very often the only route to daylight.
The full guide
A kitchen worktop is where the day gets organised, and a poor source of light makes every task harder. This guide starts at the counter, then covers the day of work, the glass and the council.
Callout 1
Quorn has a tradition of small cottage rows, and Sarson Street is a documented example, with its nineteenth-century terraces built for framework knitters. Cottages like these are often extended at the back to make room for a modern kitchen. The extension is sensible and the daylight that reaches it is not. A single window in a side wall, perhaps screened by a fence, lights a corner of a counter and no more.
Our starting point is the place where the knife meets the board. Stand there, look up, and the ceiling tells us whether the roof can help. A single-storey extension has a flat or low-pitch covering overhead, which gives a roof lantern or flat rooflight a natural home. A kitchen inside the main house sits under a pitched roof, where a roof window follows the slope.
Overhead light can cast shadows from wall cabinets onto the counter, so where the rooflight sits relative to the cabinets is worth settling early. Moving the opening a hand's width toward the centre of the room often clears the shadow. A drawing on the floor plan makes the point clearly, and it costs nothing to try two or three positions on paper before one is chosen. That small exercise has saved more than one kitchen from a rooflight that lit the wall instead of the counter.
A kitchen produces steam, and a worktop under glass can be warm in summer sun. An opening unit deals with both. A hand-cranked pole is cheap and reliable; an electric motor with a rain sensor is better where the window sits too high to touch. Either way, the opening lets the cooking air out, and the extractor hood has less to do.
A kitchen with daylight overhead changes how a worktop is used, because the light finally falls where the hands are.
Callout 2
Kitchen extensions at the back of a Quorn house vary: a flat felt or membrane roof, a low-pitch slate roof, or occasionally a glazed lean-to. Each has its own way of taking a rooflight.
On a flat roof, the opening needs a raised upstand, called a kerb, so water cannot run into it. The kerb is built from timber or an insulated shell, and the waterproof covering wraps over it to meet the frame. On a pitched roof, the rooflight sits within the slope and is flashed to the covering, as with any roof window.
Both approaches need the existing roof structure to be understood. We look at the joists or rafters in the ceiling void, find where the opening can go without cutting more timber than necessary, and agree the position with you at the survey.
A kitchen job is easier on a family than a bedroom job, because the room can be cleared and sealed off. We lay protection on the floor and counters, cover the units below the opening, and clean up each day. If a day of dust and noise is a problem, mention it when you book and we will plan around it.
A flat roof rooflight installation typically takes a short time on the roof, and the ceiling is finished afterwards. The covering is the part to watch, as that is what keeps water out for years.
Units and worktop protected, ceiling void checked from the loft hatch or by lifting a board.
Position pencilled on the ceiling, then transferred up to the roof.
Covering opened, timber trimmed, upstand or flashing formed.
Rooflight fixed, waterproofing lapped over the upstand.
Lining and finish round the shaft, ready for paint.
Callout 3
A kitchen earns its keep through use, so choose the glass above it for the work as much as for the view. Four points matter: how much heat gets in, how much goes out, how safe the glass is, and how easily the outside can be cleaned.
On bright days a solar control coating turns away some of the sun's heat, which is valuable on a south-facing slope. Low-emissivity coatings hold warmth in during winter. Most modern units combine both. Ask for the figures in writing so you can compare options.
Laminated inner glass holds together if it breaks. Over a worktop, where someone is standing, that is the sensible choice. Self-cleaning outer coatings help a lot on a roof that nobody wants to climb onto, as rain washes dirt away.
A bigger rooflight gives more light but also more heat and a larger hole in the roof. As a guide, an opening that is a reasonable fraction of the floor area works well; a tiny one disappoints and a huge one overheats. The survey aims for a size that suits the room and the roof, not the largest you can afford.
Callout 4
In Quorn, planning belongs to Charnwood Borough Council, and the council's pages are at charnwood.gov.uk. A house usually gets its rooflight under permitted development; the fine print is gathered in our planning guide so it is not copied out here. Flats and maisonettes sit outside those rights, and listing means the council must grant consent before most work.
In a conservation area the usual rights may be cut back by an Article 4 direction. Anyone who suspects their street is covered should phone Charnwood Borough Council before ordering a unit.
A new hole in the roof frame is building work and calls for approval from the local authority or a registered building control approver; we manage the Building Control notification when it applies. If you are replacing an existing rooflight in its present opening, the incoming unit must satisfy the present energy standard: 2.2 W/m2K for a rooflight, and 1.4 W/m2K for a roof window.
When the work is done you receive paperwork that covers the notification, the guarantee and the glass specification. The guarantee is a 10-year workmanship guarantee, written down and handed over with everything else.
Quorn is a village of about 5,600 people, close to Loughborough. Quarrying at Buddon Wood on the parish edge goes back to the early Iron Age, and the village still has the look of a place that grew round working industry. Wright and Sons have made fabrics at Quorn Mill for well over a century, and the mill still gives the village its working character.
The housing records that trade. Sarson Street, which runs beside Rawlins Community College, has many nineteenth-century terraced cottages that once belonged to framework knitters, and the cottages along it show features typical of the work. Other streets mix older cottages with later houses, and the village is built round the old A6, which runs through its centre. A dual carriageway bypass later took the through traffic to the north-eastern edge.
Terraced cottages are compact. The upstairs rooms sit under the slope, often with a single small window, and the downstairs rooms are narrow and deep. A cottage kitchen at the back is the usual dark spot, followed by the stair and the landing. A roof window above the stair can light the whole circulation space.
The cottage roofs vary: slate, clay tile, and sometimes later concrete tiles. Whatever the covering, the flashing kit has to match it. We check the covering on the survey and name the kit on the quote.
The River Soar forms much of the village's eastern boundary, and the village has a history of flooding because of the shallow natural gradient of the River Soar. Flooding concerns the ground floor, not the roof, but it reminds us that damp in older houses is a daily matter. A rooflight that opens helps a kitchen or bathroom dry out, and a shaft lined with moisture-resistant board keeps the finish sound.
The village station, shared with neighbouring Woodhouse, is a place of historical interest, but the houses around it are lived in and need what any other house does: a bright kitchen, a stair that is not a tunnel, and a bedroom with a decent view of the sky.
Yes, if the roof structure can take it. The opening needs a raised upstand so water cannot run in, and the covering is wrapped over it. We check the joists from the loft hatch or the ceiling before agreeing a position.
It can, which is why the position is drawn against your cabinet layout before anything is cut. Shifting the opening toward the room's centre usually clears the shadow, and the floor plan shows it clearly.
Not special glass, but a matching approach. A flush-fitting rooflight with a slim frame suits a visible slope. If the cottage is listed, consent is needed first, and Charnwood Borough Council is the body to ask.
An opening unit helps with steam and summer heat. It can be hand-poled, button-operated or rain-sensing, and the choice depends on how reachable the window is. Fixed glass is cheaper in principle but leaves the cooking air in the room.
It names the unit and its size, the position, the glass specification, the roof covering and the ceiling finish, along with the Building Control step. That price on paper is the price on the day, and the 10-year workmanship guarantee goes with it.
Where do you want the light? Tell us in the form: the worktop, the stair, the desk.
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