8.3 road miles north-east of Derby, home of the former Nibby Pit.
Family tables in West Hallam sit in rooms that were never given enough window. Show us where the meal happens and we start the survey there.
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Above an extension, a roof lantern or flat roof rooflights will do the job. Bungalows and chalets call for VELUX windows and roof windows. Where a floor must be crossed on foot, there are walk-on rooflights, and high ceilings suit electric opening rooflights.
Family meals are the best test of a room. People sit for an hour, the light changes, and anything wrong with it becomes obvious. A dining table lit from one side leaves faces in shadow, and a table lit from above shows everyone's faces evenly. That is why a rooflight over the table is such a good use of a roof, and why we take our measurements from the chair at the head of the table, not from the middle of the room.
The full guide
A table is where the family collects, and most days it is where the light matters. This chapter follows a rooflight from the head of the table to the roof, and covers how the glass, the planning and the paperwork fit.
Callout 1
Sit at a dining table in a room with a single window and you soon notice who is lit and who is not. The person facing the window is a silhouette to everyone else, while the person with their back to it has the best light on their plate. A rooflight over the table changes this because the light arrives from above, so faces and food are lit evenly all the way round.
Up in a bungalow or chalet roof, the easy answer is a roof window in the slope over the dining area. An extension with a flat roof gets the same effect from flat glass or a lantern. The question is how big it should be, and the answer depends on the table. A small round table suits a compact unit, while a long rectangular one needs a longer opening or a pair.
Height shapes the effect. A low ceiling gives a hard, bright patch of light under the unit, while a high one softens the light as it falls. We measure the ceiling height at the table, check what the unit would look like from the sofa and the door, and tell you if the proportions look wrong. A well-sized unit looks like it belongs, and a badly sized one looks like a hole.
Then there is the evening. A rooflight above the table is a black square at night unless there is a light on the table or beside it. We suggest low, warm lamps, and perhaps a blind to close the square when the curtains are drawn.
Measured from the head of the table, a rooflight lights every face, not just the one by the window.
Callout 2
Erewash Borough Council takes the planning decisions for West Hallam, and publishes its information at erewash.gov.uk. The village has had its own parish council since 1894 and has belonged to Erewash since 1974, though the parish council does not rule on householder planning. A house can often fit a rooflight as permitted development, with conditions kept in our planning guide beside the government source.
Householder rights do not cover flats or maisonettes. Alterations to a listed building go through listed building consent. Where an Article 4 direction sits over a conservation area, permitted development is gone. Not sure about your street? The council receives your address before the survey.
Then there are the Building Regulations. If a rooflight needs the roof structure opened up, that is building work, so the local authority or a registered building control approver approves it, and notifying them falls to us. Swapping a unit for another of its sort is controlled fitting, and Part L wants the new one to meet the figure for its kind. Existing dwellings are covered by Approved Document L, Table 4.2. For a roof window that means 1.4 W/m²K, or WER band B instead, whereas a rooflight's is 2.2 W/m²K.
Callout 3
There is more than one way to put daylight over a table, and the right one depends on the roof. The comparison below lines up the usual choices, so you can see why one gets suggested over another after the survey.
A roof window suits a sloping roof and opens easily. A lantern belongs on a flat-roofed extension and sends light in from several sides. A flat rooflight is the lowest-profile choice for a flat roof. Under a loft that cannot be opened up, a sun tunnel is the way to reach the table.
| Unit | Roof | Opens | Light |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roof window | Pitched | Yes | Direct, bright |
| Roof lantern | Flat | Optional vent | Wide, from sides |
| Flat rooflight | Flat | Optional | Direct, even |
| Sun tunnel | Pitched | No | Soft, diffuse |
Callout 4
A big opening above a table can make a room feel cold if it is poorly built. The answer is glass that meets the limit for its type, a frame that is insulated and a shaft or kerb that is lined right up to the edge. These details are drawn up for the room and entered in the fixed quote.
Indoors, the reveal is finished to match the ceiling. If you want to hang a pendant light over the table, tell us at the survey so the cable is run before the ceiling closes. For one plain rooflight the roof work lasts a day or two, and the guarantee runs for ten years in writing.
Rain on a rooflight can be loud over a table where people are talking. Laminated glass, a thicker inner pane or an acoustic specification calms the sound, and it is worth asking about if the room sits under a flat roof or a thin covering. At the survey we describe the options, and the glass you choose goes into the written quote.
A unit over a table is seen every day, so smears and leaf stains show. A self-cleaning coating helps, and a shallow pitch on a kerb stops water standing on the glass. A unit beyond arm's reach can be an electric opening version, tilted from inside for cleaning.
West Hallam is a sizeable village and civil parish to the west of Ilkeston, home to some 5,900 people. It existed at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086. Jobs were mostly in farming, with mining work locally in the Erewash Valley coalfield. The later twentieth century brought rapid change, with the collieries and the railway disappearing during the 1960s. Stanley Colliery, known locally as Nibby Pit, on Station Road, was the last to close in 1959, and some of its buildings remain in industrial use. The old railway station is now Station House, a private residence. Spoil tips were removed and landscaped, and the area regained its rural character from the 1970s.
The village still has traces of its working past. On the site of the former West Hallam Pottery stands a renovated bottle kiln, and Scargill Church of England Primary School sits on Beech Lane. What follows is general, about the kinds of roof found in a village that changed fast and renewed itself once industry left.
A village that reinvented itself in this way is likely to have homes from many periods. Houses and bungalows from the post-war decades have simple pitched roofs and often a rear slope above the dining area. Later estates have trussed roofs and larger open-plan ground floors, where a table sits far from any window. Older properties near the village centre may have steeper roofs and smaller windows.
The dining room is the clearest case. A through-room with a window at each end is bright at the ends and dim in the middle, which is where the table sits. A rooflight above the table fixes this. In a bungalow, the route is a roof window; in a house with a rear extension, it is a flat rooflight or a lantern. If the kitchen and dining room have been knocked into one, the table may sit well away from the garden doors, and the unit should be placed over the table and not over the kitchen end. A second, smaller rooflight over the worktop is sometimes worth adding, and the survey will show whether the roof allows it. Either way the survey costs nothing, the quote is fixed and the Building Control notification is handled for you.
The room and the roof decide. A long table suits a longer opening or two units side by side, set so the light falls along the table and not just on one end. We measure the room at the survey, sit at the table with you and mark the proposed unit on a plan before any figure is written.
Yes, with planning. The cable and fixing must be positioned before the ceiling is closed, and the pendant should sit clear of the opening so it does not block the light. If you tell us at the survey, we set out the wiring route as part of the job.
A lantern that cuts into the roof structure is building work as well, so approval comes from the local authority or a registered building control approver. Sending the notification is our job. A lantern counts as a rooflight, which puts its limit at 2.2 W/m²K in Part L 2021 (Approved Document L, Table 4.2).
The regulations treat a roof window, set into a pitched roof, as a window, so band B, or 1.4 W/m²K, is the figure to meet. Any rooflight, which includes lanterns and flat rooflights, takes 2.2 W/m²K. Our roof windows page and the roof lanterns page go through both.
Now and then the sealed unit alone can be changed; now and then the frame has failed. The survey covers the frame, seals and kerb, and afterwards you learn whether new glass or a complete new rooflight is the sounder route. Whatever replaces it must reach the Part L figure set for its type.
Where do you want the light? Tell us in the form: the worktop, the stair, the desk.
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