Brighter rooms in Kingsbury: skylights and rooflights

Older roofs in the village

The older cottages and farmhouses around Kingsbury were built long before modern roof window sizes existed, so the rafters can be irregular and the spacing can change from bay to bay. We measure the loft from the inside and mark each rafter, because the right window is the one that fits the timber you have. A smaller unit that fits between two rafters often costs less than a larger one needing a header and trimmed timbers, and the quote prices both sizes, which shows what the extra width would add.

Roof coverings vary just as much. Handmade clay tiles, machine tiles and slate each need a flashing kit made for them, and an older roof may have been re-covered in sections with whatever was to hand. We look at the covering around the opening and say if the tiles need to be relaid, since the flashing sits under the tile and over the window and they have to meet properly.

In a house with a low eaves line, a window placed too far down the slope can feel like a hatch. A roof window set lower in the slope gives the view over the garden that you want from a seat, while one set higher is easier to live with as a top-hung unit, whose handle at the bottom can be reached from below. The opening types are set out on our roof window installation page, and top-hung or centre-pivot windows are compared on a page of their own.

Light, warmth and a view from a loft room

A roof window in a village house has a job beyond daylight. A bedroom under the roof looks out over gardens and fields rather than the house opposite, and the window can frame that view if it is set at a height suited to a person sitting or lying down. We ask where the bed or the desk will stand, because the sill height that works for one is wrong for the other.

Warmth is the other half. A roof window loses heat in winter and gains it in summer, so the glazing specification matters more than it does in a wall. Double glazing with a low-emissivity coating is the usual starting point, and triple glazing and solar control coatings are choices we price beside it when they suit the room. The difference each makes is explained in our comparison of double and triple glazing.

Blinds finish the job, and fitting them with the window means the brackets, the cables and the colour are settled before the plaster dries. A blind that runs in side channels keeps light out of a bedroom, while a pleated blind lets some light through and suits a study.

Notifying Building Control

Under the Building Regulations, a rooflight fitted into a newly cut opening is building work, and so is swapping an entire rooflight, frame and glass included. Changing just the sealed glass unit falls outside notification. We pass notifiable work to Building Control, and the certificate ends up with you once the job has been signed off. Put the certificate in with the deeds, because it is the kind of paper a buyer's solicitor can ask for at a sale.

Part L sets 2.2 W/m²K as the ceiling for a new rooflight in an existing dwelling, and holds a roof window to the window standard, 1.4 W/m²K or alternatively Window Energy Rating Band B. Each option on your quote shows how it meets the limit, so you compare like with like. Our page on rooflight Building Regulations covers the rest.