Fence Houses skylights and rooflights for the one dark room
Fence Houses is a village in the City of Sunderland, 12.7 road miles south-east of Newcastle. Nearly every house has one room that stays dim while the rest brighten, and that room is where a skylight belongs.
One dark room in an otherwise bright house
Fence Houses once had a station, opened in 1836, and the Grange estate was added around 1950. A house of any age can hide the same problem: a back bedroom, a landing, a boxed-in bathroom or a kitchen that never feels awake. When daylight cannot come through a wall, it can come through the roof, and we start by finding which room that is.
What goes into the roof in Fence Houses
Each product suits a different roof and room. Browse them here, or let the survey choose. Roof lanterns, Flat roof rooflights, Roof windows, VELUX windows, Electric rooflights, Energy efficient rooflights, Misted rooflight replacement, Walk-on rooflights, Conservation rooflights, Sun tunnels.
Fence Houses, by room
Finding the room, fitting the light
The chapters run as a householder would ask them. First comes the room in a Fence Houses home that wants daylight most. Then the product the roof overhead will support, then whose permission applies, and last the visit and the fitting.
Which room in my Fence Houses house is crying out for daylight?
Short answer
Often a room facing a blank wall or holding one small pane. Think of a hemmed-in landing, a bathroom, a loft bedroom or a kitchen at the back. Stand in each at noon with the lamps off, and the room that makes you reach for a switch is the one.
Set the roof aside for a minute. Walk through the house at midday with every lamp off. Wherever a page of print becomes hard to read, you have found the room.
A village with more than one kind of house
Fence Houses is a village within the City of Sunderland. Its old station opened in 1836, and the Grange estate arrived around 1950. We mention both only to make a point: homes in one village are not all alike, and we never guess yours from the name of a street. A house from one period and a house from another can share exactly the same problem. Either may have an inner stair, a bathroom wedged between bedrooms, or an extension reaching so far back that its window barely helps.
Candidates to look at
- A stair landing with doors on all sides and a plain plastered ceiling
- A bathroom with one small frosted pane, or no pane at all
- A bedroom carved from the loft, lit only by a gable window
- A kitchen or dining space built outwards from the back wall
Each of these has a roof over it or close to it, and that roof is the lever. It faces the sky, takes light from every side at once, and is seldom blocked by a neighbour.
Why light from above behaves differently
Think about how daylight behaves. Entering through a roof opening, it drops steeply into a room and travels further than light through a side window of the same area. It lifts the centre of the floor, not only the edge nearest the glass. One modest unit above a dim landing can change how the entire upper floor feels.
Before you pick any product, jot three things on the back of an envelope: the name of the room, what sits directly over its ceiling, and whether the house is yours alone or divided into flats. Those three answers shape nearly everything that follows in this page.
Spotting the right room
- Switch the lamps off at midday and see where you reach for a switch
- List rooms with a tiny window, or a window facing a blank wall
- Look at what lies above each ceiling: loft, flat roof or another floor
- Consider whether the room also needs fresh air, as a bathroom does
- Work out if the roof belongs to you alone, or is shared
What kind of skylight will light that room best?
Short answer
Bedrooms in lofts want roof windows. Inner landings and bathrooms under a loft want sun tunnels. Rear extensions with flat roofs want flat rooflights or lanterns. Whether the room needs air then settles the glazing.
Once the room is named, the roof above it points to the product. The pairing is straightforward when you take each roof in turn.
Under a sloping roof
If the ceiling follows the rafters, because the room is a converted loft, a roof window slots in easily. It lies in the same plane as the tiles or slates, drops daylight onto the floor and, if it opens, lets the room breathe. Makers print sizes as a short code. Taking an example such as CK02, the leading letters describe the width and the trailing digits describe the height. Styles of opening, and the sizes on offer, are set out on our roof windows page.
Where there is a loft in between
Picture a landing or bathroom with a loft between ceiling and roof. That is a sun tunnel job. The dome caps the roof, a mirrored tube drops through the loft, and a diffuser fixed to your ceiling scatters the daylight. Inside the room, only a neat circle is cut. The sun tunnels page shows the types.
Extensions at the back
Flat roofs tend to belong to rear additions. The flat rooflight is a shallow glazed unit sitting on a kerb. A lantern rises higher, with angled panes and a ridge that welcomes daylight from several sides. Either suits a kitchen, a dining room or a family room that has been built out from the original back wall.
Glazing and warmth
Any rooflight in an existing dwelling must meet the heat-loss limits: a U-value of no more than 2.2 W/m²K for a rooflight and 1.4 W/m²K for a roof window. Laminated glass on the inside is the norm over a room. The exact specification appears in the quote, so two options can be compared side by side.
If two products both look right, say so. A second opinion from the roof itself costs you nothing, and sometimes a smaller unit in a better position beats a larger one in a poor spot, because where the glass sits affects how far the daylight carries. The survey tends to show which one the roof prefers, and we explain why.
Does Sunderland City Council need to approve my rooflight?
Short answer
On a house, most rooflights fall under permitted development within set limits, so no application is made. Planning permission is needed for a flat, and the council is the body to grant it. A listed house needs listed building consent. Our planning guide walks through each case.
The village lies in the City of Sunderland, so the planning authority for your address is Sunderland City Council. Whether it has to be asked depends on what you live in.
A house on its own
Most rooflights on houses fall under permitted development within set limits, so you do not apply. Those limits, and what can remove the right, are set out in our planning guide. If you suspect either applies to your street, ask the council before you order.
A flat, upstairs or down
Flats and maisonettes have no householder permitted development. Putting a new rooflight over one means applying for planning permission. Ownership counts as well. Dig out the title or lease and look for two answers. Whose is the roof tiling, and whose the loft under it? And does a second owner have to agree? Read it, speak to them, and hold the order until both are settled. Advice on a particular lease is for a solicitor, not for us.
A listed house
Listing leaves the planning rights as they were, yet almost any rooflight needs consent as a listed building, and that consent decides the job.
Building Control stands apart
Whichever route applies, cutting a new opening in a roof is building work. It is notified to Building Control, which means the local authority or a registered building control approver. The notifying is something we do whenever the work requires it.
The same questions come up in nearby Houghton-le-Spring, and the answers follow the same pattern.
Our view: settle house or flat first, because that single fact decides whether the council is involved at all.
What happens at my house on survey day, and later on fitting day?
Short answer
The visit is free. We look at the roof, the loft and how to get onto the roof, and you can ask anything that has been bothering you about the work while we are there. A fixed written quote follows. On fitting day the covering is opened, the frame goes in, and the ceiling is finished around it.
It helps to know how both visits go before either one happens, so here is the sequence from first knock to final tidy of the reveal. Nothing in it is hurried, and nothing in it is a surprise.
The survey
We arrive and study the roof from the street side first. Next we go indoors, up into the loft if you have one. The notes we take cover covering and pitch, rafters, insulation, the way onto the roof and whatever lies beneath it. In a flat, we will ask you about the lease too. Nothing is charged for any of it.
The quote
Soon afterwards a written quote arrives. It names the make, the dimensions, the type of glass and the tasks. That figure is fixed. If you change the job, the figure changes with it, but never otherwise. To see what pushes a price either way, the costs page lists the factors without inventing a number.
Fitting day
Work begins with access, by ladder or scaffold. First the covering comes up around the opening. Then the timbers are cut back to suit. After that the frame is screwed down and flashed, which sends rainwater around the unit instead of into it. On a flat roof the kerb is sealed into the roof finish instead. Indoors, the opening is lined and neatened, and the new unit is demonstrated to you.
Afterwards
Where the work is notifiable, Building Control is notified by us. You also hold a written guarantee on our workmanship that lasts ten years, with its terms on the guarantee page.
That is the whole sequence. If any step is unclear, ask when you book. We will talk it through before anyone climbs a ladder, and we will explain what the neighbours might notice, such as a short stretch of noise while the opening is cut. The idea is that nothing on the day should come as a shock to you or to the people next door. The only step left to you is choosing the room, and by this point in the page you probably know which one it is.
Fence Houses: rooms, councils and rooflights
Does Sunderland handle planning for Fence Houses?
Yes. Fence Houses is a village within the City of Sunderland, so Sunderland City Council deals with planning questions for your address, including any flat that needs permission for a new rooflight.
Which room should I light first if only one is possible?
Pick the room you pass through most while it is dim. A landing often wins, since it brightens every door off it, and a windowless bathroom comes a close second. Rooms you only pass through briefly can wait for a second stage of work, which spreads the cost across time without any penalty. The survey will say what each roof allows.
Could a sun tunnel bring daylight into a windowless bathroom?
It can, if a clear path runs between roof and ceiling. The dome gathers daylight and a tube carries it down. We trace the route through the loft before writing the quote, and a fan can go in alongside.
My house stands on the Grange estate. Does that change anything?
It does not change how we work. We read your roof, not the estate name. Message us with the address and the room, and we will book the visit and explain which rules apply.
How long does your guarantee run?
Our workmanship is guaranteed for ten years, on paper. The guarantee concerns how the rooflight was installed, and the terms sit on our guarantee page for you to read before agreeing to anything.