Rooflights and skylights in Alveston

A bathroom in a loft conversion or a back addition often sits right under the roof, which makes a roof window a natural fit. In November the room is still dark when the day begins, so the first thing a roof window shows is a black pane with the bathroom lamp reflected in it.

That reflection deserves some thought before the window goes in. At night, glass looks dark from inside and the lit room shows back in it, while anyone looking down from a higher window can see into a lit room if nothing covers the glass. A blind over a bathroom roof window is therefore about privacy as much as light, and it is easiest to choose with the window.

Steam matters here too. A shower fills the room with moist air, and cold glass is where that moisture shows first, so a window that opens a little gives the room somewhere to air out. Replacing a window brings a ventilation test with it: the room should breathe no worse than it did. Where trickle vents were fitted before, vents of no smaller size are expected in the replacement, so the old window is worth checking before the new one is ordered. The building regulations answer for roof windows goes through it.

In a loft bathroom the headroom drops toward the eaves, so the bath, the shower and the window are best planned together. Towels, a heated rail and a mirror all compete for the same few feet of wall, and a window that looks well placed on paper can end up behind a door swing. The survey looks at where the bath or shower sits against the slope, so that the window can be reached for airing and the blind can be reached for the evening.

Already have a window that has misted up? Whether the sealed unit or the whole window should go is explained under sealed unit or whole rooflight, and the roof windows hub covers new windows from the start.

Start with the table, not the roof. In a kitchen or garden-room extension the dining table or the worktop is where people sit longest, so the rooflight belongs over a spot chosen with that in mind. Overhead glass can put daylight across the floor, and its position decides whether the light falls on the food preparation or on the chairs.

By supper in the dark months the sky above the glass has gone, and the rooflight appears as a dark panel with the kitchen reflected in it. The room beneath looks the same as ever, because the lamps do the work. Some people like the mirror effect, and others want a blind that closes it off, which is a choice for the survey and not an afterthought. The same glass that shows the kitchen back at ten at night will frame a bright patch of sky on a clear morning, so it is worth standing in the room at both times of day when you picture it.

Flat rooflights come fixed or opening, and fixed against opening covers what each is for. A raised glazed structure such as a lantern is a different shape of job, and the roof lanterns hub explains where one makes more sense than flat glass.

A new extension changes the planning question. The rooflight is assessed along with the extension itself, and South Gloucestershire Council is asked about the position before work starts. The planning answer for flat rooflights goes into the wider picture.

Furniture comes into it as well. A rooflight over the end of a worktop lights the work, while the same rooflight over a sofa bed lights a person lying down, so the room's layout is worth sketching before the position is fixed. Bring the sketch to the survey, even a rough one on the back of an envelope, because the rooflight is easier to place against a plan than against a room still full of boxes.