Skylights & rooflights in Crawley Down

Bricks from the ground

Local clay was dug for bricks in the 19th century, which is a pleasing bit of history but not something that changes how we fit a rooflight. We mention it because the older brick buildings in a village like this often have chimney stacks, parapets and verges that affect where a rooflight can go. A stack in the wrong place can rule out a unit that would otherwise suit the slope.

If your roof is a plain pitched one with a loft room underneath, the roof windows page is the place to start. If it is a flat extension off the back of the house, go to flat roof rooflights.

Why the railway matters to a roof

Nobody needs a history lesson to fit a window, but the way a village grew does tell us something practical. Houses built in waves by different builders carry different roof details. Two neighbouring streets might use different tile profiles, different felt, different rafter spacing. A unit that drops neatly into one roof may need a different trimmer arrangement in the next.

This is why the quote follows a visit to the roof itself. A photograph shows the outside of the roof, and the part that decides the job is what is underneath: the rafters, the battens, the insulation and the lining. We lift a tile or look from the loft at survey to see what is there.

The village has no station of its own. The nearest are Three Bridges and East Grinstead, so if you travel to work by train, say so when you book. We will find a survey date that works around your week, and every survey and installation is a booked visit on an agreed day.

Planning for Crawley Down is handled by Mid Sussex District Council. We have not confirmed whether any part of the village is a conservation area, so we make no assumption either way. A call or email to the council about your own address, made before you pick a unit, gives you a definite answer. It will also show if a direction or condition has removed rights you assumed you had. We could not find a published register of Article 4 directions for Mid Sussex.

The planning permission page gives the wider picture, and flats and listed buildings are dealt with there. If you live in a converted house and you rent or lease your flat, the roof is probably not yours alone, and the page on flats and leasehold buildings explains the freeholder side.

The building side, through Mid Sussex

Mid Sussex has its own Building Control service. When a job is notifiable, we make the notification, so there is nothing for you to fill in. The Building Regulations guide says what that means for the product you choose.

It is easy to assume a rooflight is something done to the inside of the house, and to forget the planning side altogether. The planning side is the part that can turn a quote into a refusal, so it is worth the one phone call. When you ring, give the council your full address and say that you want to put a rooflight in the roof. Ask whether any condition or direction applies to the property, and write down what you are told along with the name of the person who told you.

If the answer is that nothing restricts your property, you can go ahead and choose your unit. If the answer is that something does, do not abandon the idea. Bring the details to the survey, and we will tell you what we can do within them.

A sensible order of events

Ask the council first. Book a survey second. Choose a unit third. Doing it in that order means the quote you receive is for a rooflight you are allowed to install, and not for a wish list that has to be trimmed afterwards.

Access is the part of a rooflight job people forget until it costs them. A house on a cul-de-sac with a drive and a clear frontage is one kind of job. A house in a terrace with a narrow rear garden is another. We plan the route to the roof at the survey and write it into your quote as the access plan.

The plan names the method: a scaffold through the garden, a tower on the drive or a mobile platform on the road. It also says who applies for any highway licence, and if it is needed, we apply. West Sussex County Council issues road licences for the village. How a licence works, and what a parking bay suspension involves, is on the licences and suspensions page.

1. Survey the site. We look at the plot, the drive, the side access and the neighbouring boundaries.
2. Pick the method. Scaffold, tower or platform, depending on the roof height and ground.
3. Sort the paperwork. A licence for anything standing on the road or verge, and a note for neighbours.
4. Write it down. The route and the price appear together in your quote.

Notice to neighbours is a small thing that makes a large difference. A scaffold at the side of a house, or a tower near a shared boundary, affects the people next door. We say in the plan what they will see and when, so they are not surprised, and so that you are not left to explain it.

Where a roof is high or steep, a mobile platform sometimes saves a full scaffold. Where the work is on a rear extension at ground-floor height, a simple tower inside the garden may be all it takes. The point of writing the plan is that the method fits the roof and not the other way round.

Drives and verges on estate roads are often shared with a neighbour's car. We talk through parking at the survey, and the plan notes where vehicles need to be moved on the day.

The right rooflight depends on the roof underneath it, so it is worth going through the common situations one at a time. The table below sets out how we would think about four common ones in a village like this.

Typical roofs and the unit we would look at first

Roof	First choice	Why
Pitched, with loft room	Roof window	Sits in the slope and lights the room
Flat rear extension	Flat roof rooflight	Fits on a kerb over the new room
Larger extension	Roof lantern	Brings light into the middle of the room
Dark landing or bathroom	Sun tunnel	Reaches an inner room with little structure

Roof windows can be a branded unit such as VELUX or a different make, and we cover both in our page on VELUX windows. A roof lantern is a bigger project, and the roof lanterns page explains how one is made and fitted. A sun tunnel is the smallest intervention of the lot.

Where a room has no outside wall, or where the only wall faces a neighbour's fence, the roof is the only place light can come from. A flat roof rooflight over a utility room or a hallway can change how the whole ground floor of a house feels. For a pitched roof with a loft room, a roof window gives a view of the sky as well as light, and a pair of them can make a small bedroom feel like a proper one.

Opening or fixed

Fixed units cost less to maintain and give the cleanest view. Opening units let out warm air and ease condensation in bathrooms and kitchens. If the unit is out of reach, an electric one with a wall switch or remote avoids the pole and the stretch. The electric and opening rooflights page covers the controls and the options.

Glass and heat

A loft room under a sunny slope can get very warm in summer, whatever the estate. The choice of glazing makes a real difference to how a room feels, and the energy efficient rooflights page explains the options.

Two ways to approach it

When we survey a replacement, we usually put two options on the table. One keeps the opening as it is. The other uses the work as a chance to change something that has bothered you for years, such as a window too high to open or a room that overheats.

Either way, you get a fixed written quote after the survey. Whichever you choose, the work comes with our 10-year workmanship guarantee.

"Is my unit failed or just dirty?"

Wipe the outside if you can reach it safely. If the film is between the panes, the unit has failed. If it wipes off, the glass was only dirty.

"Will the scaffold block my drive?"

Sometimes it will. That is why the access plan covers parking and the route in writing before the date is fixed. On a roof reached from the rear, the drive may stay clear.

"How is the price worked out?"

The unit, the weathering, the access method and the making good all feed into it. Our costs page explains what moves the figure, and the survey gives you a fixed written number.

"Do I have to arrange Building Control?"

No. Mid Sussex is notified for you when the work requires it. The Building Regulations guide has the detail.