Skylights & rooflights in Findon

Covering sets the flashing

A roof window sits in a slope and is weathered with a flashing kit made for the covering around it. Clay tile, concrete tile and slate each take a different kit, and the kit has to match the profile of the roofing so that water runs off the unit and over the tiles, not behind them. Before we order anything we identify the covering and its batten gauge.

Pitch sets the product

Every roof window is made for a range of pitches. Too shallow and rain does not clear the glass properly. Too steep and the opening becomes awkward to reach and to clean. If your roof falls outside the usual range, a different construction is needed, which is where a flat-roof rooflight on a kerb or a roof lantern may be the better answer.

The pitch also sets the headroom. A roof window cut into a steep slope sits high in the wall of the room, and the sill height matters if the room is a bedroom you will lie in. We mark the proposed opening on the rafters, and stand in the room to check the view before a single tile moves. If the line of sight is a wall of sky you may want the unit lower. If it is a neighbour's window you may want it higher.

Age sets the surprises

Old roofs hide things. Rafters notched for a past chimney, a trimmer of a different size from the rest, a lining that stops short of the ridge. None of this stops a rooflight going in. It does mean the survey includes a look at the structure around the opening, and the written quote includes whatever that look finds.

Flint under the Downs

Flint is the one building material the Findon record names. The parish church is built of it, and prehistoric flint mines were worked in the hills nearby. Where a house has flint walls, a scaffold tie needs a sound mortar joint, not a loose cobble, so we agree where the ties go before the scaffold arrives and show it in the access plan.

Once you know the roof, the product choice narrows quickly. On a pitched roof the starting point is a roof window, with a VELUX unit as one familiar option. On a flat roof it is a flat rooflight or lantern. Where a ceiling sits below a loft void, a sun tunnel carries light down without an opening in the roof of the room. Each page covers one product in depth, and this chapter is only about the choice.

Opening or fixed

A room that needs air wants an opening unit, and one that is out of reach wants it motorised. Our page on electric and opening rooflights explains how the controls and the rain sensors work. A fixed unit is simpler and is the usual choice where the room already has a window for ventilation.

Glazing and heat

A rooflight loses more heat than a wall of the same size, and gains more in summer sun, so the glazing specification deserves attention. Double glazing with a low-emissivity coating is the baseline for a replacement, and triple glazing is available on many units. Laminated inner panes add strength and keep a broken pane together. Our energy efficient rooflights page walks through the choices, and you can ask us for the U-value of any unit we propose.

Walking on glass and light in the dark

Two less usual products come up on village properties. A walk-on rooflight sets structural glass into a floor or a terrace so that daylight reaches the room below. A sun tunnel brings light into a hall or bathroom that has no outside wall. Each has its own checks, and we cover them at the survey.

When the choice is not obvious, we talk it through on the roof itself. It is a short conversation, and it usually settles in minutes once the rafters and the room below are both in view.

The A24 bypassed Findon in 1938, which means the village streets no longer carry the through traffic they once did. For us, the practical effect is straightforward: a delivery vehicle and a scaffold lorry still have to find somewhere to stand, and the answer differs house by house.

A roof at the back of a house can often be reached with a tower in the garden. A front-slope rooflight may need the scaffold on the pavement or at the kerbside, and that needs a licence from the highway authority, which for West Sussex is the county council. We apply for it. If a parking bay has to be suspended, we apply for that too. Nothing is left for you to chase.

Delivery needs the same thought. A roof lantern or a large roof window arrives as a heavy glazed unit, and it has to travel from the vehicle to the scaffold without being stood on its edge in the road. We plan where the lorry stops, how the unit is lifted, and whether a pavement needs protecting. Where the plot is tight, a smaller unit lifted in sections can be the practical answer, and we say so in the survey rather than discovering it on the day.

The written plan

The route to the roof, the licence, the notice to neighbours and the Building Control route all go into the access plan, a page that sits inside every quote with the price. Where houses stand close, the notice to neighbours matters more than usual, and we give it before the scaffold goes up. The mechanics of the highway application are in the licensing guide for roof work.

Findon's centre falls within the Park boundary, which changes who you call first. For a rooflight application the authority is the one that runs the Park. Arun District Council still runs Building Control, so you deal with two bodies for one job: one decides whether the rooflight may go in, the other checks that it is built properly.

Our planning guide sets out the national rules, including what the permitted development rights cover and where they stop. In the Park, the authority can have its own Article 4 directions, and the national dataset records a conservation area for Findon, although it gives no designation date. Whether any restriction touches your house depends on the address, so we recommend asking the National Park Authority before you commit to a design. A listed building needs listed building consent on top of any planning decision.

Because the Park's authority sits apart from the district council, applications and enquiries travel on different tracks. That is not a reason to put the job off. It is a reason to ask early, in writing, and to keep the reply with the access plan so that the quote, the consent and the Building Control route all describe the same rooflight. If the answer is that no application is needed, keep that in writing too.

Building Control here

Arun District Council Building Control runs its own service, and a registered building control approver is the private alternative. On either route a full unit swap is notifiable and the new unit has to satisfy Part L. The notice is ours to send. Read the detail in our Building Regulations guide.

If the house is a flat or a converted building, the freeholder's consent is a separate step. The leasehold and flats guide walks through that step.

What the survey checks

What we look at when we survey a replacement

Part	What we check	Why it matters
Frame or kerb	Squareness, rot, movement	A new unit needs a true base
Flashing or upstand	Fit to the covering	It keeps water out at the edge
Timbers round the opening	Rafter and trimmer condition	They carry the new unit
Lining below	Stains, damp, finish	Shows past leaks and needs making good

The fixed written quote covers what the survey finds. If you have a conservation-style rooflight in mind for an older frontage, see conservation rooflights. If the question is how your quote is built, read the costs page.

Is the whole village in the National Park?

The town centre is. An address on the edge of the village could still sit either side of the line, so check it with the National Park Authority rather than assuming.

Which council do I phone for what?

For planning, ring the Park Authority. Building Control goes to Arun District Council. Highway licences for a scaffold on the road go to West Sussex County Council. We make the applications that are ours to make.

Can anything be fitted without me being at home?

Every visit is booked, and the access plan says who needs to be where. A rooflight is finished from inside as well as on the roof, so someone needs to let the crew in, and the plan says on which days.