Silverstone terrace and loft rooms under skylights and rooflights
An old village in West Northamptonshire with a Domesday name and a famous neighbour: how a skylight or rooflight can serve the homes of Silverstone.
A Domesday village and the roofs it has grown
Silverstone, in West Northamptonshire, counts as a village with its own civil parish, and the Domesday Book of 1086 lists it as Silvestone and Selvestone. The 2011 census counted 2,176 people in the parish. Ancient roots and a busy present sit side by side here, and the housing falls into two groups that ask different things of a rooflight.
-
Older houses around the church and the old lanes
-
Family houses and extensions beside the business park
The medieval church was replaced in about 1780 by a Georgian one, which later gained a chancel and then a north aisle and vestry. Houses that grew up around it carry the pitched roofs, thick walls and small windows of an earlier age. Upstairs rooms can sit tight under the slope, with a window at one end that looks at the next house or at a garden wall. A conservation rooflight in the rear slope gives these rooms an overhead window in a slim frame that sits low, so the roof still reads as it always did from the lane. A roof window serves the same purpose where the building is not a sensitive one.
Silverstone Park, next to the Circuit, is a business park with a focus on engineering and high-tech firms, and the working life around it has brought people to the village. Newer houses and extended homes have followed, with garages turned into rooms and single-storey kitchen additions at the back. On a flat-roofed extension fit a lantern or a flat rooflight; a converted loft suits a roof window in each slope. In each case the side windows look at fences and neighbouring walls, and the roof is where the light is.
Light for a Silverstone terrace and loft
A terrace shaded by next door's tree
Leaves look good in a garden and do very little for the room behind it.
Sideways
A covered terrace, a garden room or an extension opening onto the patio should be the brightest part of the house. In an old village the gardens carry old trees, and one standing a few metres from the glazed doors holds the sun off the room for much of the day. The doors face the trunk, and the light that gets in is green and low.
Moving the doors would not help, and cutting a tree back is a matter for its owner, not the person sitting in its shade.
Straight up
A flat rooflight or a small lantern in the extension roof takes its light from overhead, where the tree does not reach unless its branches hang over the roof itself. The room stays bright without changes to the garden and without changes to the walls.
If the terrace roof is to be walked on, a walk-on rooflight lets the floor above share the light. Whatever the shape, water drains away because the glass is set on an upstand at a slight fall, and the inside is finished with the plasterwork returned and painted.
Size matters as much as type. A rooflight that is too small leaves the room still dim, while one that is too large can overheat it on a summer afternoon. At the survey we sit in the room, look up, and mark the opening on the ceiling, which shows you the result before anything is cut.
Rooflight words you may hear
Upstand
The kerb built up around an opening in a flat roof, carrying the rooflight above standing water.
Lantern
A raised glass structure with sloping sides and a ridge, set over a flat roof to light the room below.
Roof window
A window fitted in a pitched roof's slope, lying in line with the tiles or slates.
WER band
The energy rating for a window, with band B being one accepted way to meet the Part L limit.
Party wall
A wall shared with the house next door, which any new roof opening must keep clear of.
Building control
The check that new structural and thermal work meets the Building Regulations, by the council or a private approver.
A converted loft facing the neighbours
A gable window sees a lot of someone else's house.
Sideways
A loft bedroom or study in a village house gets one window, high in the gable, and what it sees is the tree in the next garden or the side of the house beyond. The sloping ceiling makes the room feel small, and a dark corner at the eaves can swallow a quarter of the floor.
Dormer windows can solve this, but they change the shape of the building and take time. For a plain pitched roof there is a lighter route.
Straight up
One or two roof windows, set so their tops reach nearly to the ridge, throw light in at an angle that reaches the back of the room. The sky shows through them whatever stands in the garden, and the ceiling feels higher because the eye can travel upward.
Opening roof windows on both slopes also lets warm air escape upward and cooler air come in lower down, so the room is easier to live in on a hot night.
If the loft is being converted into a habitable room, the stair and the escape route matter as much as the glass, so the survey covers both: how the stair rises, how much headroom there is above it, and whether the room can be reached safely by someone who lives in it. The new windows must also meet the Part L limit for an existing dwelling.
Limits behind a Silverstone loft job
- 1.4 W/m²K
- ceiling on heat loss through a roof window, or WER band B
- 2.2 W/m²K
- ceiling on heat loss through a flat rooflight or lantern
- 4.5 m
- storey floor height above ground within which an escape window is accepted
Silverstone and West Northamptonshire Council
Silverstone planning matters are decided by West Northamptonshire Council. Its planning and building control pages set out how applications are made, and among its published maps is one for the Silverstone conservation area, reached through its conservation area appraisals page. Unless an Article 4 direction takes them away, your permitted development rights stay in place inside such an area, so check whether one covers your street. For the boundary and anything specific to it, ask the council.
Whether a particular rooflight needs an application turns on the house, the roof and the height the glass stands proud, so the rules are explained in our planning guide, while the survey applies them to your own roof before the quote is written. Where a house is listed, changes to the roof need separate consent.
Building control before the first slate comes off
A new opening in a roof changes the structure, the insulation and the ventilation, so it falls under the Building Regulations. Building control here is West Northamptonshire Council's building control service, with a registered building control approver as the private alternative. Where the work is notifiable we file the notification and fit to the current rules, so the paperwork is settled by the time the roof is watertight again.
The figures to know are the Part L limits for an existing home. A flat rooflight or lantern has to reach 2.2 W/m²K, whereas a roof window is held to 1.4 W/m²K or WER band B. We give you the glazing specification in the quote so you can see what is going into the roof, together with the written ten-year workmanship guarantee that covers the fitting.
From the MK side to Silverstone's village lanes
Driving west out of Milton Keynes, you cover 15.9 miles of road to reach the village in about 21 minutes. It is one of the closer villages on our list, which makes arranging a survey simple. Towcester, Greens Norton and Potterspury are all nearby, and a visit to one can suit a call on another if you and a neighbour are thinking about the same job.
Which room is short of daylight? Our WhatsApp line is 07880 284133, and info@vertexskylightsmiltonkeynes.co.uk reaches the same people. A room photo and a roof photo let us suggest a sensible time.
Matching glass to the Silverstone roof
On an older pitched roof, the rear slope is where a roof window or conservation rooflight goes. Slim frame, central glazing bar and a profile lying low against the slates or tiles: a conservation rooflight has all three, so from the lane it passes for part of the roof. A standard roof window is the practical answer on a plainer house, and it can be fitted with a blind to tame the summer sun.
On a flat-roofed addition you choose between a flat rooflight, with its clean pane and even spread of light, and a roof lantern, whose extra height gives a more architectural shape. A sun tunnel suits a hallway or a landing where the loft space above is shallow. A walk-on rooflight can sit in a terrace, where its toughened laminated glass is rated for foot traffic.
Every one of these turns on the same idea. A side window looks at something. The sky above does not, which is why straight up is clear.
The survey in Silverstone
The survey is free. On an older house we look at the roof timbers, the covering, the way the ceilings have been put up and what sits behind them. We check how the loft is reached and where the party wall lies. On a newer house we look at the fall of the roof, the structure beneath and the condition of any flat roof. Whichever it is, we measure the opening and note what needs to be done inside.
You then get a fixed written quote that does not change on the day, and a clear explanation of what is being fitted and why. Fitting runs to a day or two, and then the room is clean, finished inside and ready to use.
It helps to think about the time of day you use the room. A study or a bedroom is used in the morning and evening, when the sun is low and a side window is easily blocked. A kitchen is busy at midday. Telling us when the room matters most lets us choose the size and position of the glass, and whether a blind or a tinted pane is worth adding for the summer.
Silverstone homeowners ask
Is the area around Silverstone church a conservation area?
Yes. Silverstone has a conservation area on the appraisals page of West Northamptonshire Council, and the map shows where it falls. Check your own address against it. If you are inside, an Article 4 direction can remove permitted development rights, so ask the planners at the council what applies to your house.
Is it worth putting a rooflight in an older stone house?
An older stone house can take one without changing how it looks from the lane, if the rooflight is a conservation pattern set low in the rear slope. It brings daylight to an attic room that has only a small gable window, and it opens to let stale air out. The survey checks the roof timbers first, because the rafters in an old roof are not set to a standard pattern.
How soon could a survey be arranged?
A photo of the room and the roof, sent by WhatsApp or email, lets us suggest dates. At 21 minutes by road, Silverstone is a short run from Milton Keynes, so there is no long wait for a slot. After the survey, the written quote follows, and it stays the same whether the work is booked for next week or next month.
Can a rooflight cope with a tree that overhangs the roof?
Branches that hang over the roof will still drop leaves and shade the glass, so the survey looks at how far they reach. Leaves wash off glass in the rain, and a rooflight on a good fall clears itself. A tree standing to the side of the house without overhanging leaves the sky above the roof open, so the light is unaffected.
Free survey
Book your free survey
No obligation. We survey before we price.
Or WhatsApp 07880 284133
