South-west of the city centre, 3.9 miles by road
Skylights & rooflights in Beeston
Edwardian and late Victorian streets, old mill sites and a tram line through the middle. Beeston has plenty of rooms that stay dim from October to March.
Mill town streets with a university on the doorstep
Beeston had a silk mill, and as the silk trade declined in the early twentieth century many former mills took on light-industrial uses. In a house of any age here, the back rooms are often where a rooflight does the most good.
Beeston, from tram stop to ridge tile
Beeston is a town in the Borough of Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire, with a recorded population of 52,359. The University of Nottingham's main campus lies to the north-east, and the city centre is a short ride away. Five chapters follow, beginning with how we reach you. The wider service is described on our main skylight installation in Nottingham page.
01
Tram, train and trunk road: how we reach you
Drive from the city centre and Beeston is roughly ten minutes away, 3.9 miles by road, out to the south-west. Few places on our list are so well connected. The A6005, the B6006 and the B6464 all run close to the middle of town, and the A52 Nottingham to Derby road clips the northern edge on its way to junction 25 of the M1, four miles off.
Beeston station sits 0.8 km away, and the NET tram stops at Beeston Centre, Chilwell Road, Middle Street and High Road, with Cator Lane, University Boulevard, Bramcote Lane and Eskdale Drive a little further out. You will not need any of that to see us, since we arrive in a van. Where a street has narrow fronts and cars along the kerb, parking is the one thing to plan.
The visit itself
Nothing is priced until we have stood in the room and been up on the roof. In the room we ask where the light stops, which wall goes grey by mid-afternoon and how high the ceiling is. On the roof we look at the covering, the structure underneath and the route the rain takes. Only then does a figure go on paper, and the figure we write is the one you pay.
Where there is no off-street parking, tell us when you book and we will plan the van and the ladders around it. A side passage to the garden saves carrying them through the front room.
3.9road miles
from Nottingham city centre
10minutes
drive, in light traffic
8tram stops
inside a 2 km circle
Neighbourhoods around the centre
Beeston Rylands, Lenton Abbey, Chilwell, Inham Nook and Bramcote Hills are all suburbs or neighbourhoods close to the centre, and we work in each. Anywhere else within 30 road miles of Nottingham is on the areas we cover list.
02
Edwardian houses, council estates and timber-framed semis
Edwardian and late Victorian houses make up most of Beeston's stock. Before we climb a ladder, that tells us a good deal: pitched roofs in tile or slate, cut rafters instead of factory trusses, and a front slope that faces the street.
After the Second World War, development filled the gaps. An estate of council houses and flats came first, then private houses and bungalows. The last major scheme, in 1970, was Meadow Farm, four roads of timber-framed semi-detached houses between Beech Avenue and the canal. One postcode can therefore hold three different roofs, and each gets its own answer.
The older terraces
A back bedroom or loft room in a house of this age is the usual place for a roof window. Rafters in a century-old roof are not always evenly spaced, so we measure the gaps before we name a size. Fitting between two rafters means less cutting and a cleaner frame.
Terraces are deep, and the stairs often run along a party wall, which leaves a landing without any window. A sun tunnel suits that: a small dome outside, a mirrored tube across the loft and a ceiling disc below.
| Era | Typical roof | Often suits |
|---|---|---|
| Edwardian, late Victorian | Pitched, cut rafters | Roof window, sun tunnel |
| Post-war council and private | Pitched, bungalows | Roof window, flat rooflight |
| 1970 timber-framed semis | Pitched, lighter frame | Roof window |
Post-war houses and bungalows
A bungalow has its roof directly over the living space, so a roof window or a flat rooflight can light the centre of the plan. In the timber-framed semis of the 1970 estate, we study how the roof is put together before anything is cut, since a lighter structure needs more careful trimming.
The further a room runs from its window, the more a single roof opening matters. Many back kitchens in houses like these are lit from one end only.
03
Which council, and the conservation areas in the centre
Planning here belongs to Broxtowe Borough Council, not to Nottingham City Council, despite how close the city feels. Any question about planning consent goes to Broxtowe; Building Control means a building notice or full plans, lodged with Broxtowe, or else through a registered building control approver.
Four conservation areas within a kilometre
Several lie close to the middle. Beeston West End covers the town centre point itself: designated in 1976, it contains 13 listed buildings, all Grade II. Beeston St John's Grove lies 50 metres from that point and shows no listed buildings. Chilwell Cottage Grove, designated in 2008, is 430 metres away. Chilwell, designated in 1978, sits just under a kilometre off and has five listed buildings, one Grade II* and four Grade II. Wollaton Park is about 1.5 km off.
Historic England lists 33 buildings in a circle drawn 1.5 km out, 32 of them Grade II. Broxtowe holds the boundaries, so a street check is quick.
Own a listed house, or one inside any of these boundaries? We check the listing and Broxtowe's Article 4 list first and order nothing until both are clear. Listed buildings need consent before the roof is opened up. A house inside a conservation area normally still has the Class C right, so we check the Article 4 list and then choose the slope that lights the room best.
33listed
Historic England entries in a 1.5 km circle
4areas
conservation areas within about 1 km
National rules, set out elsewhere
The England-wide side, meaning permitted development and Building Regulations, has its own page: planning permission for rooflights. On this page we stay local: which slope, which council, whether the job is notifiable.
When it is, filing the Building Control notice falls to us rather than you, whether the inspecting body turns out to be the borough surveyor or a private firm on the register. The completed work meets the Building Regulations in force.
04
Canal side, park edges and the weather on a roof
What the setting asks of a rooflight through a wet autumn.
The Meadow Farm estate runs down to the canal, and the Nottingham Canal, authorised in 1790 and complete by 1802, ran from Trent Bridge to Langley Mill through Nottingham and Lenton. Highfields Lake sits inside roughly 1.5 km, along with a string of small green spaces: The Willows, Broadgate Park, Dovecote Park, Redwood Village Green, Cator Lane Recreation Ground and Bramcote Lane Open Space.
A little further, within three kilometres, are reserves including Chilwell Meadow, Beeston Sidings, Holme Pit and Alexandrina Plantation, plus the Glebe Field SSSI. Water and green edges bring trees, and trees bring autumn leaves.
Leaves on a flat roof
On a flat roof, fallen leaves pile against the kerb that the rooflight sits on and keep rainwater standing there. We raise that kerb so a puddle cannot reach the glass, and slope the roof covering away from it. On pitched roofs the flashings are cut to suit your tile or slate, which keeps leaf litter moving.
Steam and cold glass
In winter the glass is the first thing in a room to chill, and steam from the kettle or the bath beads on it before anywhere else. A sealed unit with a warm-edge spacer holds the inner pane nearer to room temperature. A rooflight that opens vents the steam before it forms drips.
Many former mills here took on light-industrial uses, and the same thinking carries over to a commercial unit. A long rooflight on the flat roof of a workshop or studio lights the middle of the floor, and small commercial jobs are welcome.
05
Rooflights that suit this mix of houses
Edwardian terraces, post-war bungalows and extended kitchens each ask for something different, so three products come up most.
Loft rooms and back bedrooms
In an old terrace, a roof window opens an attic to the sky and lets in air when you want it. Put low enough to look out of from a chair, it changes a short December afternoon. We take the frame size from a plan of the rafters, not from a catalogue guess.
Deep bungalows and flat-roofed extensions
Where a bungalow or a flat-roofed extension stretches back from the garden, the dark part is the middle. A flat roof rooflight over that stretch sees a wide patch of sky, which counts under heavy cloud. Size follows the room and the structure; position follows the point where the daylight fades.
- Kerb
- The raised timber or concrete box on a flat roof that carries the rooflight.
- Diffuser
- The disc in the ceiling that scatters light arriving down a sun tunnel.
- Trimming
- Extra timbers framed around an opening to carry the rafters that were cut.
Landings and inside bathrooms
A sun tunnel costs the roof very little space and brightens the space beneath it. Dome, tube and diffuser carry daylight into a space with no outside wall.
New or replacement
We fit new and we replace. When an older unit has fogged between the panes, or its frame has given up, a new rooflight can often go straight on the existing opening, and the survey will say whether that holds here. The work comes with a ten-year written guarantee.
Asked on the doorstep in Beeston
Do I need Broxtowe's permission for a rooflight on my Beeston house?
Often a rooflight on a house needs no planning application. That changes for a flat, for a listed building, and for a street covered by an Article 4 direction. With several conservation areas around, we check your address with Broxtowe first. Cutting a roof also normally calls for Building Control, which we notify.
My Victorian terrace has a dark landing. What would light it?
A landing directly under the slope gets most from a roof window. With a loft overhead, a sun tunnel can pass through it instead. We weigh both on the visit and name one fixed figure in writing.
Our extension rooflight has gone cloudy inside. Can you replace it?
Yes. A unit that has clouded inside has lost its seal, and the cloud stays. In some cases the whole rooflight comes out, in others a fresh unit sits on the old opening. We can tell once we have looked at the frame and kerb. The ten-year written guarantee applies to replacements too.
Do you cover Chilwell, Lenton Abbey and Bramcote Hills?
Yes, and Beeston Rylands and Inham Nook too. We work out to 30 road miles from Nottingham. Nobody visits a showroom, because we come to the house, and the survey is not charged for.