Clear SkylightsCrawley

West Sussex · 12.3 miles from Crawley by road

Rooflights and skylights in Lindfield, under clay tile and old stone

Lindfield has medieval frames, Horsham Stone roofs and a conservation area drawn in three stages. We fit rooflights and skylights to each roof, and write down the glass we choose for the room.

Get a quote What is a quiet spec?

Post-war brick semi-detached houses on a new town street
Planning
Mid Sussex District Council, with a conservation area and Article 4(2) Direction
Homes
Medieval and Georgian High Street, early twentieth century brick on Compton Road
Roofs
Clay tile, Horsham Stone, mathematical tiles, sandstone and tile hanging
Setting
High Weald Fringes, partly in the AONB, A23 to the west

Hand-framed timber, heavy stone slabs and a boundary drawn three times

  • Frames that are not square

    Forty-odd timber-framed houses on the High Street mean rafters set by hand, so each opening is trimmed to the roof as it stands.

  • Stone and tile junctions

    Horsham Stone, mathematical tiles and hung walls each need flashing dressed to their face, and an old unit's worn seals let cold in.

  • The A23 beyond the village

    A main road bounds the western edge, so a slope facing it can carry traffic noise through thin glass into a loft room.

  • Rain on rear extensions

    Flat-roofed kitchens added to old cottages hear every shower on a thin pane or a barred lantern unless the build is chosen for it.

A written spec for a bedroom under Lindfield clay tile

A brick house from the early twentieth century shows what the note contains. Every quote includes one like it, written for the room where we stood and listened.

Room:
loft bedroom in an early twentieth century brick house off Compton Road, clay tiled slope
What we would listen for:
traffic carried from the west, and rain tapping the glass in a shower
Glazing:
laminated acoustic inner pane, outer pane of a different weight, the deepest cavity the frame takes
Seals and upstand:
unbroken compression seals, flashing dressed to the clay tile, insulated lined reveal

Noise out hereStill in here

The survey file

Rooflights in Lindfield

Lindfield is a village with a long memory. It has a medieval High Street, a 13th-century church, a common that has hosted cricket since 1747 and a conservation area that has been extended twice since it was drawn. A rooflight installation here starts with the roof you actually have: clay tile, old stone or brick, sitting on timber that may be centuries older than the house next door. This page walks through the village the way a survey would, and says what we would specify for each kind of roof, for the light and for the quiet.

Old frames, no standard

A village that keeps its timber frames

Hand-built frames are rarely square, so the opening is planned from the timbers in the loft, not from a catalogue size.

Lindfield is a village and civil parish in Mid Sussex, about a mile north-east of Haywards Heath. Its housing is not one thing. It is a medieval street, an early twentieth century extension and everything that has been added between.

The High Street has more than forty medieval and post-medieval timber-framed houses. That single fact shapes how a rooflight is planned for a good part of the village. A frame built by hand, long before any standard dimension existed, is rarely square. Rafters are not spaced to a modern pattern, and the roof plane may dip and twist in ways that a tape measure will not show from the ground.

So we do not start from a catalogue size. We start in the loft, with a torch, and read what the timbers are doing. The opening for a rooflight has to work with the rafters that are there. A standard roof window is made to fit between rafters a known distance apart. Where the real spacing is different, the opening is trimmed with new timbers, and the trimming is drawn before the frame is ordered.

Planning an opening in an old roof

  1. 01Read the timbersWe start in the loft with a torch and see what the frame is doing.
  2. 02Compare real spacingA standard roof window is made for rafters a known distance apart.
  3. 03Trim with new timbersWhere the spacing differs, the opening is trimmed to carry the load round it.
  4. 04Draw it before orderingThe trimming is drawn before the frame is ordered.

The same habit applies to the church, the pub roofs and the modest cottages between them. We do not guess the age of a house from the street. The survey reads the roof from the inside and from a ladder, and the written quote says what we found.

Lindfield is also a place where a rooflight is likely to be wanted. Old houses often have dark upper rooms under low eaves, and a skylight on the right slope can change a bedroom or a landing without touching the look of the street. The care is in choosing the slope, the size and the frame.

NextClay tiles, Horsham Stone and mathematical tiles overhead

Roof materials

Clay tiles, Horsham Stone and mathematical tiles overhead

Each local roof material asks something different of a rooflight, from flashing kits to the weight of the slabs.

Mid Sussex names the roof and wall materials that define Lindfield's conservation area: clay tiles, sandstone, Horsham Stone roofs, mathematical tiles, tile hanging and stucco, with timber framing and varied brick bonds. Each of these asks something different of a rooflight.

Clay plain tiles are the everyday roof here. They are small, they overlap, and a roof window set into them needs a flashing kit that matches the tile profile, so that water is led out over each course and not trapped behind it. Old clay tiles are also brittle. Cutting a neat opening means lifting and relaying the tiles around it, and keeping the ones that can be reused so the colour of the patch matches the rest of the slope.

Horsham Stone is another matter. These are heavy, thick, uneven slabs, laid in diminishing courses, and the timbers beneath them are built to carry a weight that a modern tile roof would never ask of them. Nobody should cut into a roof like that without a clear plan. The rafters are big, the slabs are not easily replaced, and a rooflight frame has to sit on an upstand that follows the slab thickness. Where a stone roof is involved, the likely answer is a small, flush frame on a slope that cannot be seen from the street, or no opening in the stone at all and a different route for the light.

Four coverings, four demands

  • Clay plain tilesThe flashing kit must match the tile profile, and the tiles around the opening are lifted and relaid.
  • Horsham StoneHeavy, uneven slabs on big timbers, so the likely answer is a small flush frame out of sight.
  • Mathematical tilesFlashing is chased in and dressed to the tile, never stuck on top.
  • Stucco, sandstone and tile hangingEach makes its own demands, so the flashing detail is drawn first.

Mathematical tiles are a Sussex speciality. They are tiles hung on a timber wall and shaped so that the face imitates brickwork. Where one meets a roof, the junction is fussy. A dormer cheek or a stepped wall in mathematical tile has to be flashed in a way that keeps the tile face intact, which means the flashing is chased in and dressed to the tile, never stuck on top.

Stucco, sandstone and tile hanging make their own demands on the wall junction. If a rooflight is planned beside any of these, the flashing detail is drawn first. Our guide to choosing a rooflight covers the questions that follow from what we find on the roof.

NextMid Sussex decides, and the address decides first

Planning and regulations

Mid Sussex decides, and the address decides first

Whether a rooflight needs consent depends on the address, and the answer goes into the written quote.

Planning in Lindfield sits with Mid Sussex District Council, which publishes planning applications for the whole district. Whether a rooflight needs consent depends on the address, and the answer goes into the written quote.

For a house, a rooflight can usually go into a slope without an application if it stands no more than 150 mm proud of the slope and stays below the ridge. In Lindfield, several things can overturn that:

  • the house is listed, which brings listed building consent into play;
  • it lies inside the conservation area, where alterations are controlled more tightly;
  • an Article 4 direction removes rights that would otherwise apply;
  • it is a flat or maisonette, which has no householder permitted development;
  • a planning condition on a newer house limits changes to the roof.

The rules that set the starting point

  • 150 mmFurthest projection from the slopeThe permitted development limit for a house, with the unit staying below the ridge.
  • Part LStandard for heat lossA new or replacement rooflight has to meet it.
  • Building ControlWhere the work is notifiableWe handle the Building Control notification.

None of these is assumed in either direction. Each one is checked for the address. Our guide to planning permission for rooflights and skylights explains the national rules, and the council's planning applications pages show what has been decided on neighbouring streets.

Planning is one question and Building Regulations are another. A new opening changes the roof structure, and a new or replacement rooflight has to meet Part L for heat loss. Where the work is notifiable, we handle the Building Control notification, and the job is installed to current Building Regulations. The guide to Building Regulations for rooflights sets out how that works.

NextThree dates on one conservation area

The boundary over time

Three dates on one conservation area

The conservation area was extended twice, and a council direction sits alongside it.

Lindfield Conservation Area was designated in 1969. It was extended in 1989 to take in Black Hill, and again in 1998 to include Compton Road. Those dates are worth knowing, because they show that the boundary was redrawn as the council came to value more of the village than the High Street alone.

The council also made an Article 4(2) Direction in 1995, extended in 1998 to Compton Road, to control alterations to dwellings. An Article 4 direction takes away certain permitted development rights so that a change that would normally need no application does need one. In practice, that can bring alterations to a roof slope under the council's eye, where a house elsewhere would have needed no permission at all.

We do not decide from a street name whether a house is inside the boundary, or whether the direction covers it. Both are looked up for the address. The position is put in the quote, in plain words, before any work is booked.

How protection grew

  1. 1969Conservation area designatedLindfield Conservation Area is first drawn.
  2. 1989Extended to Black HillThe boundary is redrawn to take in more of the village.
  3. 1995Article 4(2) Direction madeThe council controls alterations to dwellings.
  4. 1998Extended to Compton RoadThe conservation area and the direction both reach Compton Road.

Where a slope is visible from a public road and the address is protected, a conservation rooflight is the usual starting point. It is a slim frame, usually steel or cast in style, that sits flush with the covering and does not stand proud of it. A rear slope that nobody sees from the street raises a different question from a front one, so we look at which slope you want to use and who can see it.

NextHigh Street frames and Compton Road brick

Two streets compared

High Street frames and Compton Road brick

The High Street and Compton Road show how differently two Lindfield roofs behave under a rooflight.

The council describes the High Street as medieval and Georgian in origin, and Compton Road as an area of early twentieth century growth, mainly brick dwellings under clay tiled roofs. Those two streets are a good way to see how differently two Lindfield roofs behave.

On the High Street, the frame is old, the walls may be plastered or hung, and the roof covering has been altered many times. The roof is often a patchwork of ages. A rooflight there is a small, careful opening in a slope that has already been disturbed before, and the quote states how the tiles around it will be handled.

On Compton Road and streets like it, the structure is more regular. A brick house from the early twentieth century typically has a pitched clay tile roof with rafters set on a consistent spacing. A roof window there drops into a known geometry. The work is simpler, and the thinking moves to position: where the light lands in the loft room, how high the sill sits, and whether a second window on the opposite slope gives better daylight than one larger unit.

What each street tells us

  • High Street: a patchwork of ages An old frame, plaster or hanging, and a covering altered many times.
  • High Street: a small, careful opening The quote states how the tiles around it will be handled.
  • Compton Road: regular rafters Brick, pitched clay tile and a roof window that drops into a known geometry.
  • Compton Road: the thinking is position Where the light lands, how high the sill sits and whether two windows beat one.

Our page on where to position a skylight goes through the trade-offs of slope, height and orientation. The roof window installation page covers the products that suit a pitched roof of this kind.

In both cases a brick or stone chimney, a gable wall or a party wall is a junction to be flashed. A lead apron cut to a straight line does not meet an uneven stone face. The lead is dressed to follow what is there, and the joint is pointed to suit.

NextThe High Weald Fringes, the AONB and the A23 to the west

Sound reaches the glass

The High Weald Fringes, the AONB and the A23 to the west

Whatever noise reaches the house arrives through the rooflight first, so we listen in the room before writing the spec.

Mid Sussex places Lindfield in the High Weald Fringes character area, partly within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with the A23 bounding the area to the west. That sets the scene for a village that is wooded and rolling to the east and bounded by a main road to the west.

Sound finds the weakest layer of a roof. Over a loft bedroom that is the glass, because everywhere else there is tile, batten, insulation and board. Whatever noise arrives at the house reaches the room through the rooflight first. In a village like this, that may be a main road carried on the wind from the west, or it may be nothing more than a garden and the birds. It depends on the house, and on which way the slope faces.

We do not promise a noise level for any street. At the survey, we stand in the room with the old window shut and listen. What we hear goes into the written quiet spec in plain words. If the room is silent, the spec says so, and the glazing is chosen for the light and the thermal performance. If the road is audible, the spec names the glazing build that answers it.

Listening at the survey

  1. 01Shut the old windowWe stand in the room with the existing unit closed.
  2. 02ListenA road on the wind, or just a garden and the birds.
  3. 03Write it downWhat we hear goes into the quiet spec in plain words.
  4. 04Name the buildIf the road is audible, the spec names the glazing build that answers it.

The guide to keeping road and rail noise out through a rooflight explains the reasoning. Acoustic laminated glass is the main tool, and it is explained there in full.

Being inside or near an AONB is a separate matter from the conservation area. It is a landscape designation, and it makes the look of the roof from a distance matter more. On a slope that faces open country, a slim dark frame set low against the tile draws far less attention than a pale one that stands above it.

NextRain on glass, wherever you live

Rain on flat roofs

Rain on glass, wherever you live

Rain lands straight on a flat rooflight, so the quiet comes from how the glass is built and mounted.

Rain has nothing to do with location. On a pitched roof, a roof window is held away from the weather by the tile around it, and the water runs down the glass and off. On a flat roof or a lantern, the rain lands directly on the pane above your head.

That is why a flat-roofed rear extension is where the noise question is sharpest. A single thin outer sheet rings under a heavy shower. A lantern with many glazing bars can drum like a shed roof, because each bar and each pane is a small drum skin. A rooflight that looked bright and handsome in the showroom can be the loudest thing in a kitchen on a wet evening.

Lindfield has plenty of older houses that have grown rear extensions and kitchens with flat roofs, which are the place for a roof lantern or a flat rooflight. The answer is in the build of the glass and the way it is mounted. A laminated inner pane damps the ring. A different thickness for the outer sheet stops both panes vibrating together. A properly formed upstand with unbroken seals stops the frame itself from knocking.

Stopping a flat rooflight drumming

  1. 1Outer sheet A different thickness stops both panes vibrating together.
  2. 2Laminated inner pane It damps the ring that a thin single sheet makes.
  3. 3Upstand and seals A properly formed upstand with unbroken seals stops the frame knocking.

Our guide to reducing rain noise under a flat rooflight explains the physics and the choices. None of it is exotic. It is a matter of writing the glass build into the quote before the unit is ordered, rather than discovering it on the first wet night.

NextFive Lindfield roofs and the glass each one wants

Roof by roof

Five Lindfield roofs and the glass each one wants

A protected frontage, a brick house in clay tile and a flat rear extension each point to a different rooflight.

The right product follows the roof and the planning position. A protected frontage, a brick house in clay tile and a flat rear extension each point somewhere different.

High Street timber frame, visible slope

What to check
Rafter spacing, protection
Likely rooflight
Flush conservation rooflight

Horsham Stone or sandstone roof

What to check
Slab weight, timbers
Likely rooflight
Small frame on a hidden slope

Brick house, clay tile, Compton Road type

What to check
Slope, sill height
Likely rooflight
Roof window

Rear extension, flat roof

What to check
Upstand, rain noise
Likely rooflight
Flat rooflight or lantern

Dark landing or stairwell

What to check
Light route, loft height
Likely rooflight
Sun tunnel
Lindfield roofWhat to checkLikely rooflight
High Street timber frame, visible slopeRafter spacing, protectionFlush conservation rooflight
Horsham Stone or sandstone roofSlab weight, timbersSmall frame on a hidden slope
Brick house, clay tile, Compton Road typeSlope, sill heightRoof window
Rear extension, flat roofUpstand, rain noiseFlat rooflight or lantern
Dark landing or stairwellLight route, loft heightSun tunnel

A rooflight that opens is worth considering in a bedroom under a slope, since a loft can get warm in summer. The flat roof rooflight installation page covers the extension case, and our sizing guide helps with the room.

The table is a starting point. The survey decides, and the written spec says why.

NextCutting into an old frame, and renewing older units

Old house, slower job

Cutting into an old frame, and renewing older units

Structure, weather and access matter most in a village of old timber, and the quote says how each is handled.

Work in an old house is slower than work in a new one, and the quote says so. Three parts of the job matter most in a village of old timber.

First, the structure. Cutting a rafter for a new opening means trimming it with new timbers on both sides, so the load is carried around the hole. In a frame that has moved over the years, the new timbers are set to the roof as it is, not to a drawing. Where we are unsure what a member is doing, we open the ceiling and look.

Second, the weather. The upstand, the flashing and the tile relay are done so that every junction sheds water, and a rooflight installation is not finished until the inside is made good as well: a lined, insulated reveal and a clean plasterboard finish.

Three parts of the job

  • StructureTrimming with new timbers on both sides, opening the ceiling where we are unsure.
  • WeatherUpstand, flashing and tile relay shed water, and the inside is lined and made good.
  • AccessNarrow lanes mean the lift is planned at the survey.
  • Renewing older unitsMisted glass, a failed seal or a stiff frame is the moment to upgrade.

Third, access. The High Street and the lanes off it are not wide. Glass and scaffold have to reach the roof through narrow passages or over neighbouring buildings. We plan the lift at the survey, and the quote says how it will be done.

Some Lindfield houses already have a rooflight that was put in decades ago. If the glass has misted, the seal has failed or the frame has gone stiff, the answer is to renew it, and the moment is often the right one to upgrade the glass too. A new unit can be quieter and warmer than the one it replaces. Our guide to when to replace a rooflight explains the signs to look for, and the quiet spec page shows what is written down for each room.

The work is covered by a 10-year workmanship guarantee, and the notification to Building Control is handled where the work requires one.

NextPutting the quiet spec on paper for a Lindfield room

The written spec

Putting the quiet spec on paper for a Lindfield room

Every quote carries a one-page note for the room, so you can read exactly what is going into your roof.

Every quote comes with a quiet spec: a one-page written note for the room, recording what we heard at the survey, the glazing build we propose and why, and how the seals and upstand are finished. It is a specification, not a claim.

In a village like Lindfield, the room might be a loft bedroom in a clay-tiled brick house, or a kitchen at the back of an old cottage. For the loft, the note would record the slope the window sits on, what we heard with the old unit shut, and the glass we recommend for that slope. For the kitchen, it would deal with the rain on the lantern first, because that is the noise the room will actually hear.

The spec also lists the things that are not about noise: the frame size, the opening method if there is one, the flashing type and how the inside will be finished. The idea is that you can read it at the kitchen table and know exactly what is going into your roof.

What the spec records

  • What we heard Noted at the survey with the old unit shut.
  • The glazing build and why The glass we propose for that room and slope.
  • Seals and upstand How both are finished.
  • Frame, opening and flashing Size, opening method and flashing type.
  • The inside finish How the reveal will be finished.

If you already know which room you are thinking about, send us the address and a few details. We will say what we would want to see at the survey.

NextWhat Lindfield householders ask before a survey

Local questions

What Lindfield householders ask before a survey

Conservation permission, Horsham Stone roofs, village noise and the word rooflight, answered for Lindfield.

Most of the questions that come from a village like this are about the roof, the rules and the noise. These are the ones that belong to Lindfield.

Does a rooflight in the conservation area need permission?

It depends on the address, the slope and whether an Article 4 direction applies. Lindfield Conservation Area dates from 1969 and has been extended twice, and the council's 1995 direction, extended in 1998, controls some alterations to dwellings. We check the address and write the answer into the quote. The council's own pages are the final word on a particular application.

Can a rooflight go into a Horsham Stone roof?

Sometimes, but it needs a clear plan. The slabs are heavy, the timbers are big and the courses are uneven. The likely route is a small flush frame on a slope that cannot be seen from the street. We look at the roof from the loft before we say yes or no.

Will a skylight be noisy in a village?

It depends on the house and the slope. We listen at the survey and write what we hear. A quiet garden and a thin pane may be fine. A room on the road side, or a flat roof in rain, needs a different glazing build, and the spec names it.

Is a rooflight the same as a skylight?

The two words describe the same thing, glass set into a roof. Our guide on the two words explains where each is used. Neighbouring villages are covered on our pages for Haywards Heath and Cuckfield, and the first step for any of them is to start from the main service overview.

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