Rooflights and skylights in Reigate

Reigate is a long-settled market town with a hard edge of chalk behind it. The escarpment shapes how light arrives, how weather is met and how far sound carries across the vale.

The town lies about 19 miles south of central London, and the North Downs rise immediately to its north. Anyone who has walked up from the High Street knows how quickly the ground climbs. For a rooflight, the slope of the land matters in a practical way. A loft room on a rear slope that faces the Downs receives its daylight at an angle that differs from a room facing the open vale, and the glass should be sized and placed for the light that room actually gets. Our page on where to position a skylight in a room covers the reasoning, and the sizing guide covers the arithmetic.

The wider landscape is protected. The Surrey Hills National Landscape covers the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge, and its chalk downs run across Dorking, Reigate and Oxted. That does not turn every Reigate roof into a planning problem. It does mean the first conversation about any opening is about the address, what is around it, and which rules apply there. We find that out before we price anything, not after.

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council is the planning authority here, and it looks after 25 conservation areas across the borough. Several of them are in Reigate itself.

The council's review names Chart Lane, Reigate Town Centre, Flanchford Road, Colley Lane, Rockshaw Road and Wray Common among them, and it proposed a new Blanford Road, Reigate area in 2024. A proposal is only a proposal, so what applies to a given street today is something we check for the address, with the council, rather than assume.

That check matters because the position depends on the house and the work. Some rooflights on a rear or side slope sit comfortably under permitted development, and others need an application, especially in a conservation area or on a listed building. Our page on planning permission for rooflights and skylights sets out the general rules, and the council's own planning pages give the local detail. If you want to read the national picture first, the Planning Portal explains permitted development in plain terms.

The table below matches the four housing types from the census to the rooflight routes we would consider first. It is a starting point for the survey, not a substitute for it.

Many Reigate homes already have a rooflight that has had its day. Replacing it is a separate job from fitting a first one, and it begins with a question about the old opening.

A unit that has misted between the panes, closes loosely or lets cold air across the room is ready to be renewed. The hole exists already, which is an advantage, but it may not be the right size or shape for a modern unit. Sometimes the best answer is a like-for-like swap. Sometimes the old opening is worth widening, and that is when a better unit, with laminated glass and better seals, pays back in comfort and in quiet. Our guide to replacing an old skylight sets out the choice, and the misted and failed rooflight replacement page covers the work.

We remove the old unit, check the kerb or timbers, fit the new one to current regulations and make good inside. Our 10-year workmanship guarantee covers the installation, and it is written down, not merely promised.