Skylights & rooflights in Narborough
Narborough homes, lit from above and finished below.
Narborough is a large village on the Fosse Way line with a station at its centre, so its roofs range from older village houses to the newer homes built around them.
- Blaby District Council
- Station village, M1 close by
- Newer roofs, bigger rooms
Stone works, railway and a station in the village centre
Narborough, a large civil parish and village within Blaby district, Leicestershire, around six miles south-west of Leicester and some twenty-four road miles from central Coventry in a north-easterly direction. The M1 passes through the east of the village, the Leicester to Birmingham railway runs beside the River Soar, and the station sits in the village centre. That mix of a working past and a commuter present shows in the roofs: a village that grew around industry and the railway tends to hold several generations of housing side by side.
The Empire Stone Works was founded here in 1900, making pre-cast concrete that could be coloured and hand-finished to match natural stone cills, copings and cornices. We mention it because cast stone details such as cills and copings can sit close to a roof, and how that affects what a new opening looks like from the street. Where a roof edge or a parapet detail matters to the look of a house, we pick a rooflight that sits low and plain against it.
Around the older streets, Narborough has the pitched roofs you would expect of an established village, with slate or clay on some houses and concrete tile on others. Behind and beyond them are the newer homes, where the roof is usually a simple tiled pitch over a loft that has been boarded or converted, and where the interest is inside: kitchen-diners knocked through, rear extensions, upgraded glazing and lofts turned into bedrooms or offices.
The question we answer at a Narborough survey is rarely whether a rooflight can go in. It is which kind gives the room the most light for the structure above it. A pitched loft with trussed rafters takes a roof window sized to the gaps. A flat-roofed rear extension takes a flat rooflight or a lantern. A dark landing or bathroom with no outside wall takes a sun tunnel. We measure, say which applies, and put the answer in a fixed written quote before any work starts.
Because the village sits between the M1 and the railway, the village is well placed for travel to work, and a home here can be adapted rather than moved from. When a family needs another bedroom or a better kitchen, the roof is where the extra light and space often come from. That is the reason we look at the whole house at a survey, upstairs and down, and not only at the spot where the rooflight is meant to go.
Trussed lofts, kitchen-diners and rooms with no outside wall
Newer houses and extended ones are a natural place for rooflight questions to begin. Match the product to the roof you have: a pitched loft points to a roof window, a flat-roofed extension to flat glass or a lantern, and a windowless room to a sun tunnel.
- Roof windowsFor converted lofts in newer Narborough houses, where the opening is sized to sit between trussed rafters.
- Flat roof rooflightsFor rear kitchen-diner extensions, with the glass set on a new insulated upstand.
- Energy efficient rooflightsFor homes already upgraded with new glazing, so the roof does not become the weak point.
- Sun tunnelsFor landings, bathrooms and hallways in the middle of the house with no outside wall.
Also fitted here
Drive times from Narborough village centre.
Blaby District Council and the Article 4 enquiry
Planning for Narborough sits with Blaby District Council. Ordinary houses can usually take a rooflight with no application, though the rule bends around individual streets, so we look up conservation area status first and only then put a price on paper. If an Article 4 direction exists, the council confirms it, and we help you word that enquiry.
Our team notifies Building Control whenever a job needs it, and the glass is installed to the Building Regulations in force on the day. The permitted development detail lives in the rooflight planning guide, which saves us repeating it here.
01 Newer homes, bigger rooms
Trussed lofts, tiled pitches and the extensions added behind them.
On the roof
Most of the newer roofs around Narborough are tiled pitches built on trussed rafters. Those trusses are designed as a whole, so a roof window cannot simply be cut in wherever the owner fancies. We measure the spacing at the survey and choose a window whose frame fits between two trusses, which keeps the structure as it was designed and avoids any strengthening work you would otherwise pay for.
Where a larger opening is wanted, say for a loft room that needs more light than a single window gives, the trusses can be reinforced to an engineered design, with cutting done only afterwards. That is a different job with a different price, and it appears in the written quote as its own line so nothing is added on the day.
Flashing is the part you do not see once the work is done, and it is the part that keeps the loft dry. The window is fitted with a flashing set matched to the tile profile on your roof, laid over the tiles in sequence so water runs off the top of the frame and down past the sides. We check the tile courses either side before we finish, and the roof is left weathertight at the end of every day we work on it.
The same attention goes into the felt and battens around the frame. They are lapped into the flashing, not trimmed to suit, because that is what stops a slow leak starting at a corner.
If you are unsure whether the loft is suitable at all, ask for the survey before you plan the room. We can tell you from the rafters, the pitch and the covering what will fit and what the realistic choices are, and you keep that advice whether or not you go ahead.
In the room
A loft that has been converted into a bedroom or study often has a window that shows a sliver of sky and little else. Inside, the opening is lined with insulated plasterboard, and where the roof depth allows we splay the reveal so it widens towards the room. A splayed reveal catches daylight at an angle and throws it across the ceiling and walls, which is why the same window looks far more generous with a splay than without.
The plasterer’s edge is as important as the glass. We close the gap between the window frame and the board, tape the joints, skim the reveal and leave it ready for paint, so the opening looks as though it was part of the room from the start.
In a house that has had its glazing upgraded, a new roof window should match it in feel. Frames come in finishes that sit well beside modern window frames, and the internal lining is brought down to the ceiling line with a clean shadow gap rather than a bulky boxed edge.
If the loft space is boarded for storage, we protect the floor and the contents before opening the roof, and we clear our own dust and offcuts at the end of each day so you can still use the house.
Paint and dust sheets are the last things to go. We would rather leave you with a finished reveal in a room you can use than a job that needs a second visit, so the plastering is done to a standard a decorator can take straight over.
The short version
On a trussed roof the spacing decides the window; the lining decides how much light the room really gets.
02 Kitchen-diners and rear extensions
Flat roofs behind the house, and the glass that suits them.
On the roof
A knocked-through kitchen-diner is a common reason to consider a rooflight. The extension behind the house usually has a flat roof with a membrane or felt covering, and the room beneath it is often a long way from the garden doors. A flat rooflight or a roof lantern brings daylight into the part of the room that the doors cannot reach.
We seat the glass on a new insulated kerb raised from the roof deck, so the unit sits clear of standing water and the edge detail is sealed into the roof covering. The new upstand is lapped into the existing membrane, or the membrane is renewed around the opening if the survey shows it has come to the end of its life. Either way the choice is written down before work begins.
A lantern suits a larger extension where the roof has the area for it. A flat rooflight suits a narrower one, or a roof that needs a lower profile because of a boundary or a neighbouring window. Both can be specified with glazing that keeps the heat in and the glare down, which matters in a south-facing kitchen in July.
Electric and opening versions are worth considering over a hob or a dining table, where warm air and cooking steam gather. An opening unit lets that air out through the roof.
Where the extension has a parapet or a boundary wall close by, we check that the upstand and the flashing can be built in the space there is. That detail decides the position of the unit more often than the owner expects, and it is better settled on paper than discovered on the roof.
In the room
Inside an extension, the ceiling opening is where the finish is won or lost. A plain square hole cut through the plasterboard gives you a hard dark edge. A widened, splayed and plastered reveal, painted the same white as the ceiling, makes the glass look larger and spreads its light.
On a lantern the internal upstand is finished as a neat box or splayed funnel, depending on the joists and the ceiling height. We agree the shape with you at the survey, because it changes how the room looks every day. We also talk through where the light should land, whether over the dining table, the island or the sofa, and angle the splay towards it.
Spotlights and pendant lights can be moved or reconnected by the electrician as part of the planning of the job, so nothing is left hanging in the opening. We leave the plastered reveal sanded, primed and ready for your decorator or for you.
Once the unit is in, you should see the effect straight away: a kitchen that used to need its lights switched on at three in the afternoon in winter usually does not.
A quiet point worth raising at the survey is cleaning. Glass above a kitchen collects steam and grease, so we tell you which rooflight types are easiest to reach and wipe, and whether an opening unit would let you do it from below.
The short version
Put the glass where the garden doors stop reaching, and shape the reveal to throw the light further in.
The roof keeps the weather out; the splay decides how the room feels.
Trussed lofts, kitchen-diners, the journey: Narborough asks
Can my newer Narborough house take a roof window in a trussed loft?
Usually yes. The window is sized so its frame sits between two trusses, so none need cutting. If you want a wider opening, the trusses are strengthened to a design first, and that is priced as its own line in the written quote. We check the spacing at the free survey and tell you which route suits your roof before you commit to anything.
What will a kitchen-diner rooflight in Narborough involve inside the house?
We cut the ceiling opening, build the lining, splay the reveal where the depth allows, then plaster and make it good so it is ready to paint. Any lighting in the way is agreed with you beforehand. The room is protected while we work and we clear up at the end of each day, so the kitchen stays usable as far as possible.
How long is the journey from Coventry for a Narborough survey?
About thirty-three minutes by road separates central Coventry from Narborough, so a survey slots easily into a working day. Use the form or WhatsApp, attach a photograph or two of the roof, and a time comes back to you. The visit itself carries no charge, and a fixed quote follows in writing.
We survey before we price.
Then we finish the room.
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