Rooflights and skylights in Cottenham

The shape of the village matters more than people expect. Because the High Street runs for a long way through the place, the older houses along it tend to present their fronts to the road and their backs to long plots behind. That puts the main roof slopes on two sides of the house, one towards the street and one towards the garden, and those two slopes often face close to opposite points of the compass. A cottage on one side of the street can have its garden slope catching the afternoon sun while its neighbour opposite has a garden slope that sees mostly soft, indirect light. Same street, same age, very different rooms under the roof.

All Saints church, with its distinctive tower, is the obvious landmark for finding your bearings, and the older part of the village gathers along the High Street within sight of it. Away from that line, later housing fills the ground behind the frontages in closes and cul-de-sacs, and some of the newer streets sit further out towards the fields. We see all of these as different starting points for a skylight, not as one type of village house.

That is why we do not arrive with a product in mind. Before we suggest a roof window, a flat rooflight or a lantern, we want to know where the sun sits over your particular slope at breakfast, at midday and in the early evening, and in which season. In a long village like this, two houses a few doors apart can need quite different answers. Our light planning method is built for exactly that kind of difference, and it is the same approach we use across Cambridge and the villages around it.

Houses of that period were usually built with trussed rafter roofs. The timbers are lighter and closer together than in a cottage, and each truss is a designed component, so you cannot simply cut one out to fit a wide roof window. That does not rule out a skylight, but it does steer the choice. A unit sized to fit between trusses, or a pair of narrower windows side by side, often works better than one large opening, and it keeps the structure as the manufacturer intended. Where more width is wanted, an engineer can design a trimmed opening, and we build that into the plan before anything is ordered.

The shallow pitch of some of these roofs is the other point to check. Every pitched roof window has a minimum pitch, and a roof close to that limit needs the right flashing and the right model. On the rear, a flat roofed kitchen or dining extension is common in this kind of housing, and those are some of the most rewarding places to add light. A flat roof rooflight sits on a raised kerb so rain runs clear, and it can light a kitchen table or worktop directly, which a roof window on the main slope never could.

Where the extension is deep, or joins an open plan room that runs back from the front of the house, a roof lantern can carry light further into the plan than a flat pane of the same size, because its sloping sides pick up sky from more than one direction. For a landing or windowless bathroom in the middle of one of these houses, where there is loft space above but no roof slope close by, a sun tunnel is often the quiet answer.

In practical terms, an unshaded south facing slope will give a room several hours of direct sun around the middle of the day through much of the year. In December that sun is low and weak, and a well placed skylight throws a long patch of warm light deep into the room, which is exactly what a dark cottage kitchen needs. In June and July the same slope takes the sun from high overhead for hours, and without the right glass the room can overheat. A north facing slope gives steady, cool light all day with almost no glare, which suits a home office or a studio. East and west slopes give low, angled sun that is lovely at breakfast or in the evening and can be dazzling across a screen.

Some houses on the northern side of the village look out over open, flat land, and a roof that faces into that openness may also feel the wind more than one in the middle of the village. We hedge that deliberately: exposure varies house by house, and a hedge, a neighbour's gable or a mature tree can make a big difference. What we do on every survey is look at the roof from outside, note what shelters it and what does not, and specify the flashing and fixing accordingly.

Glass does most of the work of making that sky comfortable. On a south or west slope we usually look at solar control glass with a lower g-value, sometimes with a blind as well. On a north slope the priority is letting in as much light as possible while keeping heat in during winter. Our guide to skylight orientation sets out what each direction gives a room, and the choice of glass is explained on our energy efficient rooflights page.

On a typical visit we look at the room at the time of day you use it most, check the compass bearing of each slope, and note what shades the roof, such as a neighbour's two storey extension, a tall hedge or a line of trees. We measure the roof structure, look at the pitch and covering, and check whether the house is listed or within a conservation area on the Greater Cambridge planning map. If a sun tunnel, a lantern or a walk on unit might suit the space better than a standard rooflight, we say so and explain why.

From that we write a short light plan. It covers:

• where the opening goes, and what part of the room it will light through the day and the year
• the size and type of unit, and how it fits the rafters or trusses
• the glass, including whether solar control or a blind is needed on that slope
• whether planning permission or Building Control notification is involved

The written quote comes with that plan, so you can see the reasoning behind every choice before any roof is opened. The work is done to current Building Regulations, plastered and made good inside, and backed by our 10-year workmanship guarantee. If you would like to compare options across the villages we serve, our areas page lists them, and the costs page explains what drives the price of a skylight installation in Cottenham and elsewhere. When you are ready, book a light survey or message us on WhatsApp.