Sun Tunnels

[SnarkyBag]

We’ve recently moved into a doer upper. One things that’s become apparent and for some reason went unnoticed when viewing it with rose tinted glasses is it’s quite a dark house in a couple of particular areas. The hallway is very long a narrow and gets almost no natural light, neither does the stairs and landings. It’s a quirky layout with 3 floors but they’re staggered rather than stacked like a town house.

I’m wondering how effective sun tunnels are particularly if they have to be flexible and bend to get from roof to the part of the house they’re needed. Due to said quirky layout I don’t see how the hallway can have a tunnel that leads in a direct straight line if that makes sense?

We have one on our windowless landing and it's incredible how light it makes it. It is in the south facing bit of the roof, but i think the north facing roof would be almost as good. It's a flexible pipe (like an extractor fan) so it was v easy to fit. Can't recommend highly enough.

Thanks @ReviewingTheSituation thats really good to know. I love the house but admit the very dark bits have literally taken the shine off! I don’t think it would have stopped me buying the place but it’s definitely a design flaw!

We have had two sun tunnels fitted, one in the dark end of a hall, one in the en-suite.
I’ve lost count of the times that I have assumed someone has left the bathroom light on, to find it’s just been the light from the sun tunnel, and the hall one has balanced the light out, and is now comparable to the glazed front door end.
No regrets in our experience.

We installed one in our old house for an internal bathroom the last owners had installed when remodelling. It had a degree of bend in it to bring it down through loft beams, but agree with previous posters, the light it bought in was well worth it.

Oh this is great to hear thank you! Any rough ideas of cost for installation?

Another person here to tell you that they are the mutt's nuts. Ours has been in for about 10 years and IIRC, we paid about £600 -- but that's hardly helpful after so long.

Also think I could do with one or two. Any idea of costs?

Ours was done at same time as we changed the velux on that side of roof. It was back on 2014 so I can’t dig out quote as all the paperwork went to new owners, I don’t remember it being extortionate. It looked like a mini velux when fitted, very neat.

Mine is a four slate sized mini periscope that pokes out of the north facing side of the roof. I would be surprised if one cost more than £900/£1000. They dont take long to install. Less than a full day, and the basic kit wasn't very expensive,

They are perfect for windowless hallways. We installed two glass dome ones from a company called Lightway, they have straight tubes but you can add bends.

They glow in a full moon too, which is lovely.

We had not heard of these until this week. Thinking of one for dark alcove in Mother's bungalow, I hope it is straight tube. I can't see from hatch. I shall see if our friendly handyman can fit one cheaper than Velux.

Research at Wickes tomorrow.

That’s good to have a ball park figure. The landing should be fairly straight forward and only need a straight tube. The hallway will need something bendy haven’t quite figured out what it’s route could be yet due to weird roof/room layout.
Am hopeful now this will be the answer to our very dark hallway!

Which kind of tradesperson would fit them? If anyone has a recommendation for the northwest it would be much appreciated.