Do you want to get more natural light into your home or extension? Ask a VELUX daylight expert – ANSWERS BACK

[JustineBMumsnet]

Answers are now back and this thread is now closed for questions. If you'd like to read Grant's responses you can view them here.

Building a kitchen/ dining room extension or adding another bedroom can be a great way to get more space in your home without making a big move. But it’s easy to overlook the importance of getting enough daylight into your design. VELUX would like to help by answering your questions on how to design your space with daylight.

Before and after images of VELUX windows in a single story extension can be found within this OP.

VELUX daylight expert Grant Sneddon says: “Whatever the project, it’s absolutely crucial to ask a professional for help as early as possible. Not only will they steer your project from start to finish, and work within your budget to help you get the space you want, but they’ll also come up with ideas that you might not have considered. One of those considerations, is the importance of natural daylight and ventilation in your home. Building an extension with roof windows or retrofitting windows into existing extensions will allow more daylight to penetrate deeper into the space and make it look and feel bigger and brighter.”

Whether you have a single-story extension already that you’d like to get more natural light into or you’re planning on building a single-story extension in your home, ask Grant your questions about getting more light into your design below. We’ll be selecting 10 questions and post a link to the responses as soon as possible.

All who post their questions below (regardless of whether their question is selected) will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £150 John Lewis voucher.

Thanks, and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

We have a large open plan kitchen and living area which we'd like to divide into separate rooms. The living area has lots of light as it has floor to ceiling windows at one end, but there is only a small window at the kitchen end. How can we make sure that the kitchen won't end up looking gloomy and dark?

Velux for kids bedrooms - are blackout Velux blinds truly blackout or do they let light in via the edges like the cheaper blinds?

Can they double up as a fire escape in a lift room?

Loft!

I have velux windows in my kitchen (extension and low roof) and I love them and the light they bring in to the room. However I noticed one has some green algae starting to grow on it on the outside. Why is this and what is the best way to treat and prevent it? thankyou

How easy is it to replace smaller Velux windows with bigger electric ones?

How do I get light in without it getting too warm?

We're having them installed in our extension. They will be high up so how do we open them and also how do we clean them?!

I'm interested in the opening to a balcony type. Is there a colour option?

Does self cleaning glass really self clean?

I have a very large lantern roof light, would velux be suitable?

I have a remote Velux window in my extension, my only problem is that it’s quite high up. What sort of gadget would I need to be able to reach it up high internally?
We have a window cleaner for the outside, but I’d like to clean it from the inside.
Many Thanks

How do we clean them outside? We have them in the shower room on the second floor of our house.

Had them in my last house and would have loved them apart from the fact that in the summer they were fly traps.

Is there anyway of preventing this?

We have an existing single storey kitchen extension. The actual roof is angled but the ceiling in the room is flat. Is it possible to remove the flat ceiling and expose the angled ceiling, then add in a velux window?

The kitchen is north facing and very dark; we moved in in October and have needed the lights on in there all day every day ever since. I’d be delighted if we could make it brighter!

I have a conservatory which I'm considering altering the roofing on as it's way too hot in summer and yet freezing in winter to the point we are completely unable to use it and have to move all of the furniture from there into another room in the house. I've looked into the options of a metal roof, and it's reasonable, but wondered if you could please tell me what benefits we would have if we had velux windows installed into a fixed roof as opposed to a metal fixed roof. Prices vary I understand that, it's the temperature and economical benefits I am more interested in - do velux windows come in any kind of sun guard format, i.e. like the sunglasses that tint when the sun is bright?

I would love to add these to my dining room extension but would love to know if they keep the heat in. My dining room area can be a bit chilly
I would love to add these as it would add natural light to my quite dark room

How big can you get them? We’ve had little ones (about the size of two A4 sheets put together) but I didn’t really like the way that looked.

We had a Velux installed in our extension and now I want some in my living room because I live the natural light they give. My main issue is the opening and closing as I'm disabled and me wobbling with a long pole just isn't working!

The rain on my conservatory roof is noisy so will having velux windows in the roof of a room be the same?

I have Velux windows in my bedroom and bathroom and love the light they bring in, but I hate opening the bedroom one to clean it because spiders are sometimes there and drop into my bedroom.
Could you make a self cleaning vers for us please ?

Would having velux windows in the ceiling lose much energy? Therefore costing more to heat our home?

We live in a very old house, with the sun rising at the rear, coming into the kitchen in the first half of the day and setting at the front, with the evening sunset sometimes streaming beautifully into the living room, yet my kitchen plants suffer and it's very dark in the living room in the first half of the day. On the outer side (it's a semi) there are 2 very small windows so it'd be great to make the most of these but they are load-bearing walls.

How can you stop hundreds of cluster flies hibernating in my loft conversion's velux windows? It happens every year.

I'd love to know any tips for cleaning them?

Also any ideas at all for getting more light into a 'middle' room (i.e. not external - but the open plan kitchen next to it is, so any ideas on what could be used there to direct more light towards the 'middle' room which has no windows of it's own?