Advice on windows above interior doors please

[pjo123]

Hi all

I have no windows in my landing and it's extremely dark.

The Bathroom, toilet and 2nd bedroom are all created with lath & plaster partition walls made from 3" x 2" timber.

I have around 19" of lath and plaster walls above the doors.

Am after some general advice on the following please.


I was thinking having around 9" high windows, does that seem about right?

Should these be in the centre between the ceiling and door or higher/lower?

Whats the best thing to use for the glass? Bearing in mind the walls with the plaster on are very soundproof, a single sheet of glass/plastic will I suspect be too thin?

Would I be better off finding a company that makes the glass units for double glazing firms and use them?

Any other suggestions please?

many thanks

 

[big-all]

in my humble opinion you wont get much borrowed light through a window that size and what borrowed light you will get will be from a dark area
i would suggest you open the door fully and with a bit of board or thick material cover all but the top 9" and see i would suggest less than 16" wont be enough

 

[dextrous]

Easiest way would be to remove plaster and lath from above door, and build a frame that embeds glass it it using whatever studwork is there - my guess is that you will end up having two panes of glass. You can use double glazed units, possibly using frosted glass as one pane if you want to keep privacy (most glaziers will be able to sort this out for you), although this may be excessive. Just how loud are you in the bathroom?

 

[pjo123]

Many thanks.

Not very loud lol.

I'll take off the lath and plaster above the doors tomorrow and see how much light it lets in.

I don't expect it to be bright and sunny but at the moment I have to turn the landing light on in the middle of the day to see where I'm going (long landing), just a little light would help.

If it doesn't do the trick, I might look into those roof tunnel things.

 

[Symptoms]

pjo - if you've got loft space above really do consider the sun tunnel - we put a couple of small ones in on a conversion we did and the results were surprisingly effective. Obviously it'll be more expensive than a simple fanlight (the name for a glazed sash over a door).

 

[masona]

If it doesn't do the trick, I might look into those roof tunnel things.

If you do, try and fit the rigid sun tunnel pipe rather then the flexible pipe as they give out 30% more light, what a difference!