Skylights and rooflights in Beer

Beer is a small place with a long history of fishing, and it grew up in the steep valley that runs down to the shingle beach. The best-known local material takes its name from the village: Beer stone, a pale, fine-grained limestone quarried here for centuries and used in cathedrals as well as in cottages. Around it you find flint, cob and rubble walls, often rendered or limewashed, with deep reveals and small windows.

A stream runs down beside the main street, and houses face it across short bridges and steps. Terraces of fishermen's cottages step down the slope, with low first-floor ceilings and loft rooms tucked into the roof. Victorian and Edwardian villas sit higher up, with taller rooms and larger windows, and there are bungalows and later houses on the edges where the village meets the fields. Many homes in Beer are second homes or holiday lets, so there are plenty of owners who want a tired house brought up to date without losing its character.

Before talking about products, we want to know which lane or slope your house stands on.

That mix is why one rooflight specification could never serve the whole village. A terraced cottage in the old lanes, a villa above the cove and a bungalow on the outskirts each need a different product and a different approach to the ceiling.

Before talking about products, we want to know which lane or slope your house stands on.

Most houses in Beer can add a rooflight with no application at all, since the general permitted development rights cover it, though the unit may stand only 150mm proud of the slope, must not top the ridge, and if it faces sideways its opening part has to sit above 1.7m. We check your house against those limits at survey.

Down by the cove, the old core of Beer counts as a conservation area, and the council can add an Article 4 direction that takes the permitted rights away there, so it is worth asking about your street before you design anything. Standing inside the National Landscape, which used to be called an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, does not by itself remove permitted development. It does mean the landscape counts when a council looks at a visible change, and a low-profile rooflight sits better in that setting.

A listed cottage needs listed building consent before anything changes on the outside, a rooflight included, and again for cutting into historic ceilings and roof timbers. Flats and maisonettes, holiday flats in converted houses among them, have no householder rights at all, so planning permission is the route for those.

When a roof can be seen from the beach or the cliff path, a conservation rooflight with slim frames and a central glazing bar, set flush to the slates, is the product officers tend to support. The general limits are covered in the Devon-wide planning and Building Regulations explainer we publish.

Roughly, the choice runs like this by house type:

• Fishermen's cottages and listed terraces: a conservation rooflight set into the back slope, scaled against the slates and the little room beneath.
• Victorian and Edwardian villas: a roof window, hung from the top or pivoting at the centre, to light a loft bedroom or landing, subject to planning checks.
• Bungalows and later houses: a roof window or flat rooflight over a kitchen, hall or bathroom, with energy efficient glazing.
• Garden rooms and rear extensions: a roof lantern on an insulated kerb, with the inside lined and plastered.
• Windowless landings and bathrooms: a sun tunnel when there is no room for a full-size rooflight.

A bedroom facing the bay may suit solar control glass to take the edge off afternoon sun

Glazing follows the room. A bedroom facing the bay may suit solar control glass to take the edge off afternoon sun, while a landing at the back of the house does better with a clear, well-insulating pane, plus a laminated inner pane because it sits overhead.

Whatever the product, it goes in to current Building Regulations, meeting the heat-loss standards of Part L, and we send the notification to Building Control ourselves. For a second home that stands empty for part of the year, an opening unit with a rain sensor is worth the thought, because nobody is there to shut a window when the weather turns.

Our survey starts on the roof, slope by slope. Then comes the room and the loft: the gap from roof to ceiling is measured, the ceiling is examined, and we record what could alter the finish, such as a beam, or a settlement crack that wanders toward where the opening would go.

Access is the practical question. The lanes are narrow and steep, parking is limited, and some cottages can only be reached on foot from the nearest place to stop. We decide where deliveries can be dropped, how the glass will be carried to the door, and if a tower or scaffold has to go up. Scaffolding on a public road takes a licence from Devon County Council, the highway authority, and that wait is built into the programme.

A written quote then reaches you, setting out the product, the lining and how we will get materials to the door, and the work only begins once you are happy with it. On site we keep dust contained and leave the room tidy, with a 10-year workmanship guarantee behind everything we fit. If a cottage in the lanes needs looking at, the quote form is the quickest way in, or the team can be reached through WhatsApp and at info@brightviewskylightsexeter.co.uk, and we will fit a visit around your week. We also cover nearby Seaton and Sidmouth, and the areas page lists every place we cover. The homepage describes the whole service.