Skylights and rooflights in Bow

Bow is an old farming village on the road between Crediton and Okehampton, and the oldest houses show it. Cob is the traditional wall here, as across this part of Devon: clay, straw and stones worked into thick walls, then limewashed or rendered. Cob cottages tend to be low, with deep window reveals, uneven floors and ceilings that follow the line of the beams above them.

Through the middle of the village the street changes character. There are Victorian terraces and semi-detached houses in brick and render, some with shopfronts or former shopfronts at ground level, and a scatter of older farmhouses that have been added to several times. Behind and beyond the centre are twentieth century bungalows, a few small estates, and barns that have become homes, usually with big roofs and roomy attics.

When we survey in Bow, we start by finding out which of those you live in, because that decides most of what follows.

Each of these asks a different question of a rooflight. A cottage with a thatched roof wants one answer, a Victorian house with a slate roof another, and a bungalow with a roof void and a box room that never had any daylight a third. When we survey in Bow, we start by finding out which of those you live in, because that decides most of what follows.

Bow is in Mid Devon District Council's area, so it is Mid Devon's planning team who decide whether a rooflight needs permission. For most houses the answer is no, because the general permitted development limits cover a standard rooflight on an ordinary dwelling. The detail of those limits, including the extra care needed on side slopes, is covered in the Devon planning and regulations write-up we keep for householders.

That is the rule for an ordinary house. Several things in Bow can change it. Any listed house needs listed building consent before the outside changes, and a village this old has several, so confirm whether yours is listed before you plan a window. Some villages have a conservation area, where the usual rights apply unless a local Article 4 direction has removed them. We would check with Mid Devon whether your street falls inside one rather than assume. Flats and maisonettes, including those made from larger old houses, have no householder permitted development and need planning permission.

Some of the older farm buildings turned into homes have had their permitted development rights removed as a condition of the conversion. If your barn conversion has a planning history, the decision notice will say.

Which product suits depends on the roof and on what the room needs, and Bow offers several distinct cases. Our usual pairings for Bow's houses follow.

• Cottages with a slate or tiled slope: a conservation rooflight or a compact roof window set into the back slope, chosen to fit between the rafters.
• Victorian houses with an attic or loft room: a roof window, top-hung or centre-pivot, and laminated on the inner pane overhead.
• Barn conversions with big roofs: a run of two or three roof windows, or a flat-topped roof lantern on a new extension.
• Flat-roofed kitchens and garden rooms: a flat rooflight on an upstand, fixed or opening.
• Bungalows with a dark inner hall: a sun tunnel, which brings daylight through a short or long tube without cutting a full opening.

A south-facing bedroom in the roof of an old farmhouse can overheat in August, so solar control glass is worth the extra cost.

Glazing is chosen for the room, not just the roof. A south-facing bedroom in the roof of an old farmhouse can overheat in August, so solar control glass is worth the extra cost. A north-facing landing is the opposite: clear, high-performance glazing brings in the most light the frame can pass.

Replacing an old, misted roof window is a common job in houses that were converted in earlier decades. Swapping the entire unit, frame and glass together, has to be notified to Building Control and meet Part L; swapping just the sealed glass in a frame that is still sound does not. We advise on which you need at the survey, and we handle the notification where it applies.

A survey in Bow is simple to book, being a short run out from Exeter. One of us studies the roof from outside, then climbs into the roof space to take the depth from slope to ceiling, test the ceiling for age and soundness, and trace where the rafters run. In a thatched or cob house, that visit also helps us say honestly whether a rooflight is sensible, and where.

The lanes around the village are narrow and some properties are at the end of a track, so we plan access at the same visit: where the delivery can be dropped, whether a tower or scaffold has to go up, and how floors and furniture will be covered on the route in. Sheets and dust screens protect the house, the room is swept at the end, and a ten-year guarantee covers our workmanship.

Afterwards we send a priced quote with the room finish written into it, which you approve before any tools come out. A cottage or farm conversion down a lane can be booked with the quote form, a WhatsApp message, or a note to info@brightviewskylightsexeter.co.uk. Homes in nearby Crediton and Witheridge are covered the same way, and the full list of places we cover is on our areas page, while the Brightview homepage sets out the full range of rooflight work.