Skylights and rooflights in Budleigh Salterton

Budleigh Salterton is a young town by Devon standards. It was a small place at the mouth of the Otter until the early nineteenth century, when visitors began to come for the sea air and the town grew quickly. Terraces and villas from the Regency and Victorian years line the roads running back from the beach, many with tall sash windows, small front gardens and the slate roofs of a resort built to be looked at.

Fore Street and the streets around it have the older commercial core, with shops below and flats or living rooms above. Behind the main streets you find handsome detached houses in large plots, some now divided into flats. Further out, the twentieth century is well represented: interwar semis, postwar bungalows and chalet bungalows, built for people who wanted a house on one level within reach of the sea.

A rooflight enquiry in Budleigh can come from any of these, which is why the first thing we ask is when the house was built and what covers the roof.

There are also cottages. Some are thatched, some are cob under render, and the surrounding villages such as East Budleigh and Otterton add more of both. A rooflight enquiry in Budleigh can come from any of these, which is why the first thing we ask is when the house was built and what covers the roof.

The sea shaped the town in another way. Many roads slope down toward the shore, so a house at the bottom of one may look up at the back slope of its neighbour, while a house at the top looks down onto the roofs below. That changes how visible a new rooflight is from the street, and it changes what a planning officer sees.

East Devon District Council has designated a conservation area covering the historic centre of Budleigh Salterton, and there are listed buildings in the town. The permitted allowance for rooflights on a house carries on inside a conservation area, unless the council has issued an Article 4 direction removing it. It comes with sensible limits: 150mm of projection from the slope, nothing rising above the ridge, and a side-facing opening part kept more than 1.7m up from the floor.

Because the council can restrict those rights, it is sensible to ask East Devon's planning team whether any direction covers your road before any design is settled. Listed buildings are different again. Outside alterations to a listed building need consent, a rooflight among them, and a like-for-like swap of an old rooflight can be caught as well.

The larger villas have been divided into plenty of flats and maisonettes, and none of them enjoys the householder allowance.

The larger villas have been divided into plenty of flats and maisonettes, and none of them enjoys the householder allowance. A rooflight over a flat normally needs planning permission and the freeholder's agreement too. The town also sits on the Jurassic Coast and close to protected landscape on either side, so it is worth asking the council whether any wider designation affects a visible slope.

The limits that cover most houses are explained in the planning and Building Regulations guide, and for conservation areas in particular, conservation rooflights in Devon conservation areas.

The right product depends on the age of the house, the roof covering and how visible the slope is. The table pairs each house type with a product:

Whichever you choose goes in to current Building Regulations, with new and replacement glazing meeting Part L on heat loss. Changing the entire rooflight, glass along with frame, has to be notified, and Building Control hears from us. A sealed glass unit alone, swapped into a frame that is staying, does not need notifying.

Laminated inner panes are good practice for glazing overhead, and they are worth specifying in bedrooms and over stairs. Where the roof is very exposed, triple glazing is worth discussing, though it adds weight and cost.

Budleigh is reached from Exeter by the Exmouth road and then the road along the Otter valley, so a survey visit is simple to arrange. On the day we study the roof from the garden or street, then climb into the loft and stand in the room below. The numbers that matter are the depth from roof covering to ceiling, the rafter spacing, the pitch and the size of the opening the room can take.

We also record how the ceiling is built and how sound it is, whether a cornice has to be avoided, and where any existing crack runs. A survey on a chalet bungalow includes the awkward corner where the sloping and flat ceilings meet, because that is where a lining is most easily spoiled.

The survey also settles where deliveries are unloaded, and whether a scaffold or tower has to go up

Narrow streets near Fore Street and the seafront can make access tight, and some roads have restricted parking. The survey also settles where deliveries are unloaded, and whether a scaffold or tower has to go up, with Devon County Council issuing the licence if it would stand on the highway. Many homeowners want to know how much of the house will be disturbed. The work is confined to the room, the stairs to it and the roof above, with floors protected and dust contained.

The quote that follows is written for your house, with the chalet corner or the cornice dealt with in its own lines, and nothing starts until you agree to it. Afterwards the room is swept out and a 10-year guarantee on workmanship applies. The details can go to us via the quote form, WhatsApp or info@brightviewskylightsexeter.co.uk, and we will find a day to come round. Along the coast we also cover Exmouth. The areas page lists every other place we work, and the homepage shows the whole range of work.