Skylights and rooflights in Chagford

Chagford grew as a stannary town, one of the old Dartmoor towns where tin was assayed, and its centre still has the compact, stone-built feel of a market place. Houses around the square and the streets leading off it are built mainly of local granite, often rendered or limewashed, with some cob walls on granite footings and a few buildings of later brick. Walls of two feet or more are normal, and window reveals in them are deep.

Many of the old cottages are thatched, with low eaves and bedrooms tucked into the roof. Between them stand Victorian villas and terraces in dressed stone, farmhouses and longhouses on the edges of the town, and barns that have become homes. The lanes out towards the moor are lined with detached houses of every date from the seventeenth century on.

The range of building types makes the first question simple: how old is the roof, and what is it covered in?

The twentieth century added a small number of council houses and private estates, mostly rendered or stone-faced under tile or slate, and newer houses and extensions have gone up in the last few decades. A good number have been extended at the back, and it is those new roofs that most often take a lantern or flat rooflight.

The range of building types makes the first question simple: how old is the roof, and what is it covered in?

Because Chagford is inside the national park, planning decisions rest with the Dartmoor National Park Authority. The general householder allowance for rooflights still applies to most houses here, with the usual limits on how far it projects, how high it sits and how side-facing glass is treated. Park status brings extra restrictions on some permitted development rights, though, so it is sensible to ask the authority before you commit.

The centre of Chagford also falls in a conservation area, where an Article 4 direction can remove Class C. And the town has many listed buildings, among them houses around the square and the parish church. Anything done to a listed building from outside, rooflights too, needs formal consent first, and that consent also covers opening up an old ceiling or roof timbers. You can check a house on the Historic England list, and the park authority will confirm the rest. A flat or maisonette cannot use the householder allowance at all.

The authority cares about how the roof reads across the town and from the moor. A low conservation rooflight in a back slope usually sits more easily than a large modern roof window facing the street, and a flat roof behind a granite wall may be nearly invisible. For the wider rules, take a look at the planning and Building Regulations pages we have written for Devon, and our conservation rooflights page shows the products that tend to suit this kind of roof.

Ceilings in Chagford's older houses are often lath and lime plaster, and in the oldest cottages they may be low enough to touch. Some are boards under a plaster skim, and some have been covered at a later date with plasterboard. A cut through any of these has to be made carefully.

On lath and lime we prop the ceiling first, score the plaster, take the laths back to a trimmer or rafter and secure any loose areas. The lining is then built in lime plaster, in thin coats, and brought out onto the existing ceiling with a soft edge. Breathable paint finishes it. Gypsum or modern fillers next to lime on a granite house tend to crack along the join and can hold damp against stone that wants to dry.

Flared sides open the shaft toward the room so daylight spreads, and the opening looks as if the house were always meant to have it.

The depth of the roof build matters in a stone house. A thick wall and a heavy roof can leave a shaft a foot or more deep between the glass and the bedroom ceiling. Flared sides open the shaft toward the room so daylight spreads, and the opening looks as if the house were always meant to have it. In a low room, the splay also stops the ceiling feeling pierced.

• Lime on lath: a lime lining, feathered out into the old plaster.
• Boards and skim: loose areas cut back to sound boards before the lining goes on.
• Modern plasterboard: a boarded lining, taped and skimmed to match.

Whichever lining you choose goes into your finish schedule, and the thinking behind each option is in our guide to finishing the inside.

Chagford is about 22 miles from Exeter, well inside our patch, and surveys are routine. We study each slope from the garden or lane, then climb into the loft and the room to take the roof depth, identify the ceiling and mark whatever could show in the finished room: a beam, a low section or an old crack.

Access in the old centre is tight. Lanes are narrow, parking is limited and some houses open straight onto the street, so we plan where deliveries can stop and whether we need a scaffold tower. If a scaffold would stand on the public highway, Devon County Council issues the licence, and we build that wait into the dates. Houses on the edge of town and out on the lanes usually have more room.

Photographs help: the room, the ceiling, the roof from the garden and the loft if you can reach it. A written price follows, and the work starts only once you accept it. Chagford's stone houses hold dust, so we sheet off the room, clear up after ourselves and back the fitting with ten years of workmanship cover. To get going, send the quote form or a WhatsApp, or drop a line to info@brightviewskylightsexeter.co.uk.

Close by we are also fitting in Moretonhampstead and Okehampton, and the areas page shows the rest of the patch. The homepage covers the service as a whole.