Skylights and rooflights in Cullompton

Cullompton grew as a market and cloth town. Wool and then the trades that followed it left a long main street of Georgian and Victorian frontages, some of them rendered, some brick, many with narrow plots running back behind them. Alleys and yards open off Fore Street, and the buildings at the back are often older and lower than the fronts, with a run of lean-tos and later additions.

Around the centre you find Victorian terraces and villas, a good deal of cob and stone cottage building in the older lanes, and farmhouses that the town has grown up against. The Culm valley is cob country, and walls here are thick, with lime plaster inside and rafters that have settled over time.

That spread, from cob to cul-de-sac, is why we ask early which street you are on.

Beyond that, Cullompton is a place that has been growing. Postwar housing, estates from the later twentieth century and recent developments have all been added around the old core, and more building is planned on the edges of the town. These are brick or render houses, tiled in concrete, with plasterboard below and modern roof structures above.

Many of the older buildings have also had work done over the decades: a dormer in one era, a flat-roofed kitchen in another, a conversion of an outbuilding into a workroom. Each addition changes the roof underneath, and the survey reads those layers before a design is drawn.

That spread, from cob to cul-de-sac, is why we ask early which street you are on. It tells us more about the roof and the ceiling than almost anything else.

For a house in Cullompton, planning sits with Mid Devon District Council. Most houses can take a rooflight without applying, as the general permitted-development limits on projection and height cover the usual case.

The centre of Cullompton has a conservation area, and the town has a number of listed buildings, among them the parish church of St Andrew, which is famous for its carved and painted Lane Aisle. The conservation area does not switch Class C off by itself, though an Article 4 direction may. A short check with Mid Devon's planning team before you settle on a product saves a redesign later.

A listed house is different: external changes need listed building consent

A listed house is different: external changes need listed building consent, and cutting into its roof structure or ceiling falls under that consent. Flats and maisonettes, including the ones above shops along the main street, sit outside householder rights, so a rooflight there calls for planning permission.

You can read the wider rules in our planning and Building Regulations guide. On the building side, cutting a new opening is building work, and so is replacing frame and glass as one unit. Building Control hear about both from us.

Which product earns the nod is down to the house and the room, and across Cullompton the choices fall roughly as follows.

Victorian terraces and Georgian frontages with loft rooms usually want a roof window at the back of the roof, fitted between the rafters with a splayed lining wherever the build is deep. Cob and stone cottages are better served by a small conservation rooflight set low in the slate, with lime plaster inside.

At the back of the house, a roof lantern over the kitchen table, or a low flat panel of glass on its own upstand, suits a rear extension, with the kerb lined and plastered below. Estate houses and loft conversions take a standard roof window. Where the glass in an old window has misted, misted and failed rooflight replacement keeps the opening and fits a better-insulated unit in it.

VELUX is the name most people know for roof windows, and we fit it. The main choice is how the sash opens: a centre-pivot window swings on a hinge halfway up and is easy to clean from inside, while a top-hung one opens outwards from the head and leaves more headroom at the sill of a low loft room. Frames are white-painted pine or white polyurethane, and polyurethane suits a bathroom or kitchen where steam is a factor. The size follows the rafter spacing and the room, and we confirm it at the survey.

Whichever you choose, it meets the Building Regulations in force, including the Part L heat-loss limits for new and replacement glazing. Our VELUX window installation page covers the range in more detail.

Cullompton is an easy run up the M5 or the old main road from Exeter, so a visit is simple to arrange. We start on the outside, looking over the roof. Indoors we measure the gap from roof to ceiling, work out what the plaster is on, and look for anything that could affect the result, such as a crack heading for the opening or a boxed-in beam.

In the town centre the streets are narrow and parking is limited, so part of the survey is deciding where materials can be dropped and where a scaffold or tower would stand. A scaffold that takes up the pavement or road requires a permit from the county, which is the highway authority, and we build that wait into the programme. On the estates, access is usually simpler, but we still check how a roof window will get from the drive to the landing.

The quote arrives in writing, with the room's finish choices set out, and is agreed before work begins. Dust is kept under control, the room is left spotless, and our 10-year workmanship guarantee covers what we install.

Neighbouring Willand and Bradninch are on our rounds too, within the thirty miles around Exeter shown on the areas page. With such a mix of cob, brick and cul-de-sac, it helps to see the roof first, so use the quote form, or email info@brightviewskylightsexeter.co.uk with the street name and a photo. The homepage covers the full service.