Skylights and rooflights in Dunkeswell

The village is spread rather than tight. Around the centre and along the lanes that run out into the hills, you find farmhouses with long, deep roofs, stone and cob cottages, and former farm buildings that have been turned into homes. Walls on the older houses are thick, and many carry render or limewash over cob, local stone or flint-like chert from the Blackdown Hills.

Dunkeswell also has a history that shaped its building. A Cistercian abbey was founded here in the early thirteenth century, though little of it now survives, and the airfield on the plateau was an important base in the Second World War. The housing that went up in the decades after that, including estates and bungalows on the edges of the village, is plainer in character: brick or render, concrete tile, and plasterboard ceilings under regular roof timbers.

The result is a village where a single lane can contain three different roof builds, and no two rooflight jobs begin from the same set of facts.

More recent building has filled in gaps. New houses and extensions sit beside old farm tracks, and several older cottages have been extended at the back with flat-roofed kitchens or a pitched addition. The result is a village where a single lane can contain three different roof builds, and no two rooflight jobs begin from the same set of facts.

That is why we ask early what the house is made of. A rooflight over a 1960s landing and one in a stone farmhouse bedroom do not share a detail, and the quote reflects that.

Planning in Dunkeswell is dealt with by East Devon District Council. The village lies in the Blackdown Hills, a nationally designated landscape, which is not the same as a national park and does not by itself take away the permitted development right for rooflights. As with anywhere, it is sensible to confirm the position with the council before you commit to a design.

On most houses a rooflight can go in under the standard permitted-development allowance, which comes with conditions covering projection, height and sideways-facing glass; our rooflight planning and Building Regulations guide lists them. A flat or maisonette is the exception, because there is no householder allowance and the rooflight needs permission.

Consent is needed for any outside alteration to a listed house, and some of the older farmhouses and cottages around Dunkeswell are in that position. In a listed house the interior is part of the consent as well, so cutting a ceiling or trimming a rafter needs to be covered. If a conservation area or Article 4 direction applies to your address, the council may restrict the allowance further.

Apart from planning, cutting a new rooflight into an existing roof counts as notifiable building work, and so does swapping one for another, frame and glass. You will not need to chase Building Control, because we send the notification.

Because the housing is so mixed, the product list is too. The village's main house types each lead to a different choice.

• A farmhouse with a deep roof gets a roof window sized to the rafter spacing, with a splayed lining to carry light down through the thickness of the roof.
• In a barn conversion, a row of roof windows or a long fixed rooflight works best, set so the timbers stay visible and clean lines run through the ceiling.
• For 1960s bungalows and chalets, roof windows light a loft room, and a sun tunnel brightens a landing that has no window at all.
• Behind the house, a kitchen or garden room takes a lantern, or a flat unit over a lined upstand.
• Slate and thatch cottages call for a small conservation rooflight where appearance matters, on the slope furthest from the lane.

Under a south-facing slope a bedroom suits solar control glazing, whereas a landing facing north gains more from clear glass

Whichever you choose, the glass is specified for the room it serves. Under a south-facing slope a bedroom suits solar control glazing, whereas a landing facing north gains more from clear glass and every scrap of daylight the frame lets through. Overhead glass should have a laminated inner pane as good practice, and acoustic glazing is available where rain on the roof would otherwise be heard in a loft bedroom.

If the rooflight is a loft room's only window, check that it can work as an escape window. Approved Document B has its own size and position requirements, and the finished opening must satisfy them, so we confirm that against the plans before ordering.

Stairwells are worth a mention. Many farmhouse and bungalow landings in the area are dark because the only light comes from a small window at the far end, and a roof window or sun tunnel above the stairs changes the whole house. The shaft there is usually the longest in the building, so the lining design is where the effort goes.

Dunkeswell is a drive of a few miles from Honiton, and a little further from Cullompton, so we can reach it from either side. If you are comparing options in the towns around, we cover Honiton and Cullompton as well.

The survey takes in the roof, the room and the loft. We read the roof covering, measure how deep the build is from the outer face to the ceiling, check the rafters and any trimming needed, and look at the ceiling for its material and its condition. We also look at the route into the house, because farm tracks and narrow lanes affect where materials can be delivered.

Weather on the plateau is part of planning the day. Opening a roof needs a dry spell and a plan for covering it, so installation days are fitted around the forecast and the work is staged to keep the opening protected. Dust sheets go down, and the room is cleaned before we leave.

The quote then arrives in writing with the lining and ceiling details alongside the price, and a farmhouse roof and a 1960s bungalow will come out quite differently. Work begins once you agree it, and a 10-year workmanship guarantee stays with the installation afterwards. To get started, fill in the quote form, or send a WhatsApp message, or write in to info@brightviewskylightsexeter.co.uk. Everything else we do is laid out on the homepage, and the list of areas shows where else we work.