Skylights and rooflights in Honiton

The High Street is Honiton's spine, and it is unusually wide, a reminder of the market that grew here and the coaching trade that followed. Much of the street dates from the Georgian period, and the town's history of serious fires in the eighteenth century explains why so many fronts are of that age and look alike. Behind the frontages the old plots run back in long, narrow strips, which is where workshops, back gardens, rear wings and extensions have gathered over the years.

Off the High Street come Victorian terraces, small cottages, and the larger villas built on the edges of the old town. Some of the older cottages, especially towards the outskirts, are cob or stone under render, as is common across East Devon. Then come the twentieth century additions: interwar and postwar housing, bungalows, and a long run of later estates and recent developments on the slopes around the town.

A narrow Georgian townhouse and a 1990s detached house want different glass, different linings and different conversations with the council.

This mix means two Honiton jobs a street apart can have almost nothing in common. A narrow Georgian townhouse and a 1990s detached house want different glass, different linings and different conversations with the council.

The historic centre of Honiton is a designated conservation area, and the High Street is full of listed buildings. Houses in the conservation area can generally still use the permitted allowance for rooflights, which keeps the glass to 150mm of projection and below the ridge, though a council direction under Article 4 can withdraw it, so it is wise to ask the council's planning team about your street first.

A listed building cannot be altered externally without listed building consent, and a rooflight counts, however small and however well hidden. The consent can reach inside as well, so cutting through a historic ceiling or roof timber belongs in the application. Glazing on a side-facing slope has its own condition too, so any opening part must be set 1.7m or more up from the floor.

The town sits close to the Blackdown Hills, but planning in Honiton itself is a matter for East Devon, not a national park authority. Where you are unsure, ask the council before ordering. The limits that apply to most houses are laid out in the Devon planning and Building Regulations guide on this site, and for older buildings the listed-building conservation rooflight page walks through the steps.

The long rear plots bring their own opportunity. A kitchen extension or garden room built out over the old back plot often has a flat roof and a deep, dark middle, and a lantern or flat rooflight there brings daylight into the part of the plan that has never had any. Because these roofs are low and hidden from the street, they are also the easiest place in the old town to get approval for new glass.

Which product suits which house is a question of roof, room and rules together.

Top floors of tall town houses can overheat in summer, and a rooflight that opens near the top of the slope lets the warm air out.

Georgian and listed houses

A conservation rooflight in the back roof, flush with the slates, slim-framed and with a central glazing bar.

Victorian terraces and villas

A roof window to brighten a loft bedroom or landing, with laminated glass on the inner pane.

Rear extensions and kitchens

A lantern, or a flat rooflight, standing on an insulated upstand.

Estate houses and bungalows

Standard roof windows or VELUX windows sized to the truss spacing, or a sun tunnel for a bathroom and hall.

Top floors of tall town houses can overheat in summer, and a rooflight that opens near the top of the slope lets the warm air out. Under Part F, such units can also serve as purge ventilation. Everything we fit meets the current Building Regulations, Part L heat-loss standards included, and swapping a whole window, frame and glass together, must be notified. Fitting only a new sealed unit into a frame in sound condition does not.

Inside the older houses you meet lath and plaster, sometimes lime, sometimes later gypsum over the top, and ceilings that have moved with the building. A rooflight opening in one of these is cut slowly: the ceiling is supported first, the plaster cut with a blade, the laths cut back to a joist, and loose areas fixed before the frame is set.

The lining is then shaped to the roof depth, usually splayed on a deep roof, and the join is built up in plaster that suits what is already there: lime for old lime, plasterboard taped or skimmed for newer ceilings. Gypsum against lime tends to crack along the line, so we avoid that pairing. A lime-washed or breathable-painted edge finishes the job.

Cob cottages on the town's edges need extra thought, because thick walls and bowed ceilings make the room look different from every angle. Each of these choices is written into the finish schedule, and the guide to finishing a rooflight on the inside goes through the process step by step.