Skylights and rooflights in Ipplepen

The old core of Ipplepen grew around its parish church, and the lanes close to it hold the oldest houses: cob walls, often rendered or limewashed, with deep window reveals and low ceilings. Some are thatched, some slated, and a number have been extended sideways or backwards more than once, so the roof you see from the lane may be three different roofs joined together.

Along the main road and the streets leading off it sit Victorian and Edwardian houses in stone and render, with small terraced rows and a few larger villas. This is farming and cider country, and former barns and outhouses have been converted to homes in and around the village, usually with tall open roofs and exposed timbers where the conversion kept them.

So an Ipplepen job might be a cob cottage landing, a barn conversion kitchen or a loft room in a recent semi

Newer Ipplepen is late twentieth century and recent: estates of brick and rendered houses with concrete tile roofs, bungalows, and close-knit modern developments. Those roofs are regular and well documented, and they take roof windows and sun tunnels without fuss.

So an Ipplepen job might be a cob cottage landing, a barn conversion kitchen or a loft room in a recent semi, and the first question for each is the same: what is the ceiling made of, and what is above it?

One thing to say plainly about village jobs: a cottage that has been altered over generations rarely matches its drawings, if drawings exist at all. We measure what is there, in the room and in the loft, rather than assume a regular layout, and the finish schedule records what we found. That includes the slope of the floor above, the position of the nearest beam and whether an old chimney breast leans into the space where the opening would go, because each of these can move a rooflight a few inches one way or the other.

Ipplepen answers to Teignbridge for planning. A typical house can fit a rooflight without an application, provided the unit stays within the general householder limits on projection, height and the glazing of side-facing units, and the guide linked below sets out each one.

The village has a number of listed buildings, mostly in the older part, and a conservation area around its historic centre. Class C can still apply in a conservation area, though an Article 4 direction may remove that right, so check with Teignbridge before settling on a front-slope design. A listed house cannot be altered on the outside without consent, a rooflight included, and the same goes for work that touches historic roof structure. A thatched house that is also listed brings both questions together.

Converted barns and flats sit differently. Flats and maisonettes cannot rely on the householder allowance, and a converted barn may have lost those rights through a condition on its original permission, so the decision notice is worth reading. Ipplepen is outside Dartmoor National Park, so the park authority does not come into it. Each limit and exception is explained in our guide to the rules for Devon rooflights.

Replacement jobs are common in a village this age. An older roof window with misted glass or a rotted frame can usually be replaced in the original opening, so the ceiling beneath is hardly disturbed, and we use the visit to check the lining around it while the room is open.

The village's housing sorts itself into a few clear groups, and each has a product that usually fits:

• Cob and thatch cottages: a compact conservation rooflight set into a back or side slope, or a sun tunnel if a full opening would not suit.
• Stone and render Victorian houses: a roof window for the loft room, the inner pane laminated, as the glass sits overhead.
• Converted barns: an electric opening rooflight or a run of roof windows across a long slope, with warm-edge glazing.
• Rear extensions and kitchen conversions: a roof lantern or a low unit raised on a kerb.
• Recent estates: ordinary roof windows, with a sun tunnel for a landing or bathroom.

A kitchen with a lot of glazing already may need solar control to stop it overheating

The glass changes with the room. A kitchen with a lot of glazing already may need solar control to stop it overheating, while a dim cottage hall does better with clear, high-performance glass. Opening units release warm air from the top of the house in summer, which matters in the upstairs rooms of a cottage with a thick roof build, where heat gathers under the thatch or slate and stays there into the evening.

Everything we fit meets current Building Regulations, Part L included. If the whole rooflight comes out, frame and glass together, that must be notified and we do it for you. A misted sealed unit alone can be swapped without notification, as long as the frame around it has not rotted.

Ipplepen is an easy drive from either Newton Abbot or Totnes, and from Exeter along the A380 and the roads south. A survey begins outside with the roof, slope by slope, then moves into the room and loft to record the depth from roof down to ceiling, name the ceiling material and spot anything that could change how the opening finishes.

Village lanes can be narrow and the cottages often sit hard against the road, so we check where the van can unload and whether a tower or scaffold would have a safe footing. For a house that is listed, thatched or inside the conservation area, the survey also collects what is needed to help with an application to Teignbridge.

Before anything is agreed you will hold a written price. In a cottage, plaster dust travels, so we seal the doorway, vacuum as we go and hand the room back clean, and the fitting is backed by a ten year workmanship guarantee. To book someone round, use the quote form, ring through on WhatsApp or mail us at info@brightviewskylightsexeter.co.uk.

Close to Ipplepen our crews also fit in Kingskerswell and Abbotskerswell. The homepage shows the full range of what we fit, and the areas page names everywhere we work.