Skylights and rooflights in Lympstone

Lympstone grew along the estuary, and the oldest homes stand close to the water: small cottages in local red stone, some rendered and colour-washed, some cob on a stone plinth, a few still thatched. Many sit end-on to the lane, with steep stairs and bedrooms tucked up under the eaves. Short terraces climb away from the shore, and between them stand Victorian villas that once housed sea captains and merchants, with bigger rooms and taller ceilings.

Higher up, the character shifts. Twentieth century infill, bungalows and chalet-style houses, and later estates fill the ground towards the railway line and the road to Woodbury. They are built in brick or render, roofed in concrete tile, and ceilinged in plasterboard, with loft space that suits roof windows well.

So a survey here begins with a plain question: which side of the railway is the house on?

So a survey here begins with a plain question: which side of the railway is the house on? The answer tells us more about the roof and ceiling than a postcode would.

The historic part of the village sits inside a conservation area designated by East Devon District Council. Within it, a house can usually still rely on its permitted-development right for rooflights, as long as the glass stays modest in height and projection and side-facing glazing is treated as the rules require.

A direction from the council can remove that right, however, so ask East Devon's planning team whether one covers your street before choosing a design. Flats and maisonettes get no householder rights at all. A listed cottage needs consent before any change to its outside, rooflights included, and the consent can extend indoors, since opening up a historic ceiling or roof frame is part of what is approved.

Where roofs are seen from the lanes, discreet, low-profile glass on the rear slope tends to find favour. The figures behind those limits sit in a separate write-up of Devon rooflight rules, and listed owners will find how consent works under conservation rooflights for listed buildings.

The house decides the product, and so does the room under it.

Cottages in the conservation area are usually fitted with a conservation rooflight in the back pitch, sized to the rafter spacing and the room beneath. Victorian villas with loft rooms take a roof window, either centre-pivot or top-hung, with laminated glass for the inner pane.

Solar control coating helps a bedroom that takes the afternoon sun, whereas a landing facing north is happier with clear, high-performance double glazing.

Over a kitchen or garden room the answer is a roof lantern or flat glazing on an upstand, its inside faces lined and plastered. For a dark landing or small stairwell, a sun tunnel asks far less of the roof than a full rooflight would.

Top rooms in a small cottage get warm in summer, because heat collects under a low roof. An opening unit high in the slope releases it, and it can also count towards the rapid ventilation that Part F expects, useful for a bathroom or bedroom with no other way to clear damp air.

Glass follows the room. Solar control coating helps a bedroom that takes the afternoon sun, whereas a landing facing north is happier with clear, high-performance double glazing.

Each job is built to the Building Regulations of the day, with the Part L requirement on heat loss met and the Building Control paperwork handled by us.

Walk into a shoreline cottage and the ceiling hangs close overhead. Many are lath and plaster, some in lime, some in later gypsum laid over older work, and none is truly level. They dip between joists, carry hairline cracks along old lines, and in a cob house the thick walls alongside are slightly bowed.

Cutting into a ceiling like that is slow work. The plaster is held up from below and cut with a blade rather than a saw, then the old laths are cut back until each ends on a joist where it can be fixed. Any loose plaster at the edge is secured, and only then is the frame set. Next the lining is given the shape the roof depth calls for. In a low cottage the shaft may be short, while a villa with a high ceiling under a pitched roof can have a metre or more, and a splay at the bottom carries the daylight out into the room and softens the edge.

Gypsum against lime tends to open along the joint.

Old lime wants lime. Where the new lining meets the old ceiling, the joint is formed in lime plaster, coat on coat, and feathered so that no ridge catches the eye, then painted in a breathable finish. Gypsum against lime tends to open along the joint. On the newer estates the lining is plasterboard instead, taped or skimmed level with the ceiling.

Every one of these decisions goes into the finish schedule, from what the roof and ceiling are made of to the lining's shape and whether the edge is left for you to paint. The stages are described more fully in our page on finishing a rooflight indoors.