Skylights and rooflights in Paignton

Paignton began as a small market and fishing town, and the oldest streets sit around the church and the harbour, with older cottages and stone buildings mixed in with later rebuilding. Most of what you see across the town, though, dates from the Victorian arrival of the railway onwards, when Paignton grew into a seaside resort and a place to retire to.

The result is a lot of large Victorian and Edwardian villas, many of them on the slopes above the seafront and the roads running up from the harbour. They were built as family houses and guest houses, in stone, brick or render under slate, with bays, high ceilings and big loft spaces. A great number have since been split into flats or run as hotels, which changes the rooflight question as we explain below.

So we start every enquiry with one question: which kind of Paignton house is it?

Further back from the sea, the town spreads into twentieth century suburbs: 1930s semis, post-war estates and later private developments of detached homes and bungalows, mostly brick or render with concrete tiles above. Plasterboard ceilings and regular roof timbers make these the easiest houses for fitting a roof window or a light tube, and the work there is usually quicker to plan.

So we start every enquiry with one question: which kind of Paignton house is it?

Paignton, like Torquay and Brixham, is under Torbay Council for planning. A house can normally take a rooflight without an application, because householder permitted development covers it within its usual limits on projection and height. Glass facing the side is where the limits bite, which rarely matters on a front or rear slope but does on a gable or dormer cheek.

The exceptions matter in Paignton more than in a village. Torbay has designated conservation areas, and listed buildings are scattered through the town. Permitted development survives in a conservation area unless an Article 4 direction has removed it, so ask Torbay Council's planning team before the design is fixed. If the building is listed, consent has to be in place before any change to its exterior, and a new rooflight counts.

Then there are the flats. Plenty of large Paignton houses have been converted, and a flat or maisonette does not have householder permitted development at all. A rooflight on a flat usually needs planning permission, and a leaseholder will also need the freeholder's agreement before any work on the roof. If the roof is shared, that conversation comes first.

For the bigger picture, see the Devon planning and Building Regulations guide we have written, and Torbay Council can confirm what applies to your address. Under the Building Regulations a fresh opening is building work, and so is renewing frame and glass together, and Building Control hear from us about both. A new sealed unit in a frame you are keeping is outside the notification rules.

Choice of product comes from the house and the room, and the common Paignton cases tend to settle like this.

• Large Victorian and Edwardian villas: a roof window that pivots or hangs from the head, for a loft bedroom or landing, with a deep lining splayed out wherever the roof is thick.
• 1930s and post-war semis and bungalows: standard roof windows for loft conversions, or a sun tunnel for a hall or bathroom.
• Kitchen extensions and flat-roofed rear additions: a low flat rooflight or a roof lantern carried on a kerb.
• Houses where a rooflight is already old: misted or failed rooflight replacement, a new frame and glass going into the opening that is already there.
• Listed or conservation area homes: one of our slim conservation rooflights on the slope you cannot see from the street.

The glass follows the room. A loft bedroom facing south east may suit solar control glass, whereas a landing facing north is better with clear glazing of high performance.

The glass follows the room. A loft bedroom facing south east may suit solar control glass, whereas a landing facing north is better with clear glazing of high performance. Laminating the inner layer is the safer choice wherever the unit hangs over a bed or a bath.

Everything is installed to the current Building Regulations, meeting the Part L thermal limits that govern new and replacement glazing.

A survey in Paignton starts outside. We look at the roof slope by slope, then go in to the room and the loft, measure from roof down to ceiling, look at the ceiling material and its state, and write down whatever could affect the finish. On a steep hillside street we also look at how materials get to the door and where a tower or scaffold could stand.

Torbay's hill streets can be narrow and lined with parked cars, and scaffolding on a pavement or road needs the right licence, so we allow time for it. If your house is a flat, the survey also covers who else has to agree to the work and how the roof access is arranged.

Inside, we check the stairs and landings the materials have to travel through, because a tall Victorian house with a tight stairwell is harder to carry a lantern kit up than it looks. We also note where furniture, floors and carpets need covering, which rooms can be closed off during the work, and where the dust sheets and screens go, so the dust stays out of the rest of the house and the room is left clean at the end.

Afterwards the quote is put in writing and you agree it before anyone starts. Dust is contained, the room is returned tidy, and we give the work our 10-year workmanship guarantee. A tall villa with a tight stairwell is hard to judge from photographs alone, so send the quote form or tell us about the house at info@brightviewskylightsexeter.co.uk and a visit can be booked.

Torquay and Brixham are on our rounds too, and the areas page lists the rest. The skylight and rooflight installation homepage keeps the whole service in one place.