Skylights and rooflights in Stoke Gabriel

Stoke Gabriel grew around its church of St Mary and St Gabriel and the waterside at the head of its creek, a branch of the tidal Dart. The core of the village is old: cottages of cob and local stone, rendered or limewashed, with slate roofs and the odd thatch, sitting hard against the lane with small windows and low eaves. Many have been extended sideways or backwards over the centuries, so a single house can have three or four different roof heights.

Along the creek and down towards the quay are the waterside houses, a mix of cottages and larger villas with views of the water. They are generally in stone, render or brick, with slate roofs and a few flat-roofed extensions added to catch a better outlook.

The first thing we want to know on a call is which of those three villages you live in, because the answers change completely.

Up the hill and out along the approach roads, the village changes. Interwar and postwar housing, bungalows and detached homes from the later twentieth century sit in gardens of their own, with brick or render walls under concrete tile, and newer infill houses sit among them. Those homes tend to have plasterboard ceilings, regular roofs and loft space that accepts a roof window, or a tunnel of light, without fuss.

The first thing we want to know on a call is which of those three villages you live in, because the answers change completely.

Applications in Stoke Gabriel go to South Hams District Council. On an ordinary house a rooflight normally needs no planning application, because the general permitted-development allowance covers a modest unit within set limits on projection and height. Side-facing glass is the exception, with its own conditions. The limits are set out in our guide to what Devon rooflights need, so the rest of this section covers what is local.

The old part of the village is a conservation area. The normal right carries on inside a conservation area unless the council has withdrawn it by direction, so ask South Hams whether your lane is covered before you commit to a design. Listed buildings, among them the church and some of the older houses, need consent for changes to the outside, and cutting into the historic roof structure comes under that.

It is not a national park, and it does not by itself remove permitted development for a rooflight

The village also lies within the South Devon National Landscape, the designation once known as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is not a national park, and it does not by itself remove permitted development for a rooflight, but it adds weight to how a visible roof is judged, so a slim low-profile unit on a slope seen from the creek is a safer choice than a large bright frame.

Flats and maisonettes are outside householder rights altogether, so a rooflight there needs an application.

The product follows the house, and in the village it runs roughly like this.

• Cob and stone cottages: a conservation rooflight in a back or side pitch, sized to the slate and the rafters.
• Creekside villas and larger homes: a roof window lighting a landing or loft room, using laminated glass for the inner pane.
• Rear and garden extensions: a roof lantern or low flat glazing over a lined kerb.
• Bungalows and later houses: an ordinary roof window if there is a loft room, or a sun tunnel where a hallway or bathroom has no space for a full opening.

A bedroom looking out across the creek may want solar control coating to keep the afternoon sun in check

Glass is picked to suit the room as much as the roof. A bedroom looking out across the creek may want solar control coating to keep the afternoon sun in check, while a shaded north landing is happier with clear, high-performance double glazing in the biggest frame that fits. All of it is built to the Building Regulations in force, including the Part L rules on heat loss.

There is one more check for a loft bedroom. A roof window can in some cases serve as an escape window when its opening is large enough and placed correctly under Approved Document B, and we look at that on the survey rather than assume it. Part B has its own rules, and so do rooflights close to a boundary.

The way in from Exeter runs down through Paignton and Marldon, or across from Totnes, and the last stretch into the village is narrow. A survey starts with the roof seen from outside, then we climb into the loft and measure there and in the room below, taking the depth from roof to ceiling, noting what the ceiling is and how it has weathered, and spotting whatever will touch the finish.

Access matters as much as the roof on this visit. Many of the older lanes are single track with little room to park, some houses are reached down steps or steep drives, and a scaffold or tower may have to stand on a lane that others need to use. We work out where materials will be unloaded and how they reach the roof, and any licence required from Devon County Council for the highway is built into the programme.

The price then arrives in writing, with the lining and finish for your ceiling agreed first. Dust is kept contained, the room is returned to you clean, and the work comes under our 10-year workmanship guarantee. For a cottage in the lanes or a bungalow on the hill, the quote form is the easiest first step, and WhatsApp or email to info@brightviewskylightsexeter.co.uk reaches the same people.

Close by, we also cover Totnes and Paignton, and our areas page lists everywhere else. Our main page for skylight and rooflight installation describes the whole service.