Skylights and rooflights in Totnes

Totnes was a wealthy cloth and trading town in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the merchants who profited built tall timber-framed houses along Fore Street and the High Street, many jettied, several with covered walkways in front. Behind each frontage the plot runs back, long and narrow, a medieval pattern that still shapes the town. The result is a main street of old houses with lean-tos, outshuts, workshops and later extensions stacked up the length of each garden.

Georgian terraces and townhouses came later and fill many of the streets off the main drag, with rendered fronts, sash windows and slate roofs. Across the river in Bridgetown, and out along the Plymouth Road, the picture shifts to Victorian terraces and villas, built in stone and render for a growing town, followed by interwar semis, postwar estates and new developments on the slopes above.

A shop or office on the ground floor with flats above is a familiar arrangement, and the flats are often the rooms with the least daylight

Many buildings in the centre have been divided. A shop or office on the ground floor with flats above is a familiar arrangement, and the flats are often the rooms with the least daylight, tucked under the roof at the top of a stair.

Outside the centre the town climbs in every direction. Houses on the upper slopes were built as the town spread, and many look back over the roofs of the old streets towards the river and the castle mound. Those hillside homes tend to be the easiest to work on: their roofs are plainer, their ceilings are regular, and a loft conversion is often already in place or waiting to happen.

That variety means a Totnes survey rarely repeats. The question before any product is chosen is which kind of building we are standing in.

Planning applications in Totnes are decided by South Hams District Council. The town lies outside Dartmoor National Park, so the council, not the park authority, is who you ask. A large area of the town is a conservation area, covering the main streets and many of the lanes around them.

A house in a conservation area keeps its householder rights for a rooflight that stays within the usual limits, though an Article 4 direction may have removed them, so check with South Hams before assuming. Much of the old town is listed, and a listed building must have consent before any outside change, and before work that disturbs the fabric inside.

Flats sit outside householder rights. In a town where so many upper floors are flats over shops, that matters: a rooflight above a flat needs planning permission, and in a conservation area the application is looked at closely.

The easiest ground is the rear slope, away from the street, and a low conservation rooflight sits better than a standard roof window on old slate. The limits that apply are set out on our page on Devon planning rules, and the consent route is explained under rooflights for listed buildings.

For the listed merchants' houses on Fore Street and the High Street, the right answer is a conservation rooflight on a rear slope, with consent secured before anything is ordered.

Georgian and Victorian terraces suit a roof window over a loft room. Where headroom is tight it is hung from the top, and where there is plenty it can pivot at the middle.

Renewing the whole unit, frame and glass, is something Building Control must be told about, as is any new opening.

Flats under the roof, the rooms with the least daylight, can take a roof window or a sun tunnel above a dark landing, as long as planning permission has been checked first.

The long extensions behind the frontages want a roof lantern over the kitchen or garden room, while Bridgetown and the later houses take standard roof windows, including VELUX models with a painted pine or polyurethane frame.

An old rooflight that has misted can be replaced in its opening, which is the least disruptive way to renew it. Renewing the whole unit, frame and glass, is something Building Control must be told about, as is any new opening. Changing only the sealed glass in a sound frame is the one case where no notice is needed. The paperwork is ours to send.

Part L sets a ceiling on heat loss for every rooflight. An opening one can also flush warm air from a room with only one window, and Part F treats that as ventilation.

Totnes is a short drive from the A38, but reaching the door with a van is another matter. Streets climb steeply, the main streets are narrow and busy, and some of the lanes cannot take a lorry. Much of the survey goes on how scaffolding, glass and materials will reach the roof, whether through the building, along a rear lane or from the road. A scaffold on the public highway needs a licence from Devon County Council, and we allow time for it.

Because the town is steep, the visit often includes a walk round the back, up a path or through a neighbour's access, to see which slope can be reached and which view of the building the planning officer would see from the street. We also photograph the room and the loft, so the finish schedule is written from what is actually there.

On a visit we look at the roof, then measure in the room and the loft. We note the ceiling type, the depth of the build-up, any beams, and anything around the opening that affects the finish. For a listed or conservation job, that information supports the application.

Our quote comes in writing and waits for your approval before any work begins. We contain dust, leave the room clean, and back the installation with a ten-year workmanship guarantee. A top-floor flat, a merchant's house or a Bridgetown terrace can be put forward with the survey request form, by WhatsApp message, or through info@brightviewskylightsexeter.co.uk.

Work also extends to nearby Ipplepen and Stoke Gabriel, with every location on the areas page and the full service on our homepage.