Skylights and rooflights in Willand

Willand has two characters. The Old Village, around the parish church and the older lanes, is where the oldest buildings stand: thatched and slated cottages, farmhouses, and some stone and cob walls under render. They are few compared with the rest, and each one is its own project.

The much larger part of the village grew in the second half of the twentieth century and carried on into this one. Bungalows and chalet bungalows from the 1960s and 1970s sit alongside estates of brick semis and detached houses from the 1980s and 1990s, and more recent developments have been added on the edges. These are cavity wall houses with concrete tile roofs, trussed rafters and plasterboard ceilings, which is the easiest kind of house to put a rooflight into.

At the survey the first question is which half of the village your house belongs to.

Skylight installation in Willand is also shaped by age. A bungalow built in the 1960s may have a shallow pitch, a low ceiling and a loft that is barely tall enough to crawl in, while a 1990s detached house has a steeper roof and a loft that can take a conversion. Both want daylight in the middle of the plan, where a dark hall or a landing never gets any, and a sun tunnel or a small roof window is often the answer.

That split decides almost everything about a job in Willand: the roof covering, whether rafters have to be trimmed, how the lining is finished, and whether planning needs a second thought. At the survey the first question is which half of the village your house belongs to.

Willand falls under Mid Devon. Most of the village's houses can have a rooflight put in with no application, as the permitted development allowance takes care of it. The conditions are that the unit sticks up no more than 150mm from the slope, never rises above the ridgeline, and, on a side slope, has any opening part set higher than 1.7m above the floor.

Several things can take a house outside those rules. Before any outside work on a listed building you need listed building consent, and some of the older properties in the Old Village may be listed, so check the national list before planning. Flats and maisonettes fall outside the householder allowance altogether. Newer estates sometimes have a planning condition on the original permission that removes permitted development rights for roof alterations, so look at the decision notice or ask the council if you are unsure.

Conservation area boundaries are a matter for Mid Devon to confirm, and we do not assume a house is inside or outside one. If your home is near the church or in the older lanes, ask the planning team. The general limits and how they fit together are described in the Devon explainer on planning and Building Regulations.

The right product depends on which kind of house it is going into. This is how it works out across the village:

Old units that have misted or failed are a particular case. Where only the sealed glass has failed and the frame is sound, a new glass unit alone needs no notification. Replacing frame and glass together is different, since it is a controlled fitting: the work has to meet Part L and be reported to Building Control, which we do. See our page on misted and failed rooflight replacement for the full choice.

Glass is worth a moment. Double glazing is the baseline for new and replacement units, and triple glazing gives a lower heat loss where a room is used all year. Laminated glass on the inner pane suits the position over a bed or a stair, because if the outer pane is ever damaged, the inner one stays in place. Glass that reduces solar gain is better on a south slope than on a north one, where it only takes light away.

A brand new opening is also building work. It has to meet Part L, and if a rafter or truss member is affected, the structural side is dealt with before anything is cut.

Willand is reached quickly from the M5 and the roads between Cullompton and Tiverton, so we can usually arrange a visit without much delay. We look at the roof from outside, then go into the loft and the room below to measure the depth, identify the roof structure, and see what the ceiling is made of and whether it carries a texture.

Surveys in Willand tend to be quick for another reason: the houses are regular. Once we know the roof covering, the truss spacing and the ceiling finish, the rest of the quote follows from the product and the lining you choose. Where the loft is boarded or full, we ask you to clear a path to the roof, and we photograph what we find so the quote matches your ceiling.

Access in most of Willand is easy. The estates have driveways and open frontages, and materials can be unloaded close to the house.

Access in most of Willand is easy. The estates have driveways and open frontages, and materials can be unloaded close to the house. Where a house sits at the end of a lane in the older part of the village, we plan how materials get up to the roof and whether a scaffold tower is needed.

The quote that follows is written from those measurements, and work begins when you have agreed it. We keep the dust down, hand the room back tidy, and put a 10-year guarantee on the workmanship. A survey can be requested from the quote form, and messages sent over WhatsApp or to info@brightviewskylightsexeter.co.uk reach the same people. We also cover Cullompton nearby, and the areas page shows the rest of the patch, and the homepage covers the whole service.