Skylights and rooflights in Woodbury

Woodbury sits on ground that rises towards Woodbury Common, and the old village grew along its lanes. The oldest cottages and farmhouses around the centre are cob on stone footings, with thick walls, deep window reveals and floors that have settled over the centuries. Some are rendered, some limewashed, and a few of the oldest are thatched, as is true of a number of the older cottages in the villages around here.

Through the nineteenth century the village added rows of small brick and rendered houses, with slate roofs and steep pitches. Then came the twentieth century. Council housing and private estates from the 1950s to the 1980s fill much of the ground between the old lanes and the open fields, and they are largely brick or render with concrete tile, built as semis, short terraces and bungalows. Newer infill and small developments have gone in since, with timber trussed roofs and plasterboard ceilings throughout.

Each of these has a different answer to the question of where a rooflight goes.

The village has also spread outwards into a scatter of hamlets and farm conversions along the lanes, where old barns and outbuildings have become houses. Those tend to have tall, open roof spaces with large timbers, and they take big rooflights well, because the volume under the roof gives a lining plenty of depth to work with.

Each of these has a different answer to the question of where a rooflight goes. A 1970s bungalow with a roomy loft wants something different from a cob cottage with a low first-floor ceiling, and the first visit is about working out which kind of house you have.

Most Woodbury houses are ordinary dwellings with ordinary householder rights, so a rooflight generally goes in without a planning application, provided it respects the standard restrictions on its projection from the roof, its height against the ridge and the glass in side slopes. Those limits are laid out on our Devon planning page, so we will not list them again here.

There are exceptions. Any listed house needs consent before its exterior changes, and some of the older properties in and around Woodbury may well be listed. Flats and maisonettes sit outside householder rights altogether. Where a house lies in a conservation area, the normal rights stand unless a local Article 4 direction has taken them away. We prefer to confirm an address with East Devon District Council before a design is fixed than to rely on a guess.

Whether your particular property is affected is a question for the planning authority, not a guess made from a postcode.

The wider landscape matters too. East Devon has protected landscapes, and Woodbury Common to the east is a well known heathland. Whether your particular property is affected is a question for the planning authority, not a guess made from a postcode.

The match between house and product is what makes the finished job look natural.

Bungalows and chalet bungalows

A roof window in the main slope, often a pair side by side, lights a bedroom or a loft room, the lining flared so the opening at ceiling level is broader than the glass.

Cob and older cottages

A modest conservation rooflight or a sun tunnel, scaled to the low ceiling and the gap between rafters, on the rear slope.

Kitchen and garden-room extensions

Over a flat-roofed addition, either a roof lantern or a plain flat rooflight, the kerb below plastered and decorated to match the room.

Newer homes with a loft

A VELUX roof window in a standard size is usually the simplest choice, subject to the trusses.

Windowless landings and bathrooms

A sun tunnel carries daylight down to a room with no outside wall.

If you are replacing an old window rather than adding a new one, the same logic applies. Swapping the entire rooflight, frame and glass, has to satisfy Part L and be reported to the building inspectors, a task we take on. If only the sealed glass unit has misted, it can be swapped in the existing frame without notification, and that is the cheaper and quicker route.

Energy performance deserves a word as well. New and replacement rooflights are held to the heat-loss figures in Approved Document L, and a warm-edge spacer, low-emissivity coating and gas fill help a unit get there. On a wind-exposed roof the extra performance is felt, because a cold pane in January is the first place condensation shows. Our page on energy efficient rooflights goes through the options.

Woodbury is an easy drive out of Exeter, and the lanes into the village are wide enough for a van. The visit starts with the roof seen from outside and carries on into the loft and the room beneath, where we measure the gap from roof down to ceiling, trace the trusses or rafters, and record the ceiling material and any cracks close to the planned opening.

Parking and deliveries are straightforward in most of the village, which keeps a job calm: the unit is craned or carried up, the old covering is stacked in one place, and the roof is open for as short a time as the weather allows. We watch the forecast before any slope is stripped, and a temporary weatherproof cover is fitted at the end of each day until the new unit is fixed and flashed.

Access is rarely tight, though some of the older lanes are narrow and some cottages have only a footpath at the front. If scaffolding or a tower has to stand near a road, we plan it at the survey. For listed or consented work, the survey also gives us the measurements and photographs the application needs.

We also cover the nearby villages and towns, including Lympstone on the estuary and Topsham further up the estuary, using the same survey routine and the same written description of the interior finish.

A written quote follows the survey, and the price and the interior finish are yours to approve before a tile is touched. We cover floors, limit the dust, clear up at the end and stand behind the job with a ten-year workmanship guarantee. A bungalow loft, a cob cottage bedroom or a new kitchen extension can be arranged with our quote form; the WhatsApp number and the address info@brightviewskylightsexeter.co.uk work equally well. The Brightview homepage describes the whole range of skylight and rooflight installation, and neighbouring villages are listed under areas we cover.