An old town house also presents a cooling puzzle. The ground floor stays comfortable behind thick walls, while the top room warms up through the roof covering and holds its heat after dark. Opening a rooflight near the ridge and a window lower down gives the warm air a path upward, which can help the room cool faster than a single open window can.
Where an opening unit goes
The practical answer in streets like these is to use the back. Many Axbridge houses have long rear slopes that face yards, gardens or the hill, and they cannot be seen from the Square. A slim conservation rooflight there, in a dark frame with one glazing bar, gives a top-floor room daylight and a sash that opens by a pole or handle. If the council will allow something on the front slope, it should be small and fixed, or at least flush.
Timber-framed houses call for special care. The frame holds the building up, and a rooflight must never be cut through a main beam or a brace. The first job is to see the roof from inside, tracing every rafter and tie, and only then do we suggest a position. Sometimes the answer is a narrow unit between two members, or a pair of small ones instead of one wide one. The roof stays covered as the work goes on, and at the end of each day it is weathertight again.
Narrow streets bring their own limits. Skips, scaffolding and deliveries need a plan in a town where the road is tight and the pavement narrower still, so we talk through access with you before the work is booked. A hoist or a tower on the garden side is sometimes the easier way to move glass and frames, and we say which at the survey. Neighbours get a polite word in advance.
Daylight is the other half of the picture. Upper rooms in medieval houses were never designed for much glass, and the windows that exist are small. One opening rooflight in the rear slope can transform how an attic room feels in the morning, and it makes the room usable in summer. Because skylights in Axbridge sit beneath old tiles and stone, the choice of frame colour matters as well: dark grey or black tends to disappear against slate and old tile, while a pale frame stands out.
If an old building needs a whole replacement unit, Building Control has to be told, and the Building Regulations page lays out what that involves. We handle the notification, which leaves you with one point of contact.
