Skylights & rooflights in Glastonbury Under the Tor, over the Moor

Much of the historic centre lies inside a conservation area, and many of its buildings are listed. Somerset Council deals with planning here. Consent for a listed building is its own application, and elsewhere in the area the council may take an interest in how a street-facing slope reads from the pavement. Our planning guide lists what to send and when. None of this closes the door. It decides which slope carries the glass and what sort of frame is chosen.

Garden side first, slim frame second

The plan that works in the old streets starts at the back. A long attic under the rear pitch is out of view from the pavement and can take a roof window hinged along its top edge and pushed out by a handle. Once the sash lifts, the stairwell behaves like a flue and pulls air upward. Where the building or the council asks for something quieter, a conservation rooflight has slender steel or aluminium sections, a bar across the glass, and a build-up that lies close to the slope. Some versions open and some do not; the page do conservation rooflights open? gives the plain answer.

Mixed coverings and hidden timbers

Roofs here are a patchwork of clay tile, old slate and low flat sections added to rear outshots. Each needs a different junction. Clay tile takes a flashing kit made for profiled tiles, slate takes another, and a flat section gets an upstand and a kerb. We tell you which covering you have and what will be lifted, and the opening is closed against weather every evening. Old rafters rarely sit as evenly as a drawing suggests, so we climb into the roof space and mark where a timber or a chimney breast might push the window narrower than you hoped. We would rather say so at the visit than when the roof is open.

Taking out a whole rooflight, frame and all, falls under Building Control, and the Building Regulations guide walks through that process. In a top-floor flat there is a practical gain besides: an opening roof window can count towards purge ventilation for the room under Part F, which helps where the other windows are tiny.

The same thinking suits a bed and breakfast or a guest room let to visitors, which the town has plenty of. A guest in a loft room is the person most likely to find it stuffy, since they have no idea how the house breathes. An opening unit with a vent bar gives them a way to ease the air at night without a stepladder, and a shade can be added for the early light that comes in over the hill.

Sunrooms bring one practical point that people forget. A glass roof is usually carried on a light frame, and a solid roof with heavier glazing units needs a stronger one. We look at the frame, the base wall and the ground before suggesting a layout, and sometimes the better route is to build the new roof on a fresh set of beams carried to the walls. The result is a proper room that you can use in winter, with a pair of openers on the sunniest side and a fixed pane over the dining table, so the warmest corner of the room is also the best aired. In a smaller sunroom one opener is plenty, set near the ridge side of the roof, where warm air gathers.

Lofts on the semis

The roof of a 1930s or postwar semi is simple to read. Both slopes are equal, the rafters are evenly spaced, and the loft is generally clear. A roof window cut into the back pitch will light a landing or a new bedroom. Building Regulations Part K does not require laminated glass in a house roof, although we suggest a laminated inner pane for the extra comfort it gives. Where the loft is turning into a family room, this loft conversion guide works through how many windows and where, room by room.

Some roads on this side of town have bungalows with rooms in the roof, where a roof window can serve as the escape window. That sets a minimum size and sill height, and the roof window fire escape guide sets it out. A full two-storey house is different, since it needs a protected stair.

Newer streets on the town edge follow the same logic with smaller roofs. Cul-de-sac houses from the last few decades often have trussed rafters, which are factory-made timber triangles with little room to cut between them. A window in that sort of roof needs the trusses supported and trimmed properly by a competent person before anything is removed, and a new opening in a roof is building work that has to meet the regulations. We explain the sequence at the survey, so you know what happens on which day.

Anyone living nearer Street or Wells than the Tor gets the same options and the same visit. The costs page explains what changes a price, and the flat roof rooflights hub covers kerbs, falls and glazing in more depth. For kitchens where a lantern might suit better than flat glass, roof lanterns shows the options and how they open.