Lofts that were never finished
Plenty of terrace lofts in the area are still storage space, with old boards laid across the joists. Turning one into a bedroom is a bigger piece of work, and not every Kingswood roof has the head height for it. What many owners want instead is a single opening window to light and ventilate the loft and make the space usable for a desk or a spare bed. We measure the headroom from the joists up and tell you honestly whether one window or a pair gives you something worth having.
VELUX windows suit these roofs well because the size range is wide. The code on a window gives its width as a letter and its height as digits, so you can match one to the gap between the rafters without reframing the roof. Our VELUX windows page explains how the sizes work and which fit a narrow terrace slope.
The pitch of a Kingswood terrace roof is usually generous, which helps. A steeper slope means a roof window sits more upright, so you can see out of it from a chair, and rain runs off quickly. It also means the sash swings out further when opened, so we check what sits above it, such as a chimney stack or the neighbour's gutter, before choosing a top-hung or a centre-pivot style.
The outrigger and the lean-to
Many of the terraces have a lower rear wing, an outrigger, that holds the kitchen or bathroom. Its roof is often shallow, and the room below can be dark because the neighbouring wing blocks the side. A rooflight in that lower roof brings daylight to the middle of the house. If it is above a bathroom, an opening unit lets steam out through the top of the room instead of fogging the mirror.
Any change to a roof in this part of South Gloucestershire sits under South Gloucestershire Council. Whether a particular roof needs consent depends on the property, and flats in converted buildings are treated differently from houses. Our planning guide sets out how to check. Replacing a whole old window with a new one counts as notifiable building work, which we handle with Building Control, and our Building Regulations page explains what that covers.
Every Kingswood terrace is slightly different in the way the old timbers sit, so we go up into the loft and check the timbers before we measure anything outside. A rafter in the wrong place may mean a slimmer window, or two small ones rather than one broad one. We tell you at the survey, with the options on the quote in writing.
Tile and slate are the usual roof coverings here, with slate more likely on the earlier rows. New windows are fitted with flashings that suit whichever covering you have, and the covering is taken up and laid back neatly around the opening.
