On a house like that, the obvious answer is a roof window in the back-facing pitch. Over the stair, it can draw warm air up and let a breeze come through from the front door. Set over a bedroom, it swings out on a top handle and leaves the room with a strip of open sky, plus a vent bar for the hours when you want the sash shut but a little air still moving. Most of these roofs are slate or tile on plain, evenly spaced rafters, so the opening can be sized to match the room without much fuss.
The Georgian and older core
Around the Market Place, Church Street and the roads off them there is older, grander stonework, with some listed buildings among it. The middle of town includes a conservation area, and Wiltshire Council is the body to ask. Where a roof is visible from the street, a slim conservation rooflight keeps the lines of the old slope. If you are unsure whether the house needs permission, our planning guide is the place to start.
An older house, whatever its street, has quirks. Floors slope, ceilings sit at odd heights and the loft hatch is never where the drawings say. We check each roof from inside before settling on a size. A position that works on a drawing can land on a purlin or a chimney breast, and shifting it a hand's width sideways may make the job simpler and tidier.
When a roof window goes into an existing slope, the rafters are trimmed and the opening is framed before the new unit is flashed to the tiles or slates. That is building work, and we carry out the Building Control notification where it applies. The Building Regulations guide covers what counts as notifiable.
Brick terraces of this age often carry a lean-to or outrigger at the back, with its own small roof over a kitchen or bathroom. That roof is usually low and shallow, which suits a flat rooflight or a short roof window, and it is a good place for steam to leave. Getting that single opening right can change a whole back half of the house.
On the day itself, a fitting here follows the same pattern whatever the roof. Floors and furniture are covered, the old unit or the tiles come off in sections, and the new frame goes in and is weathered in before we leave, so rain overnight finds a sealed roof. The same crew stays on the job from start to finish, which keeps the details consistent and the house tidy.
Think too about how you will use the room. A child's bedroom wants a sash that stays put at a fixed angle and a blind to keep the early light out. A spare room used as an office wants the opposite: plenty of glass, a handle you can reach from a chair and a roller blind pulled down against the afternoon glare. Accessories are chosen after the unit, but it is worth deciding early so the position of the frame suits them.
