Skylights & rooflights in Olveston Village lanes, low eaves and rooms that need a window at the top

Olveston houses come in two broad kinds: cottages with low eaves along the lanes, and bungalows and close-dwelling family homes built later. Both can have a stuffy room, and a roof opening is often the neatest cure for it, as long as it is the right unit.

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North towards the Severn: The village is 15.3 road miles north of Bristol, so our surveyors can fit a visit into any normal working day.
Cottages near the church: Low eaves, thick walls and small upstairs rooms, where a slim opening rooflight usually fits best.
Tockington and the lanes between: Spread-out houses with rear lean-tos and old kitchens that have lost their daylight to a boundary wall.
Bungalows on the village edges: Roof space waiting to be used, and flat-roofed additions that turn warm by midday.

The handle along the top of a roof window

Olveston rooms where a roof opening helps

The cottage bedroom under the slope
A sloping ceiling, one small window and a warm night. A roof window that tilts open offers the warmth an exit at the top.
The old kitchen in the back lean-to
A low roof, deep walls and not much daylight. A flat rooflight that opens clears cooking steam and brightens the worktop.
The bungalow loft turned study
A room that only gets a view of the sky if a roof window goes in, ideally one you can reach without a stepladder.

What goes into Olveston roofs

Slim conservation rooflights for older cottage slopes, roof windows to open up lofts and bungalows, and flat rooflights, electric or solar where the roof is out of reach, for extensions and lean-tos.

Olveston, Tockington and the villages beside them

Our surveyors come to the village and its lanes, to Tockington, and to neighbouring places such as Almondsbury and Alveston. The survey and the quote are free.

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Olveston roofs, old and newer

Staying cool and bright in an Olveston house

Olveston is a village of stone cottages and quiet lanes, with a good deal of later building around the edges. The cottages call for slim, careful units. The bungalows and newer houses have different troubles, mostly heat under flat roofs and loft space nobody uses.

A terrace with loft conversions and roof windows

Stone cottages and low eaves on the village lanes

Olveston's size gives it away: the houses are village houses, and the roofs show it. Cottages sit close to the lane, gardens run away behind them, and many of the older buildings are low, with eaves that come down almost to the first-floor windows. Upstairs, the ceiling often follows the slope of the roof. There may be a single small window in the gable and very little else, so on a warm night the bedroom holds the heat of the whole house.

That is the usual starting point when people ask about rooflights in Olveston. A window in the wall can only ventilate at the height of the wall. A roof window sits where the warm air gathers, so a sash that tilts open lets that air go while cooler air drifts in from below. Even a small unit changes how a cottage bedroom feels at ten o'clock on a July night.

Respecting the look of the village

Some of the village lies inside a conservation area, and several older buildings carry a listing. South Gloucestershire Council handles the planning side, so ring the council about any slope the lane looks straight onto before you order anything. Putting a new rooflight into a listed house means applying for listed building consent first. Our guide to rooflight planning explains when consent is required and what goes with an application: read it here.

The usual answer for a slope facing the lane is a conservation rooflight. Its metal frame is slender, one glazing bar splits the pane, and the unit sits level with the roof covering, in the manner of the little metal lights old attics and sheds used to have. Many open on a winding handle or a short pole, which lets a cottage keep its old outline and still gain a working window.

Where in the house	What goes in	Opening method
Slope facing the lane	Conservation rooflight	Winding handle, or fixed if the council prefers
Back slope of a cottage	Roof window	Top handle, tilting out
Lean-to kitchen	Flat rooflight	Motor or solar, rain-sensing
Listed cottage	As the consent allows	Set by the council

The back slope and the lean-to

Few village houses stand as they were first built. A rear kitchen, a utility room or a lean-to against the back wall has been added to many of them, and these low roofs are often where daylight runs shortest. One side wall belongs to the main house, another may face a boundary, and the ceiling sits only just above head height. A flat rooflight in the lean-to roof brings sky into the room without touching the walls. Where the roof is shallow and within reach, a manual unit works. Where it is higher up or awkward to get at, choose a motorised or solar unit that includes a rain sensor, which is easier to live with, since it will actually get opened.

The covering matters as well. Clay tiles, slates and stone slates each need flashing cut to suit them, and an older roof may have settled unevenly over the decades. Our surveyor goes up into the loft, then outside to see the slope from the lane, measure between the rafters, and will say when a pair of small units would sit on the timbers better than a single big one.

A cottage can often share the work between its two slopes. The side seen from the lane takes one small conservation rooflight, kept modest and left fixed if the council would rather. The back, hidden above the garden, can take something bigger: a roof window that swings wide on warm days, fitted with a trickle vent so night air still moves when the sash is closed.

Thick walls can also make a stair dark. A cottage staircase tends to be a narrow channel with a door at each end, and warm air rises up it and settles on the landing. A roof opening above the landing gives that air an exit, and whatever is in the bedrooms can then be left cooler with the doors ajar. It is a small adjustment, but in a house with no through draught it is often the one that makes the difference.

Roof window near the ridge Warm air leaving the bedroom Sloping cottage ceiling Cooler air from the lane window

In an Olveston cottage bedroom, the warmth collects under the slope and a small opening at the top is the way for it to leave.

A bungalow with a new rooflight on its extension

Bungalows, newer houses and the village edges

Around the older core, Olveston has grown with bungalows, chalet bungalows and family houses on quiet closes. Their roofs are plainer than the cottages, with long slopes and room for larger units. They suit a roof window well, because there is usually space between the rafters and no street frontage to worry about.

In a bungalow that window does two jobs. It lights the room, and it can be the way out. Upstairs in a bungalow, or in the rooms tucked under a chalet bungalow's slopes, the roof window can count as that room's escape route, which is why we measure the bottom edge as well as the opening. A two-storey house plays by other rules: the loft conversion must have a protected stair for escape, while its roof window only brightens and ventilates.

A rooflight on a house near the Severn will be draughty and noisy when the wind gets up.

Open country does mean a breezy position, but once closed, a roof window or flat rooflight is shut tight against the weather. A motorised unit with a rain sensor shuts at the first spots of rain, and a trickle vent keeps a thread of air moving overnight with the sash closed.

Heat under the flat-roofed extension

The commonest grumble about a newer house is the hot extension. Behind the house, a kitchen or garden room roofed flat and lit by one large fixed rooflight gets bright and then warm, and the air has nowhere to go. Where the fixed unit gives way to one that opens, or a second flat rooflight is added beside it, the heat escapes at the highest point. In a bigger extension, a roof lantern with opening vents can do likewise, and it gives the ceiling some shape.

Height decides how a unit should open. A roof window beside a bed sits within arm's reach and can be manual. A rooflight three metres above a kitchen floor is not, so an electric opening unit makes more sense, with a rain sensor and a tidy path for the wiring. Where nobody wants cable chased into a finished ceiling, a solar-powered unit avoids the problem.

An empty insulated kerb on a flat roof, before the glazing goes on — What we look at on an Olveston extension roof

Daylight for the middle of the house

The heart of a house, a landing or a small bathroom, can lack any outside wall for a window. A sun tunnel sends daylight down through the roof void to the ceiling below, and some models take a vent kit so they shift a little air as well. It suits a small space where a full roof window will not fit. Prices vary a good deal between types, and the cost guide shows what pushes them up or down.

The next villages and towns are close. Almondsbury and Alveston are both a short drive away, and a lot of the same house types turn up there, so what works in one tends to work in the others.

A bungalow that has been extended sideways can have three or four separate roofs: the original pitched roof, a hipped end, a flat porch and a garage. Each is a separate decision, and a single survey visit covers them together so the units match in style and the quote is written room by room.

Olveston rooflight questions, put plainly

Will an Olveston cottage need consent for a rooflight?

It depends on the building. A good many houses need none, but a listed home needs formal consent, and a conservation area can bring extra controls. South Gloucestershire Council has the final say, and our planning guide explains the usual position.

Can a conservation rooflight open in an old village house?

Yes. Many have a hinged sash worked by a winding handle or a pole, so the roof keeps its slim, period profile and the room still gets fresh air. The opening options are shown on the quote, whatever you choose.

Which rooflight suits the roof of a rear lean-to?

A flat rooflight is usually the answer, sized to the roof and the rafters beneath it. If the room is hard to reach, a powered or solar unit with a rain sensor is the easiest to live with.

What happens on the visit before I get a quote?

We come to the house, go into the loft or roof space if there is one, measure the room and the roof, and talk through where air gets stuck. A written, itemised quote follows with the opening choices set out.

Pastel-painted Georgian terraced houses with iron railings on a Bristol street

Tell us about the room

A few details is all we need. We'll come out, advise and give you a written quote.

No pressure, no obligation.