Skylights & rooflights in Sharpness Where the canal meets the estuary and the wind comes up the Severn

Salt, wind and the choice of finish

Anywhere near an estuary, the air carries salt, and exposed fittings take a beating. A coastal gale will find any weak point in a poorly made frame, and so will years of damp, salty mornings. Check the material of the frame and how it is finished. Pine frames with a protective coating are a familiar choice for roof windows, while aluminium suits flat rooflights and larger openings. The point is to match the finish to the exposure, and to avoid cheap fixings that rust. We pick the unit at the survey with the weather in mind, and note the reasoning down in the written quote, which shows why one finish was chosen over another. It is also worth asking about the maintenance each material needs, since a coated frame may want a wipe now and then and an aluminium one very little.

Whether a street near the docks lies in a conservation area, or a building is listed, is a question for Stroud District Council. If your terrace is in a protected area, the rules may be tighter for the slope that faces the street. Our guide to planning for a rooflight explains where permission is and is not needed.

In a terrace, the roofs meet at party walls, and the stretch of slope between them is narrow. A house of this kind may have only enough clear rafter space for a single modest unit, and that is no loss if it is placed well. A unit therefore needs to fit between the rafters on one side of the dividing wall, and not stray over it. We measure that from inside the loft. Where the room is small, one carefully placed roof window serves better than two crowded together.

We check the rafters from inside the loft. Should one need cutting, the opening is trimmed with new timbers, since forming a new opening in a roof is regulated building work. The same team does the framing, the fitting and the weatherproofing. Whatever the weather, the slope is made watertight before the crew leaves, and the rooms under it are covered while the work goes on.

A sun tunnel suits the hall or an inner bathroom. A small dome sits on the roof and a reflective tube runs down through the loft to a frosted panel flush with the ceiling below, and the roof structure stays as it is, with no need to open up the whole slope, only a small round hole through the covering and a tube down to the room. Where the bathroom needs to clear steam, a tunnel with a vent kit gives some movement of air, and a small opening roof window is better still if the bathroom sits directly under a slope.

Bungalows with an upstairs bedroom

Where a bungalow has had a bedroom built up into its roof space, a particular rule comes into play. The roof window in such a room can be the escape window, so at the survey we measure the sash and how far its sill stands above the floor. For houses with two full storeys the rules are different, and we explain which applies to yours. The VELUX windows page sets out how the size codes work, so you can see which dimensions fit between your rafters.

The flat-roofed extension facing the water

Newer Sharpness homes often have an extension behind the house, topped with a flat roof and looking across fields towards the river. A fixed rooflight in that roof brings in the sun and also its heat. An opening flat rooflight lets the heated air out right at the top, which spares you from leaving the garden doors ajar for cooking smells and warmth, and a motorised opening unit with its own wet sensor shuts when a shower rolls in off the estuary. If there is no convenient cable route, a solar unit does without one.

Spray and rain can come in sideways here, so a rain sensor is a sensible choice in any case. When you are out for the day, the window should not be left to the weather. The sensor feels the first drops, the sash closes, and you come home to a dry room. The fresh air rooflights page explains the opening types, and for what moves the price, our costs page is the place to read.

Berkeley is close, and its centre is older and more closely built. Sharpness itself grew later, around the docks. Our Berkeley page looks at the stone and brick houses there, and Cam has its own mix of mill terraces and newer estates. Between them and Sharpness, the answer for a roof opening depends on the shape of the house rather than the postcode, and a survey settles which unit, which position and which way of opening suit yours. Every written quote then lists the options so you can compare them.