Skylights & rooflights in Street Shoemaking terraces and the open Levels beyond

That small window is the whole story. A terrace has no side wall to open. Air can only enter at the front and the back, with the stairs in between. On a warm evening the upstairs rooms hold the day's heat while the downstairs rooms stay comfortable, because the rising warmth finds no exit. A tilting roof window above the landing, or over the back bedroom, offers that heat a route out of the top of the house, and the stair begins drawing cooler air in from the front door.

Somerset Council and the older core

Planning in Street is handled by Somerset Council, which took over from the old district councils. The older part of the village includes listed buildings, and some streets sit inside a conservation area, so it pays to check before ordering anything that shows on a front slope. Our rooflight planning page covers the cases, and one phone call to the council settles the local position.

For an older cottage or a listed building, the conservation rooflight is the unit to ask about. It is thin in profile, has a central glazing bar in the old style, and sits low in the roof plane so it reads from the road as a rooflight of the period. The sash on many of them opens on a hinge, so the cottage bedroom can be aired in summer and closed tight in winter.

Kitchens at the back of the terrace

Most terraced houses have a small kitchen in an outrigger at the rear, with a lean-to or flat roof over it. These rooms are narrow and dark, because the neighbouring wall takes most of the light. A flat rooflight lets daylight fall straight down into the room, and one that opens sends steam and cooking heat up and out instead of across the ceiling and into the stairwell. Placed close to the hob and wired with a rain sensor, an electric unit vents the kitchen at the press of a button.

Because terrace roofs were built for slate, they carry a certain load pattern, and a modern double-glazed unit weighs more than the slates it takes the place of. We check the rafters, the purlins and the wall plate from the loft before recommending a size. Where timber is tight, a pair of smaller units spreads the weight better, and the quote says so.

Street's terraces share party walls, so a window near a boundary must leave the wall itself untouched, and our survey notes where it can go. Swapping a whole existing rooflight is notifiable, which the Building Regulations guide explains.

Beyond the Victorian rows, the older cottages along the main roads tend to have deeper roof timbers and uneven rafters. A unit set into those roofs may need extra joinery around the opening, which the quote allows for. Where the position is ours to choose, the upper half of the rear slope is best, so the sash swings clear of the ridge.

A rear kitchen or garden room with a flat roof is the classic case. The builder fits a large fixed rooflight to let in daylight, and in July the room becomes the warmest space in the house, because the glass is hot and the air beneath it is stuck. A flat roof rooflight that opens changes that. On a short motor arm, its sash lifts and lets the top air out, while cooler air draws in through the garden doors or a window opposite. By evening the room is usable again, and the heat has gone with the afternoon sun.

Bungalows and dormer rooms

Street has a good number of bungalows, and plenty have been given a bedroom up in the slope. Rules for a bedroom in a bungalow roof allow the roof window to serve as the escape route, so long as the sash swings clear and the bottom edge is low enough to climb over. We take both measurements at the survey. The detail is in our roof window escape guide. The same page explains why a loft room over a two-storey house needs a different approach, with a protected stair rather than an escape through the roof.

Where there is a dormer, the choice changes again. Dormer cheeks are vertical and flat, so a casement window fits well, but the dormer roof itself, often flat, can carry a small rooflight for extra light. A pair of units in a dormer, one casement and one roof light, gives a bedroom both a view and an overhead draught.

Newer cul-de-sacs add a smaller point. Their roofs are low-pitched, built with trussed rafters set close together, and the timbers cannot simply be cut where a window would like to go. A unit sized to fit between two trusses avoids heavy structural work, so we look at the truss spacing before we choose the size. A narrower window placed neatly between them can suit better than a wide one needing extra structure.

Reach decides the opener. A manual handle suits anything within arm's length. Higher than that, choose an electric rooflight on a wall switch, so that it really gets opened. Solar is neat where the ceiling is already plastered and painted, since no cable has to be threaded through.

Evening matters as much as noon. On the Levels the low western sun comes straight across the fields and through any west-facing glass, so a blind that fits the frame is worth pricing at the start rather than adding later. In winter the same low sun is welcome, and a clear pane lets it warm the room.

Glass matters in a place with this much open sky. South and west slopes take hard sun, so a solar-control coating keeps the room bright without turning it into a hot box, and an inner blind finishes the job. North slopes need less shading and more daylight, so a clear, larger pane suits better.

We cover Street and its outlying hamlets, and our surveyors also work in neighbouring Glastonbury and Wells. For budgeting, the costs page sets out why one rooflight job costs more than another.