The other typical Yatton project is the back extension. Many of the bungalows and semis have a flat-roofed kitchen or dining room added behind, often with a fixed rooflight and nothing that opens. On warm days the room becomes the hottest in the house, and the only way to cool it is to open the garden door. A flat rooflight built to open, or a roof lantern with an opening vent, lets heat go from the top. Hot air climbs and leaves through the top, garden air drifts in through the doors, and the room becomes easier to sit in.
Who reaches the handle decides whether a unit is manual, electric or solar. A bedroom window within arm's length is simple with a handle. A rooflight above a kitchen island is out of reach, so an electric opening rooflight operated by a wall switch or remote makes sense. Solar versions power themselves and avoid new wiring in a finished room. Either way a rain sensor shuts the sash when rain starts, which suits a house on low ground where showers roll in off the Bristol Channel.
Glass and blinds on the levels
Open ground gives a lot of sky, and the roofs here get long hours of sun. Glass choice matters in a south-facing extension. A solar control coating reduces the heat that comes through the pane, at some cost to a little of the daylight, and a blind fitted to the inside or outside of a roof window takes off the rest. Outside blinds stop heat at the glass. Inside ones are easier to reach. Most owners of bungalow lofts choose a blackout blind for the bedroom and a plain pleated one for the study.
Dark glass is not the only answer. Some owners prefer to keep the full daylight and rely on opening the unit early in the day, when the room is cool, and closing it by lunchtime. A rain sensor and a timer-style remote make that habit easy, and a roof window with an electric motor can be set to close itself if you forget. Think about how you live in the room before you choose the glass.
Replacing tired units
Quite a few Yatton houses have older skylights, put in decades ago, which have clouded between the panes or stuck shut. Read about misted and failed units to see what goes wrong inside a sealed pane. A whole unit can be replaced in the same opening, which is quicker than cutting a new one, and the new one can open if the old one was fixed.
For anything beyond the village, we also cover Congresbury, a short distance along the road, and Clevedon. On the costs page you can see what pulls a price up or down, and our guide to opening rooflights describes how each kind of unit swings, tilts or slides open.
