Bursledon
What does a roof by the Hamble need that a roof inland does not?
Salt air, steep lanes and old tile on one side of the village, and well-kept family houses on the other
Bursledon is a village of two parts. Down by the water, around the river and the boatyards of Old Bursledon, the lanes are narrow and the cottages are small, close together and often steep. Away from the river, on the higher ground, the housing is broader and more recent: Victorian and Edwardian houses at first, then twentieth century semis, bungalows and larger detached houses with room to extend. The same company can be asked to fit a rooflight in a one-bedroom cottage and a four-bedroom family house, and the two jobs have almost nothing in common.
A few things are shared. Bursledon has plenty of trees, and a roof under oak or pine collects leaves, moss and resin, which is a reason to choose glass that is easy to reach and clean. Houses on the slopes above the river can look out over the water, so the sky and the light often matter to their owners as much as the floor area does. A rooflight in this village is more often about the view and the sky than about simply adding a window.
Cottages and lanes near the river
The oldest houses are near the Hamble. Many are brick or painted render, with tiled roofs that have settled with age. The tiles are often small plain clay tiles, laid at a steep pitch, and the rafters beneath can be thin, bowed and set at uneven spacings. A roof like that does not take a standard roof window comfortably. The right answer is usually a conservation rooflight: a slim metal frame, a single central bar in the glass, and a profile that sits low in the roof instead of standing proud of the tiles.
Because the opening is cut between old rafters, we measure it on the roof and from inside the room, rafter by rafter, and the figure we give the builder is the one we have taken at the actual position. The roofer lifts the tiles in the area and sets them aside for reuse. If any crack, the matching tile is agreed with the roofer before the quote is final, since a new tile in a weathered roof shows from the lane.
Access shapes the job as well. A narrow lane may have no space for a delivery lorry, and a steep one makes carrying a heavy unit by hand a poor idea. Conservation rooflights are light, but a large lantern is not. We ask early where a van or a lorry can stand, whether a scaffold can be put up on the plot, and who will carry what, because the answers decide whether a unit comes in a single delivery or has to be brought up in stages.
Inside, the roof timbers of an old cottage are often on show, and a rooflight beside a beam needs thought. The reveal can be splayed so that light spreads across the ceiling instead of stopping at the beam, and the plasterer needs to know the angle before the lining goes on. We draw that on the same sheet as the opening size, so nobody is guessing on the day.
Salt air and exposed positions
A house close to the water sees more wind and more salt than one inland. That matters for the frame and the finish of a rooflight: metal parts should be treated or coated for exposure, and fixings should be of a grade that suits the position. We specify the finish on the written quote, so it is a known item and not an assumption. Where the roof is exposed, glazing that opens needs hinges and arms built to take the weather, and we say which units are available for exposed sites before you choose.
Rinsing helps. Salt that dries on glass leaves a haze, and a rooflight that can be reached from a window or a flat roof is much simpler to rinse than one at the top of a steep slope. When we are choosing positions in the roof, we think about how the glass will be looked after as well as how it will look, and we say so on the quote when a position will need a long-handled brush or a window cleaner with a ladder.
Victorian and later houses on the higher ground
Away from the water, the housing is bigger and the roofs are easier. Victorian and Edwardian houses have slate or clay tiles over regular rafters, and the loft conversions that were done in the past often used a dormer at the back and simple windows at the front. Later semis and bungalows are tiled in concrete, with moderate pitches and good space under the roof. These houses suit roof windows, either as part of a conversion or as a way of lighting a landing or an upstairs bathroom.
The front slope of a Victorian house is the one the street sees, and the rule we follow is to keep it tidy: windows set low, spaced evenly and lined up with the windows below. The back slope has more latitude. Larger windows or a pair with a central rafter between them can be used, and the view from the room usually decides it. From some roofs in the village the Hamble can be seen between the trees, and putting a window where the view is will do more for a room than putting it where the roof is simplest.
Not every dark space needs a window. A landing or bathroom under a pitched roof can take a sun tunnel, a low dome on the tiles with a mirrored tube running down through the roof space to a diffuser in the ceiling. The tube follows a straight line between the rafters where it can, and we trace its route from inside the loft before we say it will fit.
Extensions that end in a flat roof
Bursledon houses have a good deal of space on their plots, and extending at the back is a popular choice. The usual shape is a kitchen and dining extension under a flat roof, with bifold or sliding doors on the garden side. The room gets a lot of light from the doors but not from the other three sides, and the middle of it is often the darkest part. A lantern or flat rooflight over the island or table fixes that.
The builder frames the kerb on the deck, the roofer waterproofs the deck and takes the membrane up the sides, and our unit then sits on a kerb that was built for it. The kerb dimensions come from us on paper, calculated for the chosen unit, so the carpenter builds it only once. Insulation thickness, the ceiling finish and the depth of the reveal need to be known by then too, and they appear in the same document.
An opening rooflight is worth considering on a bigger room like this. It lets warm air rise out of the space, and in a kitchen that is a real help on a still day. It is not a replacement for a cooker hood or for proper ventilation, and we do not claim it is, but it is a useful addition, and it is far easier to plan in at the drawing stage than to add once the ceiling is finished. If the unit is electric, the electrician needs to run the cable at first fix, before the ceiling is boarded, and we confirm where it should end.
Loft rooms in the older houses
A loft room in an older Bursledon house is often small, with a sloping ceiling and a low side wall called a knee wall. A roof window in such a room has to be placed so that someone standing in the room can see out of it, and the standard sill height may be too high in the lower part of the slope. A top-hung window gives a view while standing; a centre-pivot window is better for the upper part of the slope, where the glass is closer to eye level. We choose between the two by standing in the room and looking at the line of the ceiling.
If the loft is going to be a bedroom, escape matters. Approved Document B limits escape windows to storeys no higher than 4.5m above ground, so a loft over two full floors needs a protected stair. Whoever designs the conversion settles that, and we work from their drawings.
Planning and permissions
Eastleigh Borough Council decides planning questions in Bursledon. Many rooflights are permitted development, and our rooflight planning guide explains the conditions and how to check them for your house. Whether any of the old village by the river is protected, as a conservation area or by listing, is for the council to confirm, and it is best asked before design work starts. We look the address up as part of the survey and share the result with you, but the last word belongs to the council.
Building Regulations apply either way. If the whole rooflight, frame and glass, is being replaced, the work is notifiable, and where it is, the notification is handled for you. A new unit in a conversion is checked by building control as part of the conversion. We put the workmanship guarantee in writing, ten years on the fitting.
