Fordingbridge
A bridge town, a river and a lot of tile: where do the rooflights go?
Fordingbridge grew around a crossing of the Avon, and its roofs follow that history, with older tile near the water and newer builds spread along the roads out
Fordingbridge is named for its crossing of the River Avon, and the old bridge across the water is still the best landmark in the town. The High Street runs up from it with shops and houses of mixed ages, the parish church of St Mary stands close to the centre, and the A338 carries traffic north to Salisbury and south to Ringwood. Most of what we are asked to fit here is on ordinary family houses: a loft that needs a window, a kitchen that is dark at the back, a flat-roofed extension whose plastic dome has clouded over.
Fordingbridge is 20.8 road miles west of Southampton, so a survey here is a planned trip rather than a quick call in on the way past. That suits the way we like to work. We arrive with the drawings already read, we measure what the builder will have to build around, and the written sizes go to the builder once the unit is agreed.
Cottages and terraces near the bridge
Close to the river and the High Street, the older houses are mostly brick with tiled or slated roofs, built in short terraces or as individual cottages, and some are listed. Roofs in this group are small. A typical slope may take a single roof window, and where there is a second room in the roof it may have its own, so the discussion is about one or two units rather than a bank of them. Placing the window correctly matters more than its size, because the ceiling in these attics comes down quickly towards the eaves.
A conservation rooflight, with a slim frame and a single glazing bar, suits a visible front slope on an older house far better than a standard roof window with a thick frame. It sits low in the covering, close to flush with the tiles, and from the road it looks like part of the roof. The cost of that appearance is that the opening has to be formed and flashed with more care, so the roofer is brought into the conversation at the start.
Where a house is listed, the rooflight is a matter for listed building consent, and no permitted development right applies. Historic England explains the process at historicengland.org.uk, and we can supply a drawing and a sample of the frame finish for your application. New Forest District Council can confirm for any address whether a house is listed or sits in a conservation area.
Houses along the roads out of the centre
The roads leading away from the centre carry the town's later housing: semi-detached and detached houses in brick and concrete tile, and a good number of bungalows and chalet bungalows with their roofs turned to face the road. This is where roof windows are fitted most often. A chalet bungalow with three windows in the front slope, or a pair at the back over a bedroom, is a common job, and the flashing kit is straightforward on a plain tile or slate-effect covering.
These houses usually have a trussed roof or a roof of purlins and common rafters, and which one you have decides how the opening is made. In a purlin roof the rafters can be trimmed around the window by a carpenter in the usual way. In a trussed roof the window is sized to fit between the trusses, so the width we give your builder is the exact clear gap, never an approximation. We take the spacing from the loft itself instead of relying on a drawing, because the as-built spacing is the figure that counts.
Extensions at the back of the house
Rear extensions are the other main category of work in Fordingbridge. A single-storey room built across the back of a brick house is usually flat-roofed or has a very shallow pitch, and it is the natural home of flat glass or a lantern. The room is deep, the new glazed doors face the garden, and without a rooflight the middle of the room stays dim. A lantern over the dining table, or a long flat rooflight above the cooking area, changes that.
The kerb is where a flat rooflight is won or lost. It is a raised timber or block frame, formed by the builder as part of the roof deck, and the glass sits on it. We tell the builder the finished upstand height, which the maker's instructions fix and which tends to be 150mm or more above the roof surface, along with the width and length of the opening for the unit we have quoted. The roofer then dresses the waterproof layer up and over the kerb before we fit the glass, so the membrane is already finished when the unit comes.
Whoever the builder is, from the town itself or from further along the Avon valley, we work alongside them on site. What we ask for in return is simple: tell us the programme. If the roof will be ready to receive glass at the end of a particular week, the order is planned around that, and the delivery date we confirm goes to the builder and to you.
An opening rooflight earns its place in these rear rooms. A kitchen with a hob and a dining table under one roof collects warm, moist air, and a rooflight that lifts on an electric arm lets that air out through the top of the room. It does not replace an extractor, and we would not suggest otherwise. The wiring for the motor and the rain sensor is run at first fix, with the ceiling still open, so the electrician needs the position of the unit early. A switch by the garden doors is the usual arrangement.
Landings, hallways and the villages around
Beyond the town, the lanes towards Sandleheath, Burgate and the villages along the valley have farm cottages, converted outbuildings and barn-style houses with large roof slopes. A long, plain slope of tile or profiled sheet is easy to work on, and the choice of unit comes down to what the room beneath needs. In a converted barn the roof is often the only place light can come from, and a row of evenly spaced roof windows lines up neatly with the rafters if the spacing is set at the design stage.
Inside town houses, an internal landing or a hall with no window can be lit by a sun tunnel, a small dome outside joined by a reflective tube to a diffuser in the ceiling. It suits a roof where there is no room for a full window, such as a shallow bungalow roof with a loft full of insulation and pipes. It gives a modest amount of daylight, enough to make a corridor feel finished, and the tube is routed between the joists on a survey visit with a torch and a tape.
Replacing old rooflights and domes
Many Fordingbridge houses have had a rooflight for decades: a plastic dome over a landing, a glazed panel above a utility room, a pitched unit in a conservatory. When the sealed unit of one of these goes misty, or the dome has yellowed and crazed, the answer is to replace it. Removing the whole rooflight for a new frame and glass is work that Building Control has to be told about, as a controlled fitting, and we send that notice. Swapping just the sealed unit within a frame that is still good needs no notification and can be a smaller job.
Before a new unit is ordered, we measure the existing kerb and the insulation beneath it. A modern double or triple glazed unit is thicker and heavier than a dome, and it may need a different upstand. For an existing house the thermal limits are a Band B rating for a roof window, with 2.2 W/m²K applying to rooflights, and the replacement is specified to the figure for its type. Our Building Regulations guide explains how they differ.
Planning in New Forest District
The planning authority for Fordingbridge is New Forest District Council. Rooflights in a house roof often fall under permitted development, and the rooflight planning guide sets out when that is the case and when it is not. A condition on the original permission or an Article 4 direction may have removed the right, and a listed building has no such right at all. Your address is checked by us first and we report what turns up; the council decides. The district council's website, at newforest.gov.uk, has the planning search for any property.
A house that is part of a recent estate may have conditions that were attached when the estate was built, and those are easy to miss. If you have the original decision notice from when the house was built, bring it to the survey and we will read it for anything that mentions roof openings. Fordingbridge sits inside New Forest District Council's area rather than the National Park, so the district council is the one whose records we read for your address.
