Highcliffe
Which roof is it, and how much light can the plan lose before a rooflight is the cure?
Detached houses on generous plots, chalet bungalows with rooms in the roof and a clifftop that shapes where glass can go
Highcliffe stretches along Lymington Road and the cliff above Christchurch Bay, with the grounds of Highcliffe Castle on the clifftop. It is a seaside town of detached houses on good plots, much of it built in the twentieth century, with newer houses on sites that were once larger gardens. Where older market towns inland have tight historic cores of terraces, Highcliffe has long runs of family houses and bungalows, many of them extended or altered more than once, which makes for a different kind of rooflight conversation.
In Highcliffe four kinds of request come up again and again: roof lanterns and flat rooflights over rear extensions, roof windows for chalet bungalows and lofts, sun tunnels for dark halls, and replacements for old domes and glazed roofs that have clouded. All four are easier when the builder knows the sizes early.
Interwar houses
Among the town's older houses are those built between the wars. Hipped roofs in clay or concrete tile, bay windows on the front and a hallway that runs through the middle of the plan are typical. Their loft spaces are often generous, with heavy rafters and room for a proper bedroom, and the main limit is the chimney stack and any water tank. A roof window either side of a hip keeps the front slope orderly while giving the new room its daylight, and the rear slope can take a larger pair.
Rear extensions on these houses commonly replace an old lean-to or conservatory with a kitchen-diner under a flat roof. A kitchen-diner like that suits a lantern or a big flat rooflight, and the choice between them comes down to ceiling height, budget and how the room is meant to feel. A lantern lifts the ceiling in the middle; a flat rooflight leaves it plain and lets in light from directly above. Your builder frames a kerb to the size we give, and we check it before the unit is booked for delivery.
Chalet bungalows with rooms in the roof
Highcliffe has its share of chalet bungalows, houses with a steep roof and rooms upstairs that are already partly in the slope. These are the easiest of all houses to light with roof windows, because the roof slope is the wall of the bedroom, and the pitch is usually generous. The question is size and number. One large window gives a lot of light but makes a room hot in July; two smaller ones spread the light and give cross ventilation. Windows hinged at the top and windows that pivot about the middle behave differently, which our guide to top-hung and centre-pivot windows explains.
The front slope of a chalet bungalow is usually the one seen from the road, so the windows there tend to be modest and level with each other. Neighbours who have added dormers set the tone for a street, and permissions already granted nearby are worth looking at, and a house between two of them often looks best with its own dormer or with roof windows kept in line.
Dark halls and bathrooms in bungalows
Single-storey bungalows from the postwar decades have halls with no window and bathrooms in the middle of the plan. A sun tunnel suits both. A round dome is set into the roof, a short flexible or rigid tube runs down through the loft and a diffuser fits in the ceiling. We look at the roof space first to plan the route past joists, wiring and insulation, and we give you the choice between a rigid and a flexible tube. Rigid tubes carry more light over a long run. The work is quick and tidy, and the result is a bright hall without a structural job. A tube that is insulated or fitted with a light-tight collar where it crosses the loft floor also avoids a cold spot above the plasterboard, and we say in the quote whether the ceiling or the loft side takes that detail. Hall ceilings in these bungalows are often artexed or lined with old boards, and the diffuser can be matched to whatever finish is there.
Lofts, escape routes and the stair
Turning a roof space into a bedroom brings fire safety into the rooflight conversation. Escape is the issue: a window can only serve as the escape route from a storey within 4.5 metres of the ground, so a loft over two full storeys is planned around a protected stair instead. Your designer or builder settles that with Building Control. What we contribute is a window sized and positioned to meet the escape opening requirement where it applies, and a note on the quote saying which windows are intended for that purpose.
In a chalet bungalow the same rule is simpler because the rooms upstairs are close to the ground. The sill height matters, though. An escape window set too high above the floor is of little use, so the position is drawn on the section before anyone cuts rafters. Where there is a choice, we favour a window whose opening is large enough for a person to climb through easily and whose handle sits within reach of the bed.
Old conservatories and glazed lean-tos
Some Highcliffe houses have conservatories added in the late twentieth century, a few with polycarbonate roofs that are now noisy, hot in summer and cold in winter. Owners often ask whether a lantern can replace the roof. It can, provided the structure beneath is up to the load and the walls have a sound upper edge to carry a kerb. Sometimes a solid insulated roof with a rooflight cut in gives a calmer room than a replacement glass roof does. We look at the existing frame and the foundations before we recommend either, and a structural engineer is brought in by your builder if the question is close.
Plots, trees and cliff-top weather
Plenty of Highcliffe gardens hold mature pines and oaks, which is lovely and also a nuisance for glass: needles, seed and honeydew settle on a flat rooflight, and shade makes moss grow on the frame. A rooflight under trees needs more regular cleaning than one in the open, and we plan its position so it can be reached. Large oaks also drop heavy limbs now and then, and a rooflight directly under a branch is a case for looking up before the position is fixed. Near the cliff, the wind carries salt, so frame finish and fixings are chosen with that in mind, as they are anywhere on this coast. We write the finish onto the quote.
Clifftop and bay-facing rooms look south over the water, so the sun can be strong. For lanterns and larger flat rooflights on a south-facing extension we talk about solar-control glass at the outset, since a glass roof facing the afternoon sun is the one most likely to make a kitchen too warm to use.
Replacing old glass on garages and extensions
Garages and utility rooms with flat roofs often carry a plastic dome that went in long ago. It yellows, cracks at the corners and eventually lets in water. A new insulated flat rooflight on a kerb built up with proper insulation is a plain replacement, best done when the roof covering is renewed so that the new membrane runs up the kerb as one piece. Where an older conservatory has a glazed roof that clouds or fogs between the panes, replacing the roof glazing with a new insulated unit or a solid roof with a lantern is a bigger decision, and we lay out the options and the building control position on the quote.
Working to the builder's programme
On an extension, we work backwards from the day your roofer expects to lay the deck. Your builder receives the kerb or opening size as a written drawing note, the order follows that date, and you both receive the maker's delivery date when it is confirmed. On the day the roofer finishes the covering first, then we fit; any cable for an opening unit is already in from the electrician, and the plasterer takes the reveals last of all. If the roof is already built and you want a rooflight later, the sequence is the same but compressed, and we say what needs doing to the covering around the opening before we quote.
Who decides in Highcliffe, and what we check
Highcliffe is in Dorset, and planning applications are decided by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. Rooflights on many ordinary houses are permitted development, covered in our planning permission guide, though a condition on the house, an area-wide Article 4 direction or listed status can take those rights away. Highcliffe Castle is a listed building with its own grounds, and a house near it is worth checking for a designated area. You can ask the council directly through the BCP Council website. We look the address up and tell you what the record shows.
Building Control notification is arranged by us where the work needs it, and the guarantee on our workmanship runs for ten years from fitting. If a builder is already booked for your Highcliffe extension, a call before the deck goes down lets the rooflight size go onto the drawings in good time.
