Marchwood
What does a village of extended family homes want from a rooflight?
Small plots, flat roofs added to old houses, and a short run from our base that makes a second visit easy
Marchwood lies on the western shore of Southampton Water, between Totton and Hythe, with the military port taking up much of the waterfront. Behind it stands a village that stayed small until the second half of the twentieth century and then grew quickly. There are some older cottages and houses, a great deal of estate housing from those decades of growth, and newer homes added since. Many of the houses are modest and sit on modest plots, so an owner who needs more space tends to build out or up.
That produces a particular mix of roofs. Pitched concrete tile roofs on the original houses, flat roofs on the kitchens, utility rooms and garages stuck to them, and a scattering of lofts in various stages of use or neglect. Each of these has a rooflight job waiting in it. The answer to what kind depends on which roof you have, and the survey is where we find out.
Flat roofs stuck to the back of the house
Take a flat-roofed addition at the back of a house that now feels dark. A kitchen extension or a utility room built a few decades ago often has a plain ceiling and one window, and the middle of the room gets no daylight at all. A flat rooflight over the middle of the floor changes that, because light comes in from above rather than from the edge. Two modest units can do more than one big one when the room is narrow, since they spread light along its length.
Because the roof already exists, the first question is what it is made of. Felt, EPDM and GRP are all common, and each wants its own treatment at the kerb. A membrane has to be dressed up the upstand and under the flashing, so we ask the roofer which system is on the roof and who will make good the covering. If the roof is due for a new covering anyway, the rooflight is best put in during that work, since the old surface comes off and the opening and the new covering are planned as one.
The kerb itself is usually a builder's job, and we give them the size in writing for the exact unit we have specified. Kerbs typically stand at least 150mm proud once the covering is down, following the maker, and ours are specified that way. The insulation inside the kerb matters as much as the glass above it, since a poorly insulated upstand is where cold spots and condensation start in winter.
Garages that have become rooms
Garages turned into offices, gyms and playrooms are generally roofed flat or at a low pitch, in felt, GRP or a single-ply membrane. A garage with the door bricked up has lost its main source of light, so the roof is the place to get it back. The conversion usually brings a new floor, insulated walls and a window where the door was, and your builder plans those alongside the roof. The same rules about kerb height and insulation apply as in a house, and because the room is now lived in, the conversion generally needs Building Regulations approval in its own right. We say at survey which applies, so it can be included in your plans before any glass is ordered.
In a garage, the joists run the way they ran when it was built, and the opening has to work with them. If the unit you want needs a joist cut, your builder fits a trimmer, which is a job for them, but we tell them early so it is not discovered with the roof open and the weather turning.
Bungalow and chalet lofts
Pitched roofs on the twentieth-century houses are commonly concrete interlocking tile on rafters, and a loft in a house like this has often never been used for more than storage. Turning one into a bedroom or an office is a builder's project with roof windows as the main source of light. The pitch of a bungalow roof is often low, and every roof window and flashing kit has a lowest rated pitch, so we measure the slope at survey and choose a unit that suits it. If the roof is too shallow for a standard window, there are alternatives, from low pitch kits to moving the window to a steeper section.
A roof window should be placed from the inside out. We stand in the loft with the builder and mark where the stairs arrive, where the bed will go and where the eaves cut off the floor space. The window then sits where the room will use it. The opening dimensions go to the builder on a written sheet, along with the sill height, and the escape rules are checked by whoever is responsible for building control on the job.
Older cottages and houses
Some of Marchwood is older than the estates. Its older cottages and small brick houses have slate or tile roofs and rafters of uneven size. Work on these is slower and more careful. The builder looks at the timbers before cutting, we check the opening position against the chimney and the stair, and the roof covering is lifted and relaid around the new unit by someone who can match what is there. For the front slope of an older house, a slim unit that sits low in the covering looks right; the back slope can take an ordinary roof window.
Houses with character sometimes have a bathroom or landing tucked under the roof with no window at all. A single rooflight over the stair gives a gloomy landing the daylight it never had, and the whole upstairs feels different. The size is worked out from the stair below, so the light falls on the treads and not the wall.
Small dark rooms and sun tunnels
Not every dark room warrants an opening in the roof. In a small bungalow, a hallway, a cloakroom or a bathroom between other rooms often needs only a point of daylight. A sun tunnel, which carries light down a mirrored tube from a small dome on the roof, fits between rafters and avoids cutting the structure. It is a smaller job than a roof window, and often a sensible answer where the loft is shallow or the roof is too low for a window.
Opening units for kitchens and bathrooms
Where an extension holds a kitchen, a rooflight that opens gives the cook a way to let steam and heat out. An opening unit does not cure damp, but it helps warm moist air leave, and a rain sensor closes an electric one when a shower passes. The electrician needs to run the supply cable before the ceiling is boarded, so we ask for the unit to be chosen early. A manual opening unit needs no wiring at all, and is a sensible choice where the glass is within reach.
Changing a failed or clouded unit
A rooflight with moisture between its panes has lost its seal, and the glass will not clear. Older domes on flat roofs yellow and craze, and early double glazed windows can show the same cloud. When we replace one, there are two routes: a new sealed glass unit in a frame that is still sound, or a whole new rooflight when the frame has aged. The quote says which we propose and why. Under the Building Regulations a full replacement, frame included, is notifiable, but swapping the sealed glass unit alone is not.
If the roof around a clouded unit is also near the end of its life, it is wise to speak to a roofer before the glass is ordered. We would rather agree one sequence with the roofer than fit a new unit into a covering that will come off a year later.
Planning for a Marchwood address
Marchwood falls under New Forest District Council. Rooflights on many ordinary houses are covered by permitted development; the conditions are laid out in our guide to rooflight planning permission, and they are not repeated here. They do not apply to listed buildings, and they can be taken away by a condition on an earlier permission. For every address we are asked to quote on, we check the record and tell you what it shows. The council decides whether an application is needed, and nothing is ordered until that is clear. If the house has had a loft or extension approved before, the earlier decision notice is worth finding, because it may carry conditions that affect a new window.
Setting the order with your builder
With a builder on site, the best time to call is when the extension drawings are done or the start date is known. The unit is agreed, the sizes go to the builder, and we place the order so the glass arrives as the roof is ready for it. The maker's lead time is named in the quote and the confirmed date is passed to you and the builder once the order is in.
Marchwood is close enough that we can visit the site for a quick check as the roof goes on, which catches a kerb a few millimetres out of square before the glass arrives. That is a small thing to do and a large thing to have done.
Only 7.8 road miles separate Marchwood from our Southampton base, to the south-west, so a survey, a mid-build check and a fitting day all fit round your builder's programme.
