Sarisbury Green
Why a loft is the usual first job in Sarisbury Green
Houses here tend to have room in the roof and room around the building, so the real planning is about the order of the work
Sarisbury Green lies on the A27 a little way east of the River Hamble, between Bursledon and Park Gate, with Holly Hill Woodland Park and plenty of mature trees close to the roads. It grew along its main road and spread outwards, so a short walk takes you past a few older houses by the road, bungalows and semis from the middle of the twentieth century, and then closes and cul-de-sacs from later decades.
In that kind of place the biggest rooflight jobs are rarely about charm. They are about space. A house here often has a roof that can hold another room, a garden long enough for an extension and a household that needs both. Our work is mostly the daylight side of those two projects, and the part we care about is when each decision is made.
The loft bedroom or study
Lofts that are being turned into rooms are the natural home for roof windows here, as in the rest of this part of Hampshire. A bungalow with a steep enough roof can take a full conversion with dormers, while a semi with a lower pitch more often gets a rear dormer, with a pair of roof windows on the front slope to light the landing and a second bedroom. The loft office has become common too: a desk under a roof window, with a view of sky and treetops and no neighbour's window in sight.
Position matters more than size. A window set low in the slope gives a view out when you sit down, and one set high lets daylight reach the back of the room. Our guide to top-hung and centre-pivot windows explains how each type opens and where the handle ends up, which affects where a desk or a bed can stand. We settle the positions with the owner on the survey, mark them on the plan, and send the builder the opening sizes in writing before the rafters are cut.
The builder's roof date sets ours. Roof windows are ordered against the loft programme so that they arrive for the day the opening is formed, with the flashing kit that matches the tile. Since the roof is the most weather-exposed part of a conversion, we want it covered again quickly, which means the window must be on site before the roofer lifts the first tile. Our page on roof windows for loft conversions covers the building control side, including the escape window for a room used for sleeping.
Bungalows with hipped roofs raise a different set of questions. The hips and the ridge are short, so a window cannot always go where the plan wants it without meeting a hip rafter, and a chimney, if there is one, takes more of the slope than it appears to from the ground. We draw each proposed window on the roof plan with its distance from the hips, the ridge and the eaves, so the builder can see at a glance whether a trimmer is needed or whether the opening falls between existing members. A move of a hand's width on paper can save a day of carpentry on site.
Scaffold needs thought on the plots here. Driveways are often narrow, parking is on the road and a loft job needs space for a skip as well. The builder normally arranges access, and we ask on the survey where the scaffold will stand and whether glass can be carried to the roof without crossing a neighbour's land. A unit that is too long for the side passage is a good reason to choose two smaller windows in place of one large one.
Trees, shade and what falls on a roof
Mature trees are part of the setting here, and they bring practical points. Leaves and seed collect against a roof window's upper edge and the gutters below it, and shade from a large oak or beech can cut the light that a window collects in summer. When we plan a position, we look at where the trees stand and what the sun does across the roof, and sometimes a window ends up on the slope with more open sky. If your roof is in heavy shade, glass with a clean-easy coating may help, and our page on self-cleaning rooflight glass explains what it can and cannot do.
Sunlit slopes bring their own question in summer, when a loft can overheat. Solar control glass limits the solar heat that enters the room, and a blind or an opening unit helps further. We raise the question on the survey and let the owner decide, because a north-facing slope and a south-facing one want different things.
The rooms beneath the roof are not the only dark spaces in a house of this age. Many bungalows have an inner hall or a bathroom with no outside wall, and a chalet bungalow's landing can be dim even in summer. A sun tunnel answers that, with a dome outside and a flexible or rigid tube running down to a ceiling diffuser. It is the lightest-touch rooflight we fit, and it often goes in on a single morning with little disturbance to the rest of the house. Our guide to rigid and flexible tubes explains the choice, and the sun tunnel suits a landing, a hall or a cloakroom especially well.
Extending back into the garden
The second common project is a rear extension. A kitchen or a family room is built out under a flat or low pitched roof, and the new space lies a long way from the old windows. A flat rooflight or a roof lantern fixes that by bringing daylight in from above, and the best time to plan it is before the roof structure is drawn.
The practical sequence is short. The architect or builder fixes the opening position and the joists around it. We send the exact kerb or upstand dimensions for the chosen unit. The roof is built, the roofer lays the covering and takes it up the kerb, and our crew fits the glazing onto a finished base. The electrician has already run any cable for an opening unit or reveal lights, and the plasterer follows. Our page on fitting a lantern to an existing flat roof shows what changes when the roof is already built.
Sizes are driven by the room more than by the catalogue. A kitchen that is three or four metres wide has room for a long rooflight, but very large glass is heavy and may need more structure under it. Our note on flat rooflight size for a kitchen sets out how the proportions work. The goal is a rooflight that looks as if it belongs to the room, with margins on every side and a kerb that suits the plaster line.
When an older unit has reached the end
Not every job begins with a bare roof. Older Sarisbury Green houses often have a roof window from a previous conversion, or a plastic dome on a flat roof over a garage, and some of these have clouded, scratched or developed a poor seal. When the frame and flashing are in good order, the glass alone can be swapped for a new sealed unit. If the frame is worn, the whole unit is replaced, and that is a notifiable job under the Building Regulations. Our page about replacing an old VELUX window describes how we find the right size for an old window and when a cut-down flashing kit is enough.
Planning at a Sarisbury Green address
Fareham Borough Council deals with planning for this village. Permitted development can cover a roof window on an ordinary house, but not on every house, since a condition on an estate or a direction in the area can remove the right. Flats and maisonettes never have the same rights as houses. We check what applies at your address and give you a straight account, and the council decides. For the rules themselves, read our guide to rooflight planning permission; the council's own pages are at fareham.gov.uk.
Dormers are a different matter from roof windows, because a dormer is an enlargement of the roof and has its own limits. If your plan includes one, ask your architect or builder to confirm that route before we order glass.
Order, delivery and the days that follow
Whatever the project, the pattern of the order is the same in Sarisbury Green as elsewhere. We start with the date your builder expects the roof to be ready for the unit, count back through the production wait, and place the order on that basis. Lead times differ between standard and made-to-measure units, and the quote states the one that applies to yours. The delivery date, once the maker confirms it, is passed to you and your builder alike, so that nobody is waiting on a vague promise. Our guide to rooflight lead times explains what stretches them.
Then comes the sequence on the roof: first the roofer's covering or membrane, then the electrician's first fix for any electric unit, then our fitting, then the plasterer's reveals. Because we agree this in writing with the builder, nobody does a task twice. You can start with a free survey by asking through the quote page, and we will arrange the visit around the build.
Southampton to Sarisbury Green is 7.3 road miles heading south-east, near enough to return to the roof for a check once the builder has trimmed the opening.
