Portishead is a 27-mile road journey from Newport, to the south-east, over the estuary
Skylights and rooflights fitted in Portishead
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
- We handle the Building Control notification where notifiable
Fishing-village streets and flats on a coastal town's edge
Portishead is a coastal town on the Severn Estuary, built at the mouth of a small tributary near the mouth of the River Avon. On clear days Wales can be seen across the water from the town, which makes it a neighbour of ours in a way that few English places are. Its recorded history runs back to Roman times, the Royal Hotel by the pier went up in 1830 in a Tudor Gothic style for travellers on the steamers, and in 1892 the more built-up part of the parish became a local government district.
Houses here are varied. There are houses and flats in many styles, including one area built to look like a fishing village, modelled on the Cornish town of Polperro, with narrow streets and multi-coloured properties. A variety like that means a rooflight that suits one road may be wrong for the next, and the roof in front of us decides it.
| Kind of home | Roof shape | Likely glass |
|---|---|---|
| Narrow-street cottage-style house | Compact pitch, little room to work | A modest roof window, carried in by hand |
| Terraced or semi-detached family house | Pitched, tiled, with a loft | A pair of roof windows for a bedroom and a bathroom |
| Flat in a block or a top-floor flat | Flat, often shared | Planning permission, and usually the freeholder's consent |
| House with a modern rear extension | Flat, or a low pitch | A roof lantern, or a large flat rooflight |
Glass to match Portishead's different streets
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North Somerset Council, England's rules and conservation areas
Planning in Portishead is a matter for North Somerset Council, under English law. A rooflight or roof window in a house roof can be permitted development under Class C, if it respects the limits and conditions set out under England in our planning permission guide.
The conservation areas in North Somerset include Portishead West Hill & Welly Bottom, Portishead Woodhill Road, Portishead Court Farm Environs and Portishead East Wood, and the council's conservation area page is the council's own page on them. Living in one does not in itself end the right to add a rooflight to a house in England. An Article 4 direction can end it, as can a planning condition attached to the house, and only a council can say whether either one covers an address.
Flats do not carry householder permitted development rights, which matters in a town with blocks of flats. Class C is also closed to a house that is a home only by way of a change-of-use permitted development right. If a building is listed, new or altered rooflights almost always need listed building consent, which the planning authority decides and which costs nothing to apply for.
New windows, roof windows and rooflights are building work in the eyes of the Building Regulations. Where the work is notifiable, the Building Regulations notification is something we take care of, and it goes to the council's building control team or to a registered building control approver.
A loft study with the estuary in mind
How high to set the glass, and a blind for the glare.
Wales can be seen across the Severn Estuary from Portishead on a clear day, and anyone working in a loft room wants to know if a window in the roof could catch that. What you see depends on the slope and the height of the sill. A roof window set low enough to look through while standing gives a view out. One set high gives sky and not a lot else.
Height also decides how the window is operated. A handle within reach is simple. A window beyond reach wants an electric or solar operator, with the controls on the wall or a handset, and the same goes for its blind. Choosing the blind with the window means the study is not stuck with glare on a screen by mid-morning.
Early light comes in fast on a slope that faces east, and a loft study under it can be bright long before the working day. A roller or pleated blind softens the glass without closing the room off. For a bedroom, a blackout blind is the one to choose. We list the blinds the maker offers for the window we suggest and decide with you.
After dark the pane behaves differently. With a desk lamp on, a roof window shows the lit room back at you, and the sky past the glass is black. That helps nobody working late, and a blind drawn over the glass in the evening cuts the reflection off the screen. It also stops anyone outside seeing in.
The energy limits cover a new roof window, because it counts as a controlled fitting. For an existing home, the figure it should meet is a U-value no worse than 1.4 W/m²K, or Window Energy Rating band B. Our centre-pivot or top-hung guide covers how each type opens over a desk.
For a desk that faces the slope, the sill height matters twice. It sets the view, and it sets how much of the glass sits above the monitor. Holding a hand where the sill would be, with your eye at desk height, settles the question quickly.
A day in a loft study
- 06:40Low sunGlare on the screen until a blind is drawn.
- 13:00High sunA window set high gives sky and heat, and a blind can ease it.
- 20:15DuskThe pane mirrors the lamp, so a blind goes down.
A roof reached along a narrow street
Getting glass up to a compact house, and sizing it to suit.
Portishead has an area built in the style of a fishing village, with narrow streets and multi-coloured properties, modelled on Polperro in Cornwall. Narrow streets are lovely to live on and hard to work in. The roofs on them are small, and the route from the road to the slope can be a hand-carry along a passage.
That shapes the choice of product. A frame and a pane of glass have to get to the roof somehow, and a large flat rooflight or a lantern may not make it along a short passage or through a hall. A roof window can be smaller and lighter to carry, and a window sized to the rafters is often easier than a unit that has to be lifted over. We walk the route at the visit.
Small roofs also leave little room for second thoughts, so rafter spacing is measured before the size is fixed. It governs how wide the opening can be.
On a compact roof, the interior is as important as the exterior. A sloping ceiling in a small bedroom leaves little headroom, so the lining round the opening should splay to bring the daylight in without catching a head. Sizes and types are set out on our roof window hub.
Whether a house is listed has to be looked up for each address, whatever the street looks like. Historic England's national list shows it, and for a listed house it is consent that decides the job.
The town has a railway past of its own. Its main station stood near the centre of what was then a village, a second sat at the pier, a new junction was made three miles from Portishead station with a goods line on to the Royal Portbury Dock, and a second short-lived line, the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway, ran as well. Those facts say how the town grew and not what its roofs are made of, so each roof is looked at as it stands.
For a narrow-street house, send a photograph of the front and a note of how wide the passage is. It saves time at the visit.
| Constraint | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Passage to the back | Size of frame and glass that can be carried |
| Small roof area | Fewer tiles to cut round the frame |
| Low ceiling | A splayed lining to protect headroom |
Keeping the heat in under a kitchen rooflight
What glazing choice means on a cold evening.
On a cold evening in a kitchen with a flat roof, the glass above is the coldest part of the ceiling. Warm air from the hob and the oven meets it and cools, and the room below feels the draught that follows. How the rooflight is glazed has a say in that.
Approved Document L, Volume 1, sets a figure for a rooflight in an existing home: its U-value should be no worse than 2.2 W/m²K. The figure is measured over the whole outer surface of the unit, an area that can be bigger than the hole left in the roof. A roof window has a different limit, 1.4 W/m²K or Window Energy Rating band B.
The choice between two panes and three is the subject of the double or triple glazing guide. A sealed unit whose seal fails goes misty, and our misted rooflights hub covers what happens then.
The upstand under the glass matters as well. Where it comes as one assembly from the same supplier, the figure covers the kerb. One built on site should be no worse than 0.35 W/m²K. That is why the survey looks at how the upstand will be made, and not just at the glass.
If a roof lantern is the plan for a new extension, we confirm its position with North Somerset Council before work starts. Our roof lanterns page goes through the options.
When the lamps are on and the kitchen is warm, the glass overhead shows the room back and the sky is black beyond it. A rooflight does not give out light. What the evening shows through it is the lit kitchen below, and the cold you feel near the glass is the pane itself. A blind fitted below it can soften both the reflection and the chill, and it is chosen along with the unit.
Rooflight and roof window figures
- Roof window
- 1.4 W/m²K or better, or Window Energy Rating band B
- Rooflight
- No worse than 2.2 W/m²K
- Site-built upstand
- No worse than 0.35 W/m²K
- Source
- Approved Document L, Volume 1
A few Portishead answers
How do you get from Newport to Portishead?
Take the road over the Severn. Portishead is 27 road miles away from Newport in the south-east, and the survey costs nothing.
Do conservation areas around Portishead stop a rooflight?
Being inside one does not remove the right in England, as the planning guide explains. An Article 4 direction or a condition on the permission can, so we put the address to North Somerset Council.
Can I add a roof window to a flat in a block?
Flats have no householder permitted development rights, so an application to the council is the route. The freeholder's consent is usually needed as well, which is a matter for the lease.
Which blind is right for a loft study?
A roller or pleated blind softens daylight over a desk, and a blackout blind suits a bedroom. For a window beyond arm's reach, an electric or solar operator avoids the need for a pole.
Which figure applies to a replacement rooflight in England?
In an existing home in England, Approved Document L says a rooflight should be no worse than 2.2 W/m²K. A roof window should be no worse than 1.4 W/m²K or reach Window Energy Rating band B.
Does the Building Regulations paperwork fall to you?
Where the work is notifiable, we handle the Building Regulations notification with the council's building control team or a registered building control approver.
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10-year workmanship guarantee.
Building Control notification handled where notifiable.