22.6 road miles west of Bournemouth
skylights & rooflights in bovington
The Tank Museum, the garrison and Clouds Hill sit around Bovington, and lanes run on towards Wool. We climb up and measure each roof, and the survey sheet records the readings.
the roofs around Bovington Camp
- Interwar and post-war semisTiled pitched roofs with usable loft space.
- BungalowsA loft over the hallway, and rooms that get little daylight.
- Rear extensionsSingle-storey flat roofs behind kitchens and garden rooms.
- Newer estate homesFactory-made trussed roofs with set spacings.
the first look at a Bovington address
- planning authority
- Dorset Council
- planning authority
- Dorset Council
- road miles
- 22.6
Nearby
the camp and the heath lanes
a garrison village with roofs of many ages
Bovington grew around an Army training camp, and the Tank Museum, Clouds Hill and the heath lanes sit close by. The houses date from several periods, so the first job on any survey is working out what sort of roof is over the room.
Reading the age of a street before the ladder goes up
The Army camp dates from 1899 and has trained tank crews since 1916, and building here has followed the garrison's needs ever since.
Bovington Camp began in 1899 as an Army training area and firing range. The Heavy Section, which crewed the first tanks, moved here in 1916, and the Tank Museum on the site is now one of the best known visitor attractions in this part of Dorset. A settlement like that grows in stages. Housing arrives when the garrison expands, again when families need somewhere to live, and again when private builders see demand. Walk or drive through the village and the surrounding lanes and you meet several different periods of building within a few hundred metres.
That matters because the period tells us how the roof was put together before anyone lifts a tile. Houses from the early and middle twentieth century were built with a cut roof: rafters sawn and fixed on site, held up by purlins and walls. Houses from the last few decades are far more likely to have a trussed roof, in which factory-made triangular frames are set at regular spacings and braced together. A rooflight in a cut roof can be made by trimming one or two rafters and framing around the gap. A trussed roof leaves far less room to move, and altering a truss is work for a structural engineer to design.
Some homes close to the camp are service family accommodation, which belongs to a landlord and not to the person living there. If that describes your address, the landlord's written consent comes before anything else, and we write for owners who can commission the work themselves. If you are unsure which category you are in, the answer is in your tenancy or your title documents, and it is worth having before you call us.
Beyond the camp, the village sits among heath and farmland on the edge of the Purbeck side of the county, and many owners live a short drive from larger centres. Trades travelling to the job matter here: the survey is done on site, the written sheet follows, and the glass is ordered once to the final measurements.
The two roof types mean different things when we plan a window, in Bovington and in neighbouring villages such as Wool.
Material and finish also vary with the period. Clay tiles, concrete interlocking tiles and slates each take a different flashing, and the survey notes which covering is on the slope so the right kit is ordered the first time. On a roof that has been re-covered since it was built, the tile profile can differ from what the neighbours have, which is why a photograph of the next house is never enough.
Cut roof with rafters and purlins
- Rafters can be trimmed and framed around a new opening
- Gaps between rafters vary, so each one is measured
- Wider window sizes are possible with a trimmer
- Building Regulations approval covers the structural change
Trussed roof with factory frames
- Frames sit at set centres, which fixes the width that fits
- Cutting a truss needs an engineer's design
- Narrower window codes sit between two trusses
- Two slim windows side by side can replace one wide one
Dorset Council, listed cottages and the planning register
Since 2019 Dorset Council has handled planning here, so older paperwork may carry a different name.
Bovington sits in Dorset, and Dorset Council deals with planning for the village and the lanes around it. The council was formed in 2019 from the former county and district councils, which is why an older planning letter in a drawer may be headed with the name of a district that no longer exists. Decisions in those letters still stand, and any new application goes to Dorset Council.
Some of the older buildings nearby are listed. Clouds Hill, the cottage T. E. Lawrence rented from 1923 while he was posted to the camp and later bought, is a National Trust property a short distance away. If your own house is listed, a new rooflight is a listed building consent matter, and the roof is covered by the listing along with the walls. Whether a given street sits inside a conservation area is something to confirm for the exact address on Dorset Council's mapping, since boundaries can cut across a road.
For houses that are neither listed nor in a protected area, the rules on what needs an application are covered in our planning guide. You can run the same checks on an address yourself before we visit.
If the register shows a past extension or loft conversion at the address, read the decision notice and any attached plans. They show which slopes were altered, what the structure is, and whether the earlier work already included a roof window that can be replaced like for like.
| Question | Where to look | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Is the house listed? | National Heritage List for England | Listed building consent is likely |
| Is it in a conservation area? | Dorset Council's online map | Check for an Article 4 direction |
| Any conditions on the original permission? | Dorset Council planning register | Conditions can remove rights |
| Is it a flat or maisonette? | Your title or lease | No householder permitted development |
| Who owns the roof? | Tenancy or title documents | Landlord consent may come first |
A first-floor landing that never sees the sun
A semi with a tiled pitched roof has a loft directly above its dark spots.
The most common request we hear from owners of pitched-roof semis is for light on the stairs and landing. On a typical semi the stairwell sits in the middle of the house, between two rooms with windows, and the landing at the top has none. The loft is straight above it. A roof window fitted in the slope with a shaft down to the ceiling brings daylight to a landing that would otherwise need a light switched on all day.
Headroom on the stairs is worth recording as well. A landing window set too far down the slope throws light onto the wall, and one set too high leaves the stair itself in shadow. We hold a tape from the landing floor to the underside of the rafters and mark the two heights on the sheet.
The loft over a landing is also where owners are most likely to be planning a conversion later. A window sized and placed with that in mind saves moving it a second time. If a loft room is likely within a few years, we mark on the survey sheet where the window would sit as the room's own light, and where a smaller window for the landing alone could go.
A VELUX window suits many pitched roofs here because the maker's size range covers the usual rafter gaps and the flashing kits fit common tile profiles. Makers give each model its own working range of slopes, so the survey measures your slope with an inclinometer and the product follows.
Bungalow halls and flat roofs on the back
Two jobs that look unrelated share a method: measure what is above the room first.
Bungalows in the villages around the camp share a familiar problem: the hall runs through the middle of the plan and the outer rooms take the daylight. A sun tunnel is the lightest option, a roof dome joined to a mirrored tube that crosses the loft and ends in a ceiling diffuser. Where the loft is deep or a purlin is in the way, a boarded shaft from a roof window may fit better. Our sun tunnel page explains how tube length and bends change the light.
Flat roofs on the back of a house are the other recurring job. A kitchen extension with a plain flat ceiling can feel dull in the middle of the room, and a flat rooflight lifts it. Before ordering we look at the covering, the height of the kerb and the fall of the roof, and the options sit under flat roof rooflights. On a kitchen with units along one wall, agree with the kitchen fitter whether the rooflight goes over the worktop or over the empty floor.
Myth
A bigger rooflight always means a brighter room.
Owners often ask for the largest size on the shelf, expecting the most light.
Fact
The opening is limited by the roof.
On a pitched roof the rafter gap, the pitch and the loft below fix how wide and how high the window can be. On a flat roof the kerb and the span fix it. The survey measures all three and the size follows.
Energy figures that apply to a new window in an existing house
Part L sets thermal limits for new rooflights and roof windows fitted to existing homes.
Thermal limits under Part L cover any window added to an existing house. Rooflights have one limit, 2.2 W/m²K, and roof windows have another, 1.4 W/m²K, or alternatively Window Energy Rating Band B. Each quote names the figure for the unit it prices, so two products can be compared on the same footing.
Cutting a new opening through rafters counts as a structural alteration, which needs Building Regulations approval before work starts. A swap of a whole rooflight or roof window, frame and glass together, is notifiable as a controlled fitting. A swap of only a failed sealed glass unit inside a sound frame is not. We arrange the Building Control notification when the job calls for it, and the inspection comes from the Dorset Council team or from a private registered approver.
A last figure matters wherever a loft becomes a bedroom. A window serves for escape only from a storey reachable within 4.5 m of ground level, so a loft room over two full floors calls for a protected stair. A bungalow or chalet bungalow with rooms in the roof can use a roof window of suitable size as its escape route, and the survey records the opening and the sill height for that.
- limit for a new rooflight
- 2.2 W/m²K
- limit for a new roof window, or Band B
- 1.4 W/m²K
- height an escape window can serve
- 4.5 m
faq
what Bovington owners ask before we visit
My house near the camp is rented from a landlord. Can I order a rooflight?
Written consent from the landlord comes first, because the roof is theirs to approve. Once that consent is in writing, or if the house is your own, we can survey it.
How do I find out if my road has restrictions on roof changes?
Search the address on Dorset Council's planning register and conservation area map, and check the National Heritage List for England for a listing. We run the same searches before quoting and give you the results in writing.
Can a house with trussed roof timbers take a roof window?
Yes, in a width that fits between two trusses. A wider opening that interrupts a truss needs a structural engineer's drawings and Building Regulations sign-off before any cutting.
Is a sun tunnel or a roof window better for a bungalow hallway?
A sun tunnel suits a short, clear run through the loft. A roof window with a shaft suits a deeper loft and a hall that also needs fresh air.