6 road miles west of Bournemouth
skylights & rooflights in oakdale
Post-war semis and bungalows fill the estate streets either side of Wimborne Road in Oakdale, with some later infill, and a surveyor reads each roof on site before a unit is chosen.
streets of semis and bungalows
- Post-war semisTiled roofs and lofts that suit a conversion.
- BungalowsA hall with no window, one loft over the lot.
- Chalet-style homesRooms in the roof with low side walls.
- Extended and infill homesFlat-roofed additions and newer small developments.
the lookup before we quote in Oakdale
- planning authority
- BCP Council
- BCP planning register
- search by full address
- road miles
- 6
Nearby
span, hall, shaft
an estate suburb with ordinary roofs, measured carefully
Oakdale is arranged along Wimborne Road, part of the A35, and its parish church, St George's, dates from 1959 and 1960. The estate housing either side of the road has roofs that look alike from one street to the next, which makes the differences between them easy to miss.
Choosing between daylight shafts for a hall with no window
Many Oakdale bungalows and semis share the same dark spot in the middle of the plan.
Chalet-style homes need a different first step. Their upper rooms sit inside the roof, so a window opens straight into the room with no shaft. The knee wall height and the sill position decide the size, and for a bungalow-type roof the window can also serve as the escape from that room.
Oakdale homes built in the post-war decades were designed for compact living, with small windows and a central hall. That layout suits families, but the middle of the house stays dim all day. Switching on the hall light at noon is the usual sign that a rooflight would help.
A hall, a landing or an inner bathroom with no outside wall gets daylight only if it comes through the roof. In a bungalow the loft sits directly above, and in a semi the landing usually sits under the roof slope. Both layouts are common in Oakdale, and the same two products tend to be considered.
A roof window with a boxed shaft down to the ceiling gives a broad spread of light and, if you choose an opening model, a little ventilation. A sun tunnel uses a roof dome, a reflective tube and a ceiling diffuser instead. It leaves the rafters alone, and it suits a short run to a small space such as a bathroom or a corridor.
Both products need a way through the loft insulation, and that is worth planning around. Insulation is lifted, the shaft or tube passes through, and the insulation is made good around it so the ceiling stays as warm as before. A clear loft floor makes this quick, and a boarded one needs a section lifting first. Storage in the loft is rarely a barrier, as long as the path is cleared on the day of the work.
The deciding readings are the loft depth, the slope that is available and whether anything lies in the way of the shaft, such as a purlin, a water tank or a chimney breast. We measure all three at the survey. A tube with bends loses light, and a shaft that must jog around a timber costs space, so the better route is the one with the clearest path from roof to ceiling.
Roof window with a shaft
- Wide spread of daylight into the hall
- Opening models let air through
- Rafters are trimmed and need approval
- Shaft is boxed and finished in the loft
Sun tunnel
- Round diffuser, tidy on the ceiling
- Rafters left in place
- Light falls with longer or bent tubes
- Suits bathrooms and short corridors
Wimborne Road, the estate streets and the roofs behind them
The main road runs through the middle, with residential streets, bungalows and small infill schemes either side.
Wimborne Road is the main route through Oakdale, part of the A35 and the line that most of the district is arranged around. Back from the road the streets are residential, with the semis and bungalows that most estate agents list for the area. Alongside the main stock there are small blocks of flats and sheltered housing schemes, and newer infill on former garden plots.
St George's church, built in 1959 and 1960 to a design by Potter and Hare, is a listed building. Many of the houses in the streets around it have the plain tiled roofs of the mid-twentieth century. Where clay tiles have been swapped for concrete interlocking ones over the years, the type matters because the flashing for a roof window has to suit the tile profile.
The roof of a mid-century semi is a simple tiled pitch, most often hipped at the end of a terrace or gabled between neighbours, and the loft is often big enough to convert. Some Oakdale houses have already had a dormer or a rear extension, which changes the slopes that are available. A bungalow is a hip or a gable over a single storey, and its loft may already be partly boarded.
Before any unit is ordered, the rafter centres and the loft depth are read inside the loft, and the pitch is read on the slope with an inclinometer.
| House type | Likely roof | Reading that matters |
|---|---|---|
| Post-war semi | Tiled, hipped or gabled | Loft height for a conversion |
| Bungalow | Tiled hip over one storey | Depth of loft over the hall |
| Chalet-style home | Steep slope, rooms above | Knee wall height |
| Extended house | Mix of pitched and flat | Join between old and new |
| Infill house | Trussed roof | Truss spacing |
Terms you will meet on a written survey sheet
The sheet we hand over uses a short run of roofing words, which lets quotes be read side by side.
Every survey ends in a written sheet, and that sheet is yours to keep and to give to anyone else who quotes. Comparing two quotes only works if they describe the same opening, so the sheet states the size code, the pitch and the rafter centres. A firm that has not been on the roof cannot give you these readings.
Some of the words are the same ones that appear in a maker's catalogue. The VELUX size code is one: in MK04, M stands for the 78 cm width and 04 for the 98 cm height.
If you are replacing a unit that has failed, the sheet also records the existing size, so that a new one fits the opening that is already there. Our replacement service fits a new unit or a new sealed glass unit to suit what we find.
Words on an Oakdale survey sheet
- Rafter centres
- Spacing from the centre line of one rafter to the next. It limits how wide a window can be before a rafter has to be cut.
- Pitch
- Slope angle in degrees, taken on the roof and compared with the range each model is rated for.
- Flashing
- The shaped collar that joins a roof window to the tiles around it and carries rain away from the frame.
- Trimmer
- A timber fixed across the opening where rafters are cut, carrying their load to the rafters either side.
- Controlled fitting
- A window or rooflight that is covered by the Building Regulations when a whole unit is replaced.
- Truss
- A factory-made triangular frame used instead of separate rafters in newer roofs, which should not be cut without an engineer.
The parts of a quote on an ordinary semi or bungalow
The unit is one part. The finishing and the access are the rest.
An Oakdale semi or bungalow is among the simpler jobs, but the quote still has several parts, and none of them is a number we can state before measuring. The sheet itemises each one so that you can see what a change to the specification does.
Flat-roofed additions are the other common job. A single-storey kitchen or utility extension at the back of an Oakdale semi often has a flat roof with no daylight in its middle. A flat rooflight on a kerb solves that, and the kerb height and the fall are measured on the existing roof before the unit is ordered. A VELUX roof window is the answer on the pitched slopes of the same house.
Windows come in a range of widths and heights, and the right choice follows the opening available between rafters. On a roof with rafters at 600 mm centres, for example, a narrow size may fit between two of them, depending on the clear gap the rafter thickness leaves, while a wider one means trimming. Both are feasible. The difference is the structural work, which affects the price and the approvals.
Where the loft is already boarded, access is easy and the shaft is quick to build. Where the roof is a modern truss design, as on some newer infill, the window is sized to sit between trusses and not to cut them. A lined shaft in a two-storey house adds to the labour, since the plastering and decoration inside are part of the finished job.
What shapes the cost of a roof window in a semi
- Window sizeA wider or taller size code means a larger flashing and more glass.
- Opening or fixedOpening and electric models cost more than fixed units.
- Length of shaftA deeper loft needs a longer lined shaft and more finishing.
- Tile typeFlashings are matched to the tile profile on the roof.
- Internal finishingPlastering, decoration and any blind affect the total.
Checking an Oakdale address before work starts
BCP Council holds the planning register and building control for Poole.
Oakdale lies in Poole and is covered by BCP Council. Its planning register and conservation area map are online, so a few minutes with your full address shows whether anything unusual applies. Most homes here are mid-century estate houses, but the only way to be sure about an individual address is to look. Our planning guide explains how permitted development works for rooflights.
A new opening in a roof is a structural alteration and needs Building Regulations approval. For houses in the area, BCP Council runs the local authority building control service, and a private registered building control approver is the alternative. Neighbouring Poole and Parkstone share the same authority and the same process.
A listed building, or an Article 4 direction on the street, can change the route. St George's church shows that listed buildings are not unknown here, and the answer for a house comes from the register for the address and not from the area name. If one applies, the council may expect a particular type of rooflight, and our conservation rooflight page covers what those units look like.
Once the survey sheet is in your hands, you can decide whether to proceed. The sheet remains valid as a record of the roof as measured.
From first call to a fitted roof window
- Survey the roofA surveyor measures the pitch, the rafters and the loft depth, and writes the sheet.
- Check the addressPlanning register, conservation map and listed building search for the full address.
- Agree the specificationChoose the size code, the opening type and the glass from the options on the sheet.
- Fit the windowTrimmers, flashing and lining are fitted, and the roof is made good around the unit.
- Notify building controlThe fitting is notified to the building control body, and the certificate follows.
faq
Oakdale questions about roof windows and tunnels
Which suits a windowless bungalow hall better, a roof window or a sun tunnel?
It depends on the loft depth and the slope. A short, clear run suits a sun tunnel, and a wider hall that needs more light suits a roof window with a shaft.
Can a semi in Oakdale have two roof windows in the same slope?
Often yes, if the rafters allow. We read the rafter centres and the pitch first, then name the size codes that fit.
My roof window has misted between the panes. Do I need the whole unit?
Not always. Replacing the sealed glass unit in the existing frame is possible when the frame is sound, and the survey says which route fits.
Do I need approval to put a roof window in an Oakdale loft?
A new opening cut into the roof structure needs Building Regulations approval. Planning depends on the address, which you can search on BCP Council's register.