14.1 road miles north of Bournemouth
skylights & rooflights in west moors
West Moors grew up around its railway junction, and most of its houses are twentieth-century bungalows and chalets on heathland ground. We measure the roof first, whichever year the house was built.
a village of single-storey plans
- Detached bungalowsWide plans with a central hall and a deep loft.
- Chalet bungalowsBedrooms in the roof, lit by one small gable window.
- Estate semisConcrete-tiled roofs on factory-made trusses.
- Garage conversionsLow flat roofs beside the front door.
the records we pull for a West Moors address
- planning authority
- Dorset Council
- planning authority
- Dorset Council
- road miles
- 14.1
roof windows and rooflights, West Moors to the heath
loft depth and span
the wide plans of a heathland village
West Moors rose to local prominence when two railway lines were built through it in the late nineteenth century. Most of what stands there now dates from the twentieth century, and its roofs share a few traits that decide which rooflight suits them.
Old domes and tired frames on twentieth-century roofs
Bungalows built decades ago are reaching the age where their first rooflights need replacing.
A rooflight fitted into a West Moors bungalow some decades back is often a plastic dome or a single-glazed roof window. The seals have gone, the plastic has clouded, or the frame has shifted. Replacing a whole unit, frame and glass together, counts as a controlled fitting, so the work is notifiable to building control and the new product has to meet today's thermal figures.
Condensation is the other sign that an old unit is ending its life. A dome or window with a failed seal clouds from inside, and cleaning does not shift it. An opening model, once fitted, helps ventilate the room, and a new unit with modern glazing is far less prone to the same fault.
The same figures matter when a house is extended. A flat-roofed rear extension is common behind a West Moors bungalow, and its rooflight is new work. A new rooflight has a target of 2.2 W/m²K across the whole unit, while a roof window must reach 1.4 W/m²K or Band B in the Window Energy Rating scheme. A swap of just the sealed glass unit, with the frame left in place, needs no notification. Where the frame has not moved or rotted, that is the route when the frame is sound and only the glass has misted, and our replacement service covers it.
When we take out an old unit, the opening is already there. If the replacement is the same size, no rafters need cutting. If you want something bigger, the survey records what the rafters allow, and a wider unit goes in only with a trimmed opening approved through Building Regulations. As an example, a like-for-like MK04 is a window of 78 cm across by 98 cm tall.
- target for a new rooflight
- 2.2 W/m²K
- target for a new roof window
- 1.4 W/m²K
- 78 cm wide, 98 cm high
- MK04
Bedrooms in the roof and the window that serves them
A chalet bungalow bedroom can take either a fixed or an opening roof window, and the two do different jobs.
Many West Moors chalet bungalows were built with their upper rooms squeezed under the roof, and the daylight comes from one gable window or a small dormer. A roof window in the slope adds a large area of glass to a room that has had very little, and because the glass is set high it takes in the sky instead of a fence. Blinds matter in a roof-space bedroom: a south slope in July is bright and warm, and a roller or pleated blind made for the window is worth choosing at the same time as the glass.
Choosing between fixed and opening is the main decision once the size is known. An opening roof window helps ventilate a room that heats up under the tiles in summer. It can also serve as an escape window: with one storey and a half, a correctly sized roof window can do the job, because its floor sits no higher than 4.5 m up. That only works if the opening is large enough and the sill height right, both of which the survey measures. A fixed unit costs less to fit and has no moving parts, but it gives light only.
Our roof window page covers the frame types in detail, and the opening rooflight page covers motors and remote controls for roofs that are hard to reach.
Opening roof window
- Lets warm air out of a roof-space bedroom
- Can serve as the escape window when sized for it
- Has a hinge, handle or motor that needs reaching
- Costs more to supply and fit
Fixed rooflight
- Gives light with no moving parts
- Suits a slope you cannot reach from inside
- Cannot be used for ventilation or escape
- Suits a landing or a stair void
Which council holds the paperwork on a West Moors house
West Moors was once in East Dorset, and Dorset Council now holds the planning and building control records.
Until April 2019 this part of Dorset was run by East Dorset District Council. That body was merged into Dorset Council, which now handles planning applications and building control for West Moors. A drawer-full of old decision notices may carry the older name; they still count, but anything new goes to Dorset Council.
West Moors has no national park or National Landscape over it, and most of the housing is modern, so many roads may still hold their permitted development rights. That is a likelihood and no more. An estate approved decades ago may have carried a condition on the original permission that still binds the plot, and an Article 4 direction would do the same. Where a condition applies, planning permission is needed for a rooflight that would otherwise be allowed. Our planning guide covers the conditions.
Flats and maisonettes have no householder rights at all, so a flat in the village always needs the council asked first. Private building control bodies, now called registered building control approvers, are an alternative to the council's own service for the structural side.
Terms from a West Moors planning and building file
- Controlled fitting
- A regulated building element, such as a whole roof window, whose replacement must be notified to building control.
- Planning condition
- A requirement attached to a planning permission, sometimes removing rights the house would otherwise have.
- Registered building control approver
- The title for a private building control body in England, working as an alternative to the council service.
- Trussed rafter
- A factory-made triangular roof frame, common on estate houses, which is not cut at the site without an engineer working out the loads first.
- Permitted development
- A national right to make some alterations without a planning application, within set conditions.
- Window Energy Rating
- A band on a scale from A++ down to E describing the overall energy performance of a window.
Trussed roofs and what a window can fit between
Houses built from the 1960s onward carry roofs that a joiner cannot open freely.
A trussed rafter roof spreads its load across factory-made frames set at regular centres. Cutting through one weakens the frame and the neighbours that rely on it. For that reason, the first task on an estate house is to measure the gap between two trusses and see which size code fits inside it. The narrow codes sit in a gap. A wide one needs a structural design for the opening.
The same applies to a loft conversion that has already been framed in. If a storage loft has been boarded and lined, the survey checks what was done and whether the roof has been altered. Older bungalows with cut roofs, in which the timbers are separate rafters and purlins, allow more freedom, though each rafter that is removed has to be trimmed properly. A purlin that crosses the planned opening is a separate question, and the survey records where it sits before any size is named.
A dormer is not the only way into a chalet roof, and on some plots it is not the best one. A roof window does not add a box to the outline of the house, it needs no new walls, and it is built from a factory-sealed frame. For a bungalow in a row of near-identical roofs, that keeps the street looking as it did.
Each of these features moves the cost of a job, under the same headings that appear on our survey sheet. No prices are given, since a figure only means something after the readings are taken.
What changes the cost of a West Moors rooflight job
- Truss or cut roofA trussed roof limits the window size and may need an engineer's design for anything wider.
- Size of openingEach extra rafter or truss gap adds framing and lining.
- Opening or fixedA hinged, motorised or remote unit costs more than a fixed one.
- Ceiling shaftA bungalow hall needs a boxed and plastered shaft through the loft.
- Glass specificationHigher thermal performance or sound control adds to the unit price.
From the inner hall to the converted garage
Each kind of room in a village bungalow suggests a different rooflight.
The most common request in a village of bungalows is for the hall. A hall that runs down the middle of the plan has doors on both sides and no window of its own, and a sun tunnel or a boxed roof window shaft brings daylight straight down from the roof.
In a chalet bungalow, the stair is the next candidate. A stairwell with no window is dark at every landing, and a roof window above it lights the stair and the hall below. Where the roof over the stairs is a trussed one, the window is limited to the gap between two trusses, and the survey measures that gap first. If the stairs run under a hipped end of the roof, the slope facing the road may be the only one with enough height above the landing, and we note the headroom under the window at the same visit.
Garage conversions come next. The old garage roof is low and often flat, and the converted room can feel like a cellar if the original door is now a wall. A flat rooflight gives it a square of sky and a view of cloud. The kerb, the fall and the roof covering all need checking, as the flat roof page explains.
The nearest places we also cover are Ferndown and Three Legged Cross, where the housing stock is similar. The rooms we meet most are paired with the light source that tends to suit each.
| Room | Light source | Survey check |
|---|---|---|
| Inner hall | Sun tunnel | Loft depth, tube bends |
| Chalet bedroom | Roof window | Pitch, sill height, escape |
| Garage conversion | Flat rooflight | Kerb, fall, covering |
| Kitchen extension | Flat rooflight | Joist span, glass size |
| Inner bathroom | Sun tunnel or fixed window | Route through the roof space |
faq
West Moors households put these to us
Is my West Moors bungalow roof likely to take a window between the trusses?
If it was built from the 1960s onward, probably as a trussed roof, and the survey measures the gap to see which narrow size code fits. Wider windows need a design for the opening.
Do I need to notify anyone to swap an old roof window for a new one?
Yes. Replacing the whole unit counts as a controlled fitting and is notified to building control. A swap of just the sealed glass, with the frame kept, is not.
Which council deals with a rooflight application in West Moors?
Dorset Council, which took over from East Dorset District Council in 2019. Its planning register shows past decisions on your address.
Can I turn a garage into a bright room with a rooflight?
A garage roof is flat and low, so a flat rooflight on a kerb is the answer. The survey checks the covering, the fall and the joist span before an order is placed.