Rooflight and skylight installation in Long Melford

Almost everything is listed

The concentration of listed buildings along the street is among the highest we work with. The practical consequence is that listed building consent is the normal path here rather than the exception, and it is assessed on merit.

We start with the conservation officer. It costs nothing, it happens in days, and it saves applications that were never going to succeed.

Street-facing slopes

The street is the point of the village, so front slopes are close to untouchable. Rear slopes, out of the public view, are a far easier conversation and that is where almost all successful applications sit.

Flush conservation rooflights throughout, in black, single bar, sitting nearly level with the clay.

Skylight and rooflight work we cover in Long Melford

Roof lanterns, flat roof rooflights, roof windows, VELUX replacements, conservation units and sun tunnels, all surveyed before they are quoted. We also work in Sudbury, Bures and Hadleigh.

Three miles of listed buildings

Long Melford has one of the most remarkable streets in East Anglia: a mile and a half of frontage running from the green and the church down to the Stour crossing, with an exceptional density of listed buildings and a conservation area covering effectively the whole of it. Melford Hall and Kentwell Hall sit at either end with their own settings.

Nothing about rooflight work here begins with a product. It begins with establishing exactly what covers the property, and in a village like this the answer is rarely nothing.

What it costs in a street like this

Work here costs more than the same work on an estate, for reasons that are specific rather than a village premium, and it is worth setting them out so a quotation reads honestly.

The unit. A steel conservation rooflight is built in far smaller volumes than a mass market roof window and priced accordingly. Where a standard unit would be consented we will say so rather than defaulting to the expensive product.

The covering. Handmade clay is slow to lift, a proportion breaks whatever care is taken, and replacements have to be sourced or taken from a hidden slope. That is time rather than materials, and it is real.

Access. Frontages on the pavement, limited parking, and side access that is not guaranteed. A highway licence for scaffold is a named line, and where there is no side passage, materials come through the house.

The application. A council fee, a drawing and a wait measured in months. We prepare the material without charging as a planning consultancy, but the fee and the wait are what they are.

What is found. Decayed rafter ends and absent underlay are both realistic on a building of this age. An honest quotation names a contingency with an indication of cost rather than producing an invoice later.

Blinds and living with the result

Worth settling before the unit is ordered rather than afterwards.

Steel conservation rooflights do not carry the clip in accessory ranges mass market roof windows do, so blinds become a separate made to measure item fitted to the reveal. Budget for it from the start.

Most conservation units are top hung or side hung on a stay rather than centre pivot, which gives a clear opening and an unobstructed view and means the outer face cannot be rotated inward for cleaning. On anything above easy reach, decide how the glass gets cleaned before it goes in.

In a room with original cornice, shutters or panelling, the reveal detail matters as much as the window. A splayed plaster reveal reads correctly in a period room where a square boxed one does not, and it lets considerably more light into the room as a bonus.

What to send us

A photograph of the roof, one of the frontage showing the street, and the address so we can check the listing, the conservation position and any setting issue ourselves.

Tell us whether there is side access to the rear, because along this street that single fact changes the shape of the quotation more than the choice of unit does.

Say honestly what the roof can be seen from. On a street where roofs read as a continuous plane, an application that acknowledges the visibility does better than one presenting a rear slope as invisible when it is not.

Where the honest answer is that a particular slope will not be consented, we would rather tell you before a survey than after one.

How we work

A survey before a fixed price. An itemised written quotation naming the product, the flashing kit and the insulation collar. Disposal of what comes out. A ten year guarantee on our workmanship alongside the manufacturer’s warranty on the product.

Where consent is needed we prepare the survey, the product drawing and a written description that engages honestly with visibility and with the historic fabric. That covers most domestic applications here without a planning consultant.

Where a standard unit would be consented we will say so rather than defaulting to the more expensive conservation product. On a street of this quality that is not often the answer, and it is worth asking.

Talk to us

Send a photograph of the roof and one of the frontage, and tell us the address so we can check the listing, the conservation position and any setting issue ourselves. You will get a realistic range back the same working day wherever possible.

Where the honest answer is that a particular slope will not be consented, we would rather tell you at that point than after a survey.