6.2 road miles out, to the south-south-east of the city centre
Skylight and rooflight fitting in Edwalton
A Rushcliffe village of 1950s estates, newer streets around Sharphill Farm and one old hall turned into mews houses. Each kind of house brings its own questions about where daylight can get in.
One family's hall, then decades of estates
The Chaworth family once lived at Edwalton Hall, which is now mews houses and apartments. Around it the village filled up with estates from the 1950s onwards, so the roofs here come from several different decades.
Edwalton, from the hall to the new estates
Edwalton is a village in Rushcliffe borough, Nottinghamshire, with a recorded population of 4,762. Its parish was folded into West Bridgford in 1935, yet the village kept a conservation area, a hall and a run of estates of its own. Five short chapters follow, each one a question we ask before suggesting a rooflight here. For the full range of what Robin does across the county, skylight installation in Nottingham has the overview, and everything on this page is specific to the village.
01
Fifties estates, later streets and one old hall
Edwalton is not one style of house. Landmark bespoke houses are common, but most of the village is large housing estates. The first went up in the early 1950s, more were added in the 1980s, and developers have kept building since, including on the ground known locally as Sharphill Farm.
The oldest and largest building is Edwalton Hall, once the home of the Chaworth family and now a set of mews houses and apartments. A converted hall is a different job from an estate house, and it is the sort of address where we would check the listing before we draw anything.
What the age of the roof changes
We cannot tell from the pavement which decade your roof belongs to, so we do not guess. A roof from the first estates may be framed with cut timbers that can be trimmed around. A roof from a newer street is more likely to be built from prefabricated trusses, and a truss cannot simply be sawn through. It needs a proper plan for carrying the load around the opening. The survey therefore includes a look in the loft, and the size of the rooflight follows what the structure will allow.
The room with one window
A common problem in houses of any age is a room with a window at one end and nothing at the other. A kitchen-diner stretched across the back of the house is the usual example. In a grey November the far end wants the lamp on by mid afternoon. A flat rooflight or a roof window above that far end is what changes the room, because it brings light in from overhead rather than from the side that already has it.
If you have a landing in the middle of the plan or a bathroom on an inner wall, the logic is the same, and a smaller unit may be enough.
02
Who signs off a roof opening, and what is listed nearby
6listed
buildings recorded in the Edwalton Conservation Area
2005designated
Edwalton Conservation Area, 0.28 km from the centre
For planning, the body to ask about an Edwalton roof is Rushcliffe Borough Council. The city council next door does not decide it. The same goes for questions about listed buildings and conservation areas.
Edwalton's conservation area and the listed buildings in it
Edwalton has a conservation area under its own name, recorded 0.28 km from the village centre point and dated 12 December 2005. Inside it sit six listed buildings, a single Grade II* and five Grade II. Those six are the Historic England entries inside 1.5 km of the village point.
Those six are the first thing we match your address against. If your house is listed, or you suspect it falls inside the area, we ask Rushcliffe before any unit is ordered. Listing means consent has to be in place before anyone cuts the roof. A house inside the conservation area normally keeps the usual right, so the check we make is for an Article 4 direction on your road.
Rushcliffe, the slope and the notification
The national side, meaning permitted development limits plus the building rules for cutting a roof, lives in the rooflight planning guide, and we do not repeat them here. The Edwalton questions are narrower: which council, which slope, and whether the job counts as notifiable.
Should it count, we file the notification. The recipient is whoever inspects: Rushcliffe's in-house building control, or a registered approver. Copies of the sign-off reach you at handover, and the build follows the regulations current that week.
03
Hills, a canal and what the weather does to a roof
Edwalton has green ground close by. Miss Machin's Field lies 0.4 km away and The Square 1.2 km. The Grantham Canal passes within about 1.5 km. Named hills nearby include Spinny Hill at 1.4 km, Wilford Hill at 1.8 km and Borough Hill at 3 km. Sharphill Wood and The Green Line, both local nature reserves, lie 1.3 km distant, with Wilford Clay Pit a little further.
Trees, leaf fall and the kerb
Autumn drops leaf litter on every roof near a tree line. On a flat roof it piles against the kerb under a rooflight and keeps puddles in place. Our answer is a taller kerb, so a puddle stays below the glass line, and a roof finish laid to fall away from it. On a tiled roof the flashing kit is picked to suit the tile profile, so the litter washes past.
- Kerb
- A short timber or insulated box fixed to a flat roof, lifting the rooflight clear of the surface water.
- Truss
- A prefabricated roof frame whose members share the load, so no timber in it can be cut casually.
- Trimming
- Extra timbers fixed around a new opening to carry the rafters that have been cut.
Rain, wind and the way the glass is held
Rain on a windy day does not fall straight, and that is what tests a flashing: water pushed sideways looks for any gap to climb. A sound flashing overlaps the roof covering on all four sides so there is nowhere for it to go. We look at how the existing tiles lie before we pick the kit. From the garden, a flashing in a tone close to the tiles sits quietly against the slope once the job is done.
Cold glass in damp months
Of all the surfaces in a room, the glass runs coldest. Steam from the hob and the shower lands there first and then drips. A good double-glazed unit with insulating edge strips keeps the inside pane closer to the warmth of the room, and a sash that opens gives steam an exit before it becomes drips.
04
Getting to you along the A52 and the A606
Edwalton is 6.2 road miles out from the city centre, in the south-south-east, and the drive is around 12 minutes. The A52 and the A606 both run within roughly a kilometre of it. Neither rail nor tram serves Edwalton within 2 km on the map, which makes the road the only practical way in for a survey visit.
New building near the A52 has brought a sharp rise in population. If you live on one of those newer streets, the house is recent and its roof is probably a modern build. We check, rather than assume.
What happens at the survey
The survey is free. We begin inside, in the room that never gets enough light, and note where you sit, where the daylight falls and where it stops. Then we go to the roof to read pitch, covering, timbers and drainage. The written price comes last. It is a fixed quote, and nothing is added when we turn up to do the work.
6.2miles
road distance to the city centre
12minutes
typical drive to the city centre
Sharphill, Abbey Park, Gamston and beyond
Sharphill is about 1 km from the village point, Abbey Park 1.4 km and Gamston 1.5 km. We work in all of them, and anywhere up to 30 road miles out from Nottingham. The areas we cover page lists the places nearby.
| Neighbourhood | Distance | Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Sharphill | 1 km | Yes |
| Abbey Park | 1.4 km | Yes |
| Gamston | 1.5 km | Yes |
05
What tends to suit the houses in Edwalton
The dark room comes first and the product second. For a village of estate houses with a hall and some larger properties among them, three products suit the likely problems.
A bathroom or landing with no outside wall
Where the room sits in the middle of the plan, a sun tunnel sends daylight through a mirrored pipe that starts as a dome in the tiles and ends as a ceiling diffuser. The hole in the roof is small. The difference on a grey afternoon is large. A roof window over a bathtub, as in the photo pair below, is another route to the same result.
A loft room or a bedroom in the roof
On a sloping roof, a roof window puts sky above a bed or desk and lets a sash swing open for air. Placed where you can see out from a chair or the pillow, it changes a loft bedroom between October and March.
A kitchen extension or a rear addition
A flat-roofed extension on a house of the 1950s or later often has the kitchen running away from the garden doors. A large flat rooflight, or a lantern on a taller kerb, pulls sky into the deep end of that room. Sizes and kerb heights are set out on the flat roof rooflights page.
New or replacing
Whether we fit a new unit or replace an old one, the work carries a ten-year workmanship guarantee, issued in writing. Should an existing rooflight have fogged inside the glass, or its frame have worn out, we will say after the survey whether replacing it on the same opening is the cleaner route.
Asked by people in Edwalton before the survey
Is Edwalton Conservation Area likely to affect a new rooflight?
Not on its own. Edwalton Conservation Area does not take permitted development away from a house rooflight. Only an Article 4 direction, or a listed building, does that. The area holds six listed buildings, so we check your address against the list and Rushcliffe's Article 4 directions before anything is ordered. The survey itself costs nothing.
My house is on one of the newer estates. Does the roof structure matter?
Yes. A newer roof is more likely to be made of prefabricated trusses rather than cut rafters, and trusses cannot be cut freely. We look in the loft during the survey, work out how the load is carried and only then settle the size and position of the opening. The quote that follows is fixed in writing.
Do you replace an old rooflight as well as fitting new ones?
We do both. A unit that has gone cloudy between the panes has lost its seal, and it will not clear. After the survey we tell you whether a new unit on the existing opening is enough, or whether the kerb or frame also needs work. Either way the job comes with the written guarantee.
Who deals with Building Control on the job?
We do, where the work is notifiable. The notification goes in on your behalf, and the rooflight is fitted to current Building Regulations. You are not left chasing paperwork. The planning guide sets out permitted development in one place.