Powys, nearly 25 road miles north of Newport
Skylights and rooflights for homes in Crickhowell
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
- We handle the Building Control notification where notifiable
Crucywel and the roofs of a town inside the Park
Crickhowell is a town and community in southeastern Powys, known in Welsh as Crucywel. Significant parts of the countryside around it, over 20,000 acres, form part of the Glanusk Park estate. The town itself sits inside Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, so planning applications here go to the National Park Authority.
Houses in a town like this can be anything from older cottages and terraces to later semis and bungalows, and the covering can be slate, clay tile or concrete tile. Every survey starts at the roof itself: its covering, its pitch, and what sits in the loft beneath it, before any product is chosen for the room.
| Type of house | What is over the room | Worth looking at first |
|---|---|---|
| Older cottage or terrace | Slate or tile on a pitched roof, low eaves | A conservation rooflight where the covering or setting calls for one, or a roof window on the back slope |
| Semi or bungalow with a roomy loft | Pitched tile over a loft that has been, or could be, boarded | Roof windows and blackout blinds for a bedroom |
| Hall or stairwell with no outside wall | A loft void straight above the ceiling | A sun tunnel, if the route up is clear |
| Kitchen at the back of an extended house | Flat roof, joists below | A flat rooflight, or an opening version for steam |
Where we would start in Crickhowell
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A National Park Authority, and what it decides
Crickhowell lies inside Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, so the local planning authority for the town is Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority rather than a county council. In Wales, putting a rooflight into a roof slope of a house inside a National Park is not permitted development, so it needs a planning application. For houses elsewhere in Wales, the rule is laid out in our Welsh planning guide.
Conservation areas near the town include Crickhowell and Llangattock. They are a separate layer on the map, and whether a particular house is inside one is something the Welsh Government's conservation area map and the Authority can tell you for that address.
Flats have no householder permitted development rights, so these notes are about houses. A listed house is different again: work that would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest needs listed building consent, which is applied for through the Park Authority.
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Neighbouring places we also cover
Early mornings under the slope
Roof windows, blackout blinds and one rule about escape.
June mornings arrive early in Wales, and a bedroom in the loft can be bright long before anyone wants to be awake. A roof window gives that room daylight and a view of the sky, and in summer it also gives the sleeper an early start whether they asked for one or not.
The answer is a blackout blind. It sits over the glass and shuts out the morning, and then comes up again when the room is in use. The blind is bought to suit the window, so it belongs in the same decision as the glass rather than coming later. Rooms under a roof slope can also run warm on a summer evening, and a sash that opens lets the room be aired before bed.
A bedroom in the loft brings a fire-safety question with it. Approved Document B (Wales) gives guidance on escape windows, which our Welsh planning guide points to, and our page on roof windows and Building Regulations covers the wider requirements. The questions to bring are who sleeps there and where the sash would open.
A new roof window in an existing home should meet 1.4 W/m²K or Window Energy Rating band B, according to Approved Document L (Wales). That is guidance, written as "should", and the figure is a reason to look at the glazing specification before choosing on size alone. In law a roof window is a controlled fitting, which makes fitting one building work, and where the work is notifiable we handle the notification with local authority building control or a registered building control approver.
Measure the room before you choose. Stand where the pillow will be and look at what the window would show: the sky, a hillside, the next roof. Then look at where the sash will open and whether a bed head or a wardrobe would stand in its way.
Loft bedroom, roof window
- Suits
- A sleeping room under the slope
- Morning light
- Blackout blind chosen with the window
- Airing
- A sash that opens
- Energy guidance
- 1.4 W/m²K or WER band B
- Paperwork
- Notified where the work is notifiable
An older roof inside protected land
Listed houses, the Park Authority and the conservation rooflight.
Is your house listed, or does it stand on land that carries a designation? That question comes before the choice of glass, because it decides which application goes where.
For a house inside Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, the decisions fall to a short list of bodies. Planning applications go to the Park Authority. If the house is listed, the Welsh Ministers compile the list of listed buildings on the recommendation of Cadw, and work that would affect the character of a listed building needs listed building consent, applied for through the same authority. Cadw's advice is that consent covers work inside as well as outside, including historic fixtures, fittings and details, and that even minor work can need it. Our guide to listed building consent for rooflights in Wales covers the process step by step.
On an older slate roof the design of the opening matters as much as the permission. A conservation rooflight is a product made for roofs where the look of the original covering is being kept, and what a conservation rooflight is has a page of its own. Whether it is allowed on a particular house is a separate question, answered by the authority rather than by the product.
The survey for a house like this looks at the covering from outside as well as from the loft. Note how the roof is seen from the lane or the garden, since a roof window set in the back slope can read very differently from one set in the front.
Where a house has had work in the past, the earlier permissions may carry conditions. A planning condition can remove a house's permitted development rights, as can an Article 4 direction made by a council; the Welsh planning guide explains where those rights stand. Ask what was granted when the house was built or converted, and keep the paperwork where you can find it.
For replacement, the position is different from a new opening. Swapping an old roof window for one in the same place is still building work, and How to replace an old skylight sets that against cutting a fresh hole in the slope.
| The question | Who answers it | What follows |
|---|---|---|
| A rooflight in a house roof slope | The Park Authority | A planning application is needed |
| A listed house | The Park Authority | Listed building consent where the character is affected |
| The list itself | The Welsh Ministers, on Cadw's advice | The record is on Cof Cymru |
| A flat or maisonette | The law on householder rights | No householder rights to rely on |
The landing after the bulbs go out
A sun tunnel for the middle of the house, and what it does at night.
Count the doors on your landing. If three or four open off a space with no window, the landing takes whatever daylight leaks round them, and the switch gets used from morning onwards.
A sun tunnel is the product made for that gap. A small dome sits on the roof, a tube runs from it to the ceiling, and a diffuser in the ceiling spreads what the dome has gathered. It is daylight only. Once night falls the ceiling disc has nothing to pass on, and the landing lamp is what you use. Within the house, that makes the tube a daytime fitting.
The loft decides whether a tube will fit. Between the slope and the ceiling lie timbers, perhaps a water tank, and cabling, and the tube needs a clear way past all of them. A straight run is the simplest to plan, and where a bend is needed the page on rigid or flexible sun tunnels sets the two kinds side by side. Tell us what is stored up there, because boxes and insulation have to be worked round as well.
On the roof, the dome has to be flashed into the covering, and the covering can be slate, clay tile or concrete tile depending on the house. The slope that gets the most open sky is worth identifying at the survey, so the dome is not sitting in the shadow of a chimney or a neighbouring gable.
Indoors, the ceiling disc has to sit where it reaches the stair head and the doorways, and that spot can sit off-centre in the ceiling. Marking its position from below, then checking it against the loft route from above, settles the question better than a guess from either floor alone. A landing under a low eaves slope may offer one position only, and that is worth knowing before the order goes in.
A bedroom is a different case. A sun tunnel carries daylight, so over a bed it brings the June morning into the room, and for sleeping rooms a roof window fitted with a blind that blacks out the room is the better route. Landings, hallways, a walk-in wardrobe or a small bathroom are where a tube makes the most sense.
Our page on sun tunnels collects the rest of what we can say about them, including the cost and planning questions.
Crickhowell, answered
Do you work inside Bannau Brycheiniog National Park?
Yes. The drive from Newport is nearly 25 road miles to the north, and the survey comes free of charge. For a house inside the Park the planning authority is the Park Authority, and our planning guide for Wales explains how a rooflight is treated there.
Why does the Park Authority matter for my roof?
It decides planning applications for land inside the Park, and for listed building consent on listed houses there. A county council is not the authority for those addresses, so any application is made to the Park Authority.
What suits a landing with no window of its own?
A sun tunnel suits a landing with no outside wall, provided the loft leaves a clear route down to the ceiling. A roof window suits a room that is used under the slope. The survey shows which of the two the roof allows.
Who keeps the list of listed buildings?
The Welsh Ministers compile it, and Cadw recommends which buildings are listed. Each listed building record is published on Cof Cymru, the national record of historic assets in Wales.
Can an old roof window be replaced like for like?
A replacement in the same opening can avoid much of the structural work. It is still building work, so we deal with the notification wherever the work is notifiable. If the old one is a VELUX window, a photo of its type sign, found on the top of the sash, is a good thing to send ahead.
How do I arrange a survey?
Fill in the survey form, or send the street and the room you are thinking of to info@supremeskylightsnewport.co.uk. WhatsApp reaches us on 07880 284133.
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10-year workmanship guarantee.
Building Control notification handled where notifiable.