26 miles by road, to the north-west of Newport
Fochriw rooflights and skylights
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
- We handle the Building Control notification where notifiable
Two hamlets and a brook: the roofs of Fochriw
Fochriw is a village in Caerphilly County Borough, a typical South Wales Valleys coal mining village. It grew from a rural place during the 19th century, when iron and coal were wanted. The village straddles two ancient hamlets in the parish of Gelligaer, Ysgwyddgwyn and Brithdir, and the brook Bargoed Fach, which flows in the bottom of the valley, is the dividing line. Fochriw was on the Brecon and Merthyr Railway line from Bargoed to Dowlais Top. Its growth came to a lesser extent from the Rhymney Iron Company's demand for ironstone, and to a greater extent from the Dowlais Ironworks' need for high-quality coal. In the early 20th century the neighbouring collieries employed nearly the entire local population.
Homes of the Victorian and Edwardian years are often terraced, with slate or tile on the main slopes and a lower roof over a rear addition. Later houses more often carry concrete tile over a loft that can take a roof window. Our free survey starts at the roof: what covers it, how steep it runs, and which timbers lie above the room in question, because those three decide what can go in.
| Home | Roof above the room | Worth a look |
|---|---|---|
| Victorian or Edwardian terrace | Pitched slate or tile, often with a rear addition | One roof window set into the back slope of the bedroom |
| Later semi or bungalow | Pitched tile over a loft that may be boarded | A larger roof window, or one with a blackout blind for sleeping |
| Hallway or landing with no outside wall | Pitched, with a loft void above | A sun tunnel through the loft |
| Back kitchen or porch with a low roof | Flat or very shallow pitch | Flat glass on an upstand above the roof covering |
Where the glass goes in Fochriw homes
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Caerphilly Council and the Welsh planning rules
Caerphilly County Borough Council decides planning matters in Fochriw. Under the Welsh rules, putting a rooflight into a house roof may fall within permitted development, though that turns on the house and its land, and the limits sit in our planning guide for Wales.
Article 4 directions let a council withdraw those rights, and a condition on the house's first planning permission can do the same. Householder permitted development is a house matter, and a flat or maisonette has no such rights. Where a house's position is unclear, ask the council's planning team, and know that a Lawful Development Certificate settles it formally.
On a listed house, work that would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest needs listed building consent. That is applied for through Caerphilly, and Cadw recommends which buildings are listed while the Welsh Ministers compile the list.
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Villages and towns close to Fochriw
June in a loft bedroom
Roof windows, blackout blinds and the guidance for a bedroom under the slope.
Early summer is when a loft bedroom shows what it lacks. The sun is up long before most alarms, and a roof window with no blind lights the whole sloping ceiling at an hour when nobody asked for it. A blackout blind answers that, and it is the usual choice for a room where someone sleeps.
The glass matters too. Approved Document L (Wales) is guidance on meeting the regulations, and for a new or replacement roof window in an existing home it says the U-value should be no worse than 1.4 W/m²K, or the Window Energy Rating should be Band B. Read that figure on the specification beside the size, because two windows of one size can differ.
A bedroom in the loft brings fire guidance into play as well. An escape window can be the way out from an upper-floor habitable room, and Approved Document B (Wales) sets what it must measure. The sizes are in our guide to Building Regulations in Wales. In a two-storey house, a loft conversion will normally call for the stairway to be protected, with fire-resisting doors and partitions from the top flight to the bottom, where it had none before. That cost in time and tidiness is worth knowing before the bedroom is planned.
Fresh air is the other half of a bedroom window. Approved Document F (Wales) asks a replacement to keep background vents at least as large as the old window had, where it had them, and those vents can be adjusted by the person in the room or work automatically.
Swapping an old roof window for a new one in the same place is the simpler job, and the size is the first question. On a VELUX sash, a small metal type sign sits on the top edge and shows once the sash is opened. According to VELUX, any of its windows made after 1968 has one fitted. Its code stands for the window's size, so a photo sent before the survey saves guessing.
For a new opening in Wales, we handle the Building Regulations notification with local authority building control or a registered building control approver, where the work is notifiable.
Roof window, loft bedroom
- Glazing guidance
- U-value no worse than 1.4 W/m²K, or WER Band B
- Blind
- Blackout, for a room where someone sleeps
- Escape window
- Sizes set by Approved Document B (Wales)
- Size
- Read from the type sign on a VELUX sash
- Paperwork
- Building control notified, if the work is notifiable
Start with the stairs
A sun tunnel over a landing that never saw daylight.
Start with the stairs. Stand at the bottom on a bright afternoon and look up: if the landing is still dim, with every door shut, the house has a part that no window can reach. A hallway, a stairwell and a small inner bathroom are the spaces where this shows most.
A sun tunnel is made for them. The kit has three parts: a clear dome on the roof, a tube dropping down through the loft space, and at the bottom a ceiling diffuser that spreads whatever arrives. The landing is lit by a roof it cannot see. Only daylight comes down, so once the evening has drawn in, the diffuser turns into a plain pale circle overhead, and the landing light takes over.
The loft decides whether one suits. The tube needs a route from slope to ceiling past timbers, a water tank, cables and whatever has been stored up there. A short, straight run is the easy case. Some products cope with a bend, and our guide to rigid and flexible sun tunnels sets the two types side by side.
Outside, the flashing must fit the covering, so the survey notes the covering, whether slate, clay or concrete, and which slope leaves the dome least shaded. Indoors, the diffuser should sit where its light reaches the stairs and the bedroom doors, and the middle of the ceiling is not always that place.
Walk-in wardrobes and small cloakrooms are the quiet winners. Nobody sleeps in them, nobody minds an early start there, and a short tube run is often all the loft has to give. A bathroom with no outside wall falls in the same group, as long as the tube can reach it.
A bedroom is a poor match, because it also needs darkness early on a summer morning. For a sleeping room, pair a roof window with a blind, and keep the sun tunnel on the landing, in the hallway or over a walk-in wardrobe.
A bathroom roof window in view
Steam, privacy and reach under a sloping ceiling.
The brook at the bottom of the valley is the Bargoed Fach, and where a village sits in a valley, some houses can stand higher than their neighbours. Where ground falls away, a roof can be overlooked by upstairs windows across the way, and a lit bathroom is easy to see into once daylight has gone. At the survey we stand where the window would be and look outward at what can see in.
Steam is the second question. A shower fills the room with moisture quickly, and a roof window can be the coldest surface there, so the glass can mist first. A sash that opens can help, and an extractor fan can help too.
Privacy gets settled by a blind. By day a roof window looks at sky and is rarely seen into, so the blind earns its keep in the evening. The blind for a damp room is chosen with the window.
A replacement bathroom window follows the same ventilation guidance as a bedroom one, so the question of vents comes up there too, and it is easiest settled while the room is being measured.
Reach counts in a bathroom. A window above the tub or at the washbasin is hard to open by hand. Electric and solar roof windows can be opened from a switch or a remote, and VELUX describes a rain sensor built into its solar and electric roof windows that closes the sash when rain starts. We mention it for those windows only.
A new roof window in Wales will generally need Building Regulations approval, and we handle the notification where the work is notifiable. A like-for-like swap in an existing opening is a smaller job, covered in our answer on replacing an old skylight.
Tell us at the survey who sleeps next door, and whether the window will sit over the bath or the basin. Each answer changes the blind and the controls we would suggest.
Before you book in Fochriw
Do you survey homes in Fochriw?
Yes. By road, Fochriw is 26 miles from Newport, and the survey costs nothing. Tell us the room and the roof you have in mind and we will plan the visit around them.
Who decides on a rooflight in Fochriw?
Caerphilly County Borough Council is the local planning authority. Whether a house can take a rooflight under permitted development depends on the house and its land, and the limits are set out in the Wales part of the planning guide. The council's planning team can confirm for your address.
Which VELUX size do I have?
On the upper edge of the opened sash there is a small metal plate, the type sign. Its code stands for the window's width and height, and a photo of it helps us match a like-for-like replacement.
What lights a landing with no window?
A sun tunnel can, where the loft leaves it a route from roof slope to landing ceiling. Daylight is all it carries, so landings, hallways and small bathrooms suit it best.
What if my Fochriw home is a flat?
A flat or maisonette carries no householder permitted development rights, because those rights belong to houses. Our Welsh planning guide gives the starting point, and the council's planning team is the place to ask the rest.
Where do I send my address for a quote?
WhatsApp 07880 284133 or an email to info@supremeskylightsnewport.co.uk reaches us, so send the address and name the room you want changed. The free survey form does the same job, and after the survey comes a fixed written quote.
Book your free survey
10-year workmanship guarantee.
Building Control notification handled where notifiable.