Skylight and rooflight installation in Pencoed

Does the back of the kitchen feel narrow when the sun is not shining straight in? An open-plan room made by knocking through to an extension can be bright at the garden end and dim at the other. The extension roof is the obvious place to put that right, because it is the one part of the house with open sky above it.

Two kinds of glass do this. A flat rooflight stands on an upstand with a low line, and a lantern is a taller glazed roof with pitched sides. The lantern lifts more of the ceiling and shows a bigger piece of sky. The flat rooflight asks less of the space and less of the look from outside. Our comparison of the two, lantern or flat rooflight, sets them against each other, and the room's height decides much of the answer.

Planning needs a word of its own. A lantern is tall enough that it should be treated as a planning question, so we confirm its position with Bridgend before ordering. Keep the Welsh tests in view through the planning guide, and tell us early if the extension is still on paper.

The ceiling beneath has a say too. A lantern needs a roof structure that can carry its upstand and an opening lined neatly on the inside. In a room with a low ceiling, the plasterwork round the opening shows more than the glass does, so the lining is planned with the glass, not afterwards.

Ask who will use the room and when. A dining end that is busy after dark reads the glass differently from a playroom used at weekends, and we pick the type with that in mind. By night the glass goes black and gives the lit room back, so a calm, evenly lined opening looks better than a deep one with rough edges.

Furniture is worth a thought as well. A long table under a lantern makes the glass the centre of the room, while a sofa wall may want the light to fall across it from the side. Sketch where things go and bring it to the survey, because the position of the glass should follow the position of the furniture.

A rooflight on a flat roof is out of reach from inside and awkward to get at from outside. Leaves settle on it, rain leaves its marks on it, and an extension skylight over a kitchen table can look dull by the end of a wet season. That is the practical case for glass that looks after itself.

One self-cleaning option is Pilkington Activ, and Pilkington names rooflights and roof glazing among its applications. Its coating relies on daylight to loosen dirt, with rain then washing the loosened dirt off. It is a coating on the glass, so it is chosen when the rooflight is specified, and it is one more reason to talk it over before the order.

Opening matters too. A rooflight that opens gives you a way to let the steam out of the room below. An electric version can be worked from a switch, which helps where the glass is high above a table. The electric opening rooflights page sets that out.

If an old rooflight has misted, the question is what to replace. Sometimes the sealed unit alone is the answer, and sometimes the whole rooflight. Whether to swap the unit or the lot is the subject of our guide sealed unit or whole rooflight.

Where a rooflight is new, we handle the Building Regulations notification with local authority building control or a registered building control approver, as long as the work is notifiable. A like-for-like swap is still building work.

Reach also shapes the choice of opening type. Over a worktop, a rooflight you can open by hand is a convenience. Over a stair void or a dining table, a switch is kinder than a pole, and it is worth knowing before the ceiling is lined.

Finally, think about the view from above. A flat rooflight is seen from upstairs windows next door, and dirt that is invisible from the kitchen can show from a bedroom across the way. A coating helps there as well, though no coating replaces a look at the glass now and then.