Heading west by road, 15.8 miles from Newport
Skylights and rooflights for Tongwynlais homes
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
- We handle the Building Control notification where notifiable
The Taff Valley and a station that is no longer there
Tongwynlais is a village and community within the city of Cardiff, on the northern side of the M4 motorway, in the Taff Valley. The Cardiff Railway ran through it in the early 20th century, following the River Taff valley and passing beneath Castell Coch. Tongwynlais railway station was opened by the Cardiff Railway on 1 March 1911. Little trace of it remains today, as the site was later removed during construction of the A470 road.
Over time Tongwynlais increasingly functioned as a residential settlement connected to Cardiff, rather than as an industrial centre in its own right. That tells us about the village's role, not about the shape of its roofs, so the roofs are left to the survey. Homes built in different decades tend to carry different coverings, and a landing, a loft room or a back addition each raises its own question about daylight. The soils of the valley floor and the river's long shaping of the land are matters for engineers, not for a skylight, and nothing we propose depends on them.
| Property | Roof above the room | What we would put forward |
|---|---|---|
| Terraced or semi-detached house with a dark stairwell | Pitched, with a loft over the stairs | A sun tunnel, where the loft allows a clear run |
| House with an unused loft | Pitched covering over rafters | Roof windows, and blackout blinds for sleeping |
| Garage turned into a room | Flat, over a single storey | A fixed or opening flat rooflight |
| Kitchen or dining room extended at the back | Flat, with an upstand if glass is wanted | A flat rooflight, or a lantern if the height allows |
What to compare for a Taff Valley house
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Cardiff Council and the Welsh planning rules
Cardiff Council decides planning matters for Tongwynlais. In Wales a rooflight on a house may count as permitted development, provided it stays inside limits that our planning guide, under its Wales heading, spells out.
Flats have no householder permitted development rights. Houses can lose them too: a council may remove them through an Article 4 direction, and the house's first planning approval can carry a condition to the same effect.
If a house is listed, work that would affect its character needs listed building consent. That is applied for through Cardiff Council as the local planning authority, while Cadw recommends what is listed and the Welsh Ministers compile the list. Address-level questions are best put to the council, which can answer for a given house.
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Other places near Tongwynlais
A stairwell that never saw the sun
Sun tunnels for the middle of a house.
How much daylight reaches the bottom of your stairs at eight o'clock on a winter morning? In some houses the answer is almost none, because the stairs sit between the front and back rooms with a closed door on either side.
A sun tunnel borrows light from the roof. A dome on the slope gathers daylight, a tube hands it down across the loft, and the diffuser in the ceiling releases it over the stairwell. The tube can be rigid or flexible; the guide to choosing between rigid and flexible compares what each can do round a bend.
It works only while the sun is up. After dark the diffuser is a pale disc and the stair lamp does what it always did. That makes a sun tunnel a daytime fitting, best judged by how the stairwell looks at mid-morning in January and not by how it might look at supper time.
The path through the loft decides everything. The shortest run from slope to ceiling that avoids tanks, cables and the joists carrying the loft floor is the one to look for. If things are stored up there, say so, because the route may need to be walked with the boxes moved aside.
The diffuser belongs where it lights the treads and the landing doors, which turns the stairwell into a different space. Placed at the exact centre of the ceiling out of habit, it can end up lighting a blank wall.
Think, too, about what the stairwell is for. A hall that doubles as a coat store or a place where shoes pile up needs light at floor height, and a house with young children needs the stairs lit clearly well before the day starts. A sun tunnel will not do the second of those at night, since it carries daylight only, so the stair lamp stays where it is.
Where two landings stack on top of one another, the top one is the better candidate, because the tube has less distance to run. Where the stairs turn, there may be a choice of two spots, and standing on the treads at mid-morning with the survey notes in hand is the quickest way to pick.
One winter day at the foot of the stairs
- 08:20Breakfast rushDaylight reaches the treads through the diffuser.
- 12:40MiddayThe stairwell is at its brightest.
- 16:15DuskThe disc dims as the sky fades.
- 19:30EveningThe ceiling light takes over; the diffuser is a pale disc.
The loft room that outgrew its single window
Roof windows for a bedroom, a study or both.
Begin with what the room will be at night. A loft that becomes a bedroom has to be dark when someone sleeps and bright when someone does not, and a roof window teamed with a blackout blind covers both.
The window follows the slope of the roof and sits level with the covering around it. How many windows the room takes depends on its width and on the rafters, which carry the roof. Two windows side by side give an even spread of daylight, while one large window gives a single strong source over the bed or the desk.
Overnight the pane goes black and mirrors the room, so a blind drawn down over it keeps the reflection out of sight. The glass can also be among the colder surfaces in the room, so moisture from breathing can settle there. Opening the sash a little before bed gives that damp air an exit.
Notification matters for a window like this. Where the work is notifiable, we handle the Building Regulations notification with local authority building control or a registered building control approver, and a brand new opening is the kind of job that generally needs one.
Reach and control are worth a conversation. If the window sits above the bed, the handle should fall where a hand lands without a stretch. For a window that is out of reach, the electric and solar range from VELUX can be operated by switch or remote, and VELUX states that those models are fitted with a sensor that closes the window once it starts to rain.
Plan the furniture around the glass, not the other way round. A wardrobe that rises through the sloping part of the room blocks the light you are paying for. A desk placed under the high end of the window gets daylight over the shoulder, and a bed with its head away from the glass can avoid a cold draught of night air on the pillow.
We like to arrive having seen photographs of the room. Send one from the doorway, one from the loft hatch and one of the roof from the garden, and the survey can concentrate on the decisions rather than on finding out what is there.
Loft room, evening to morning
- Window
- Roof window level with the slope
- Blind
- Blackout, picked with the window
- At night
- Black glass; blind down to stop the reflection
- Air
- Sash opened a little before bed
- Control
- Handle within easy reach of the bed
The garage that became a room
A flat rooflight for a room with few windows.
In November a converted garage goes dim early, because it often has little glass in its outside walls. A flat rooflight lifts the room without taking wall space, and the ceiling above the middle of the room is where it does its work.
The glass sits on a kerb or upstand, out of plane with the flat roof around it. A fixed unit is the simpler choice. An opening unit lets the room breathe, which counts for something in a room that has become a gym or a play space and ends the day warm.
The glass cools overnight, and a room heated by day can show moisture on it by morning. An opening rooflight lets the room be aired, and our page on misted rooflights explains what a clouded sealed unit means if you are thinking of replacing an older one.
By this hour the pane is a black rectangle that repeats the lamps below. That is normal, and a plain, square reveal around the opening makes it look settled rather than ragged.
A garage conversion brings its own questions, and it helps to bring the answers to the survey. Is the ceiling insulated yet? Is it plasterboard or open joists? Is the flat roof new, or the original from the garage? A rooflight cut into a roof that is due for renewal gets a different conversation from one cut into a roof that has just been finished.
The same questions apply to any flat roof the glass might share with something else, such as a flue or an extractor outlet. The position of those fixes where the rooflight cannot go, and it is far easier to hear about them before the order than after.
Choose the size with the room's use in mind. A hobby room wants even light over a bench. A play space wants glass that does not glare on a floor mat. A home office wants it off the screen. Each of those can move the opening, and it is cheaper to move a pencil mark than a rooflight.
Dust and cleaning deserve a thought for a garage room that doubles as a workshop. Glass a person can reach from a stepladder is easy to wipe, while a rooflight over a raised ceiling may need a pole, and that is worth knowing when a position is being chosen.
Tongwynlais questions, answered
How far is Tongwynlais from Newport by road?
15.8 road miles heading west. Tongwynlais falls inside the area we cover, and a survey there carries no charge.
Which council deals with a listed house in Tongwynlais?
Cardiff Council, as the local planning authority. Consent comes into play where work would affect a building's character, and our planning guide covers the Welsh position.
Does a sun tunnel suit a house with a boarded loft?
It can, once the route through the loft has been walked. Boards, tanks and stored boxes affect the path, so tell us what is up there when you get in touch.
Can the old station site tell me anything about my roof?
No. Little trace of the station remains today, as its site was later removed during construction of the A470 road, so it has no bearing on your roof. We look at the slope and the room in front of us.
What is the quickest way to start?
Send a WhatsApp message to 07880 284133 with a photograph or two, fill in the survey form, or email info@supremeskylightsnewport.co.uk. After the free survey you receive a fixed written quote.
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10-year workmanship guarantee.
Building Control notification handled where notifiable.