Rhondda Fawr Valley, reached by 29.8 road miles heading west from Newport
Skylight and rooflight installation in Tonypandy
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
- We handle the Building Control notification where notifiable
What sits on a Tonypandy roof, and what can go through it?
In the Rhondda Fawr Valley, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Tonypandy is a town, community and electoral ward of Rhondda Cynon Taf. The town is served by Tonypandy railway station on the Rhondda Line. It is a former industrial coal mining town, and the scene of the 1910 Tonypandy riots. The riots began when miners at the Ely Pit refused to accept lower wages and the Combine began importing strikebreakers. With the extension of the Taff Vale Railway to Treherbert and Maerdy in 1856 the Rhondda grew as absentee landlords switched their interests from farming to mining. Tonypandy is also the site of one of two permanent Middle Ages fortifications found within the Rhondda Valley. It was built around the 12th or the early 13th century, and its remains were mostly destroyed during railway construction works in the 19th century.
Roofs come in several kinds, and each kind takes glass in its own way. Tiled and slated pitched roofs, with a loft above, are one case. A flat roof over a rear kitchen is another. Loft rooms raise questions about bedrooms and stairs, and flat roofs raise questions about reach and steam. The survey looks at the roof in front of us before it settles on any option.
| Property | Covering and pitch | A sensible first option |
|---|---|---|
| Terraced house with a loft room | Pitched, covered in slate or tile | A roof window that can double as the escape window |
| Semi or end-of-terrace with a dim hall | Pitched tile, loft over the ceiling | A sun tunnel from the slope to the hall |
| Rear kitchen or dining extension | Flat, on joists | A flat rooflight, fixed or electric opening |
Three jobs that follow from those roofs
11:00
What Welsh rules mean for a Tonypandy rooflight
For a house in Tonypandy, the deciding body is Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council. In Wales, permitted development can cover a rooflight on a house, inside limits, and the planning guide's chapter on Wales lays the limits out.
That right belongs to houses. Flats and maisonettes do not have it. A house may also have lost it, because of an Article 4 direction or because the permission it was first built under carries a condition.
For a listed house, work that affects its character needs listed building consent, and the application goes through Rhondda Cynon Taf. Cadw recommends which buildings are listed, and the Welsh Ministers are the ones who compile the list.
12:00
More pages near Tonypandy
The loft that became a bedroom
An escape window, a staircase and a blind.
Is the loft a bedroom, or a store with ambitions? The answer changes the window, because a room someone sleeps in carries rules that a store room does not.
Approved Document B (Wales) deals with the escape route from a loft bedroom, including the measurements an emergency escape window has to meet, and our Building Regulations guide for Wales sets them out. A roof window can be that window, so the daylight window and the escape window can be the same sash.
The staircase is the bigger piece of the job. Turning the loft of a house with two storeys into a bedroom will normally mean giving the stairway protection from fire, with fire-resisting doors and partitions down to the bottom, where the stairway had none before. Headroom and the position of the stair are the first things to read in any loft, and they are worth settling before a window is chosen, since they shape the whole conversion.
Approved Document L (Wales) adds that installed windows, roof windows and rooflights should be well fitted and reasonably draught-proof. Fitting one is building work, and where the work is notifiable, we handle the Building Regulations notification with local authority building control or a registered building control approver.
At 22:05 in October the roof window is a black panel with the bedside lamp inside it. Draw a blackout blind across and the reflection goes, and the room stops looking at itself. In the morning the same blind holds back the first light. Window and blind are picked as a pair. Standard sizes are the norm for VELUX roof windows, each with its own code, so the room's width is set against that list before the position is fixed.
The roof windows hub covers the types, and our guide to VELUX windows and the Welsh Building Regulations goes deeper on the paperwork.
A loft bedroom, evening to late
- 21:30Lamp onThe window reads as a dark panel with the room in it.
- 22:05Blind acrossThe reflection goes and the room settles.
- 23:15AsleepAn opening sash can still air the room.
Breakfast at the back of the terrace
A flat rooflight, and who checks the work.
Terraces can be deep houses, and the kitchen at the back of one can sit a long way from the front windows. Add a single-storey extension and the distance grows. Light has to come from somewhere other than the walls, and a flat rooflight in the extension roof is one answer. The ceiling beneath is lined, and the shape of that lining decides how the opening looks from the room; it also shows from the bedrooms upstairs, which look down onto the flat roof.
It sits on an upstand above the flat roof. Fixed glass needs no reaching. A unit that opens needs a hand, a pole or a switch, and the choice has its own page, fixed or opening for flat rooflights. In March, by this hour, the morning sun is already up, and a rooflight over the breakfast table is doing its main job.
Steam rises and meets the glass overhead, which is cooler than the room, so moisture can gather there. Glass beyond arm's reach is also awkward to wipe, so how it will be cleaned, and from where, is worth deciding along with the size of the unit.
A new rooflight generally needs Building Regulations approval, and in Wales there are two kinds of building control body to choose from: the local authority building control service, or a private registered building control approver. You are free to pick either. Private firms must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator, which oversees them, while local authority building control is regulated by the Welsh Ministers.
Approved Document L (Wales) says a new or replacement rooflight in an existing home should have a U-value no worse than 2.2 W/m²K. The document defines a rooflight as a glazed unit installed out of plane with the roof surface, on a kerb or upstand, and it adds that a rooflight's U-value is based on the whole developed surface of the unit, which is often bigger than the hole in the roof.
A lantern is the taller option for the same room. Adding one to an existing flat roof normally needs planning permission, because it normally falls outside permitted development, and the Wales chapter of our guide says why. Where a lantern belongs to a brand-new extension, the position is put to the council for confirmation.
Whether the glass opens, how it is reached and which body checks the notification are three decisions that sit together, so they are talked through in one conversation at the survey.
A back bedroom used as a study
Where the sash goes, and how big it can be.
A spare room under a pitched roof is often asked to be an office as well. The glass above a desk has a different job from the glass above a bed: no blackout is needed at two in the afternoon, and the sash has to open for air without the handle being out of reach.
Position is the first choice. A roof window can sit near the top of the slope or lower down, and where the light lands on the desk and the chair depends on that. Whether the sash pivots in the middle or hangs from the top changes how it feels to open and to clean, and the choice has its own guide: centre-pivot or top-hung, which sets them side by side without making the call for you.
Quiet is the second. Rain noise reduction is on VELUX's list of glazing options, and a room used for concentration notices rain on the roof more than a hallway does. Which windows offer it varies by variant, so it is asked about for the model under consideration.
Ventilation comes back in here too. A replacement should leave the ventilation of the home no worse than it was. Suppose the old window carried trickle vents: the new unit should then have vents no smaller, set so that either the occupant or an automatic mechanism can operate them. A study with a closed door and a laptop on a warm afternoon makes the point plainly.
A roof window in a study is a modest piece of glass beside the rest of a house, but it still counts as a controlled fitting, and our guide to skylights and the Building Regulations in Wales sets out what that means in practice.
Roof window, study
- Position
- Set by where the light should fall on the desk
- Opening style
- Centre-pivot or top-hung, compared in our guide
- Blind
- Chosen with the window
- Glazing
- Options depend on the window and its variant
Tonypandy queries
Is Tonypandy within reach of a survey?
What does a loft bedroom window have to do in an emergency?
It has to meet the escape measurements in Approved Document B (Wales), which also says the person must be able to reach a place free from danger from fire. A roof window can be the escape window. Ask us about the measurements at the survey, and the sash is chosen to fit them.
Who checks the work, the council or a private firm?
You can choose. In Wales there are two kinds of building control body: the local authority service and a private registered building control approver. The first is the team at the council; the second is a firm registered with the Building Safety Regulator. Whichever you pick, the Building Regulations notification is ours to handle where the work is notifiable.
Does a rooflight in the back slope need a planning application?
On a house it can be permitted development in Wales, within limits, so it may not. The limits, and the cases where the right is missing, are in the Welsh part of our planning guide. Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council decides any application.
Should I add a blackout blind in a loft bedroom?
A blackout blind is made to darken the room, so it can decide how early a loft bedroom wakes. Ask for the blind to be priced with the window and not afterwards.
How do I get a survey booked?
Use the survey form; WhatsApp on 07880 284133 and an email to info@supremeskylightsnewport.co.uk will reach us as well. Give the address and the room. The survey is free, and a fixed written quote follows it.
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10-year workmanship guarantee.
Building Control notification handled where notifiable.