Tylorstown sits 28.26 road miles to the west of Newport, in the Rhondda valley
Skylights and rooflights for homes in Tylorstown
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
- We handle the Building Control notification where notifiable
Pendyrus farmland, then Tylor's Town
The Rhondda valley holds Tylorstown, a village and community in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf. Its Welsh name is Pendyrus. Tylor opened Pendyrys Colliery on the site, and the colliery workers and their families were housed near it on former farmland. The area kept its Welsh name, and in English it came to be known as Tylor's Town.
The last working mine in the village closed in the 1960s, and the local passenger train line closed in 1964. None of that tells us what is on your roof. Houses of a given age tend to share a pattern, so the table below sets out general house types, and the survey replaces guesswork with a look at your own slope, your own loft and the room that needs the light.
| House shape | The dark spot | Glass for it |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-terrace with the stairs in the middle | Landing and stairwell, no outside wall | A sun tunnel from the loft |
| Terrace with a rear kitchen added later | The far end of the kitchen | A lantern, or a flat rooflight where the ceiling is low |
| House with a loft already boarded | A bedroom or study under the slope | A roof window cut into the main slope |
| Home with a small inner bathroom | A room with no wall to put a window in | A short sun tunnel, or a roof window if it sits under the slope |
What the table points to
11:00
Rhondda Cynon Taf: where the rules are applied
Planning applications for Tylorstown go to Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council. Wales has its own householder rules for roof alterations, and the limits that apply to a house are laid out in the planning guide's Wales section.
Those rules cover houses, never flats. They can be lost where an Article 4 direction is made, or where the first planning permission for the house carried a condition. For a listed house, work that affects its character needs listed building consent, applied for through the planning authority, and Cadw recommends which buildings are on the list.
A stairwell in January
A sun tunnel for the part of the house nothing reaches.
Start at the foot of the stairs on a dull January morning. The front door is shut, the doors off the landing are shut, and the only light comes from whichever room someone left lit. A stairwell can be the darkest place in a terraced or semi-detached house because it sits at the centre, with no outside wall of its own.
A sun tunnel borrows the roof. A small dome catches daylight on the slope, a reflective tube leads it into the loft, and a diffuser at the other end spreads it over the landing. When the cloud is thick the output is modest, and at night the diffuser is a pale disc with nothing behind it. What a sun tunnel does well is bring a little daylight to the middle of the house during the hours when people are passing through it.
Glass is not the only thing that decides how a landing feels in the morning. Wall colour matters, and so does whether the doors off the landing are left open. A pale landing with its bedroom doors ajar will carry the daylight from a sun tunnel further than a dark one with every door closed. Walking the stairs at the survey, with the doors as you usually keep them, tells us more than guessing from outside would.
Everything depends on the loft. One end of the tube meets the roof and the other meets the ceiling, and the stretch between must miss rafters, purlins, tanks and cables. When the route is not a straight drop, the rigid or flexible tube comparison shows what each can do.
On the roof, the dome and its flashing have to suit what is already there. The covering comes first, and then the question of which slope has the widest view of the sky. Inside, the diffuser is positioned to help the stairs and the doors, and the exact spot gets settled in the house itself.
A room where someone sleeps can be better served by a roof window and a blind. Landings, halls, walk-in wardrobes and small bathrooms suit a sun tunnel best. The page on sun tunnels gives the full picture.
One day on a landing
- 08:30Dull morningThe diffuser gives the stairs a pale daylight.
- 13:00MiddayThe brightest hour on the roof is also the brightest at the top of the stairs.
- 16:30DuskThe sun tunnel has little daylight left to carry, and the landing light takes over.
- 21:00After darkThe diffuser is a plain disc in the ceiling.
The far end of the kitchen
Lanterns and flat rooflights over a later addition.
Many terraces were built with a kitchen at the back and a yard beyond it. Many have since been given a single-storey addition that reaches into that yard, and with it comes a familiar problem: a deep room with glazed doors at one end and a dim worktop at the other. You can stand at the sink at four in the afternoon and still reach for the light switch.
Glass in the roof answers that. A lantern has pitched glass, and the ceiling underneath can rise into it. A flat rooflight is a single low pane, and it suits a room where there is not much height to give. The page on roof lanterns and the one on flat roof rooflights each go into the detail.
A lantern stands on an upstand formed around the opening. Brett Martin gives its own installation details for the upstand under its lanterns, and the survey looks at the existing flat roof with those details in mind.
Planning matters for lanterns. Because a lantern stands tall, fitting one to an old flat roof normally calls for planning permission. Why that is so, and what the limits are, sits in our Welsh planning rules. A lantern on a brand new extension is something we confirm with Rhondda Cynon Taf.
Where a lantern or a flat rooflight goes in the roof matters as much as which one it is. Over the worktop it lights the work, over the table it lights the meal, and near the glazed doors it only adds to light that is already there. The dim far end is usually the better place to look first, and the room itself, not a catalogue, should decide.
By five the glass is already dark in winter. The panel above the table then shows the room back to itself, so the lining matters as much as the lantern. It is worth talking through before the order is placed. A lit opening is a wiring job for an electrician, planned ahead of the plasterer.
Is the boarded loft ready to sleep in?
Roof windows for the room under the slope.
Boarded lofts are used as stores, studies and spare rooms long before anyone moves a bed up there. When someone does, the first thing noticed is how dark the room is by day and how bright it is at dawn. A roof window handles the first problem, and a blind handles the second.
Choose the window by asking what the room is for. A study wants daylight on the desk, a bedroom wants darkness on demand. At ten at night, a roof window in the dark reads as black glass with the room reflected in it, and a blackout blind turns that into a plain dark ceiling. The page on VELUX windows covers the range we fit and replace.
Size matters. VELUX lists each roof window size code with its width and height, for example MK04 at 78 by 98 cm, MK06 at 78 by 118 cm and UK04 at 134 by 98 cm. The type sign, a small metal plate, can be read once the sash is swung open. For a swap, the code is the quickest route to the size, and the guide to VELUX size codes says more.
A window where there was none means a new opening, and making it usually involves altering the roof's structure. A new rooflight will generally need Building Regulations approval, and where the work is notifiable the notification to local authority building control or a registered building control approver is ours to handle.
Washing and drying are the other loft habits worth a thought. A study with a laptop wants a window that gives even light, while a spare room used for drying clothes wants glass that opens. The two ask for different windows, and a short note of how the room is used will save a lot of back and forth at the survey, and it costs you nothing to write.
If the loft is becoming a proper bedroom, say so at the survey. Approved Document B (Wales) covers escape from upper floors, and it can affect the type of window you are asking for.
What people ask about Tylorstown
Is a sun tunnel enough for a dark stairwell?
It can be, where the loft gives the tube a clear route. A sun tunnel carries daylight only, so after dark the ceiling light does the job, and the slope, the covering and the loft are all looked at before anything is priced. A pale landing with doors left ajar carries the daylight furthest.
What does the Rhondda council decide on a rooflight?
The council is Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council. What applies to a given house depends on the house itself, and the checks are set out in the Welsh planning guide.
Where is the size code on an old VELUX window?
Open the sash and look for the small metal plate on top of it. VELUX says windows made after 1968 carry one. Sending us the code lets us see the width and height before we visit.
Could the lantern for my kitchen be lit at night?
A strip of light can be built into the upstand or the reveal. The cabling has to go in before the plastering, and that wiring is an electrician's work, best raised with one early.
Why is the village called Tylorstown in English and Pendyrus in Welsh?
The colliery workers and their families were housed near the colliery on former farmland. The area kept its Welsh name, Pendyrus, but came to be known as Tylor's Town in English. Tylor opened Pendyrys Colliery there, and the village's last working mine shut in the 1960s.
Who lists buildings in Wales?
Cadw recommends which buildings should be listed, and the Welsh Ministers compile the list. Consent for alterations is something you ask the local planning authority for.
What is the quickest way to get a price?
The survey form starts it. WhatsApp 07880 284133 and info@supremeskylightsnewport.co.uk reach us too. A free survey comes before any price, and the price is a fixed written quote.
Book your free survey
10-year workmanship guarantee.
Building Control notification handled where notifiable.