In Monmouthshire, north-east of Newport, a drive of 13 miles by road
Usk skylights and rooflights
- 10-year workmanship guarantee
- We handle the Building Control notification where notifiable
Below the castle and around Twyn Square
Usk Castle stands above the town and overlooks the ancient crossing point. The road to Monmouth, the A472, passes Twyn Square, a large town square, where a clock tower was put up in 1887 to mark Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Usk developed as a small market town, with some industry including the making of Japanware, and a prison was built there in 1841 and 1842.
Houses of different ages can carry different roofs, and each is handled on its own terms. An older house needs one kind of care on the slope, a plainer house of a later date another, and a flat-roofed addition a third. Each roof gets a reading of its own: the covering, the pitch, what the rafters or joists allow, and what is above the room that needs the light. Usk is a centre for recreational fishing, and the River Usk is known for its salmon fishing.
| Part of the house | What is overhead | Likely choice |
|---|---|---|
| Back bedroom under an old slate slope | Pitched slates on rafters | A low roof window, set into the slope |
| Hall or landing with no outside wall | Pitched roof and a loft above | A sun tunnel with a short route |
| Bathroom against the roof pitch | A sloping ceiling, often with a small loft | An opening roof window and a blind |
| Garden room or rear kitchen addition | A flat roof | A flat rooflight, fixed or opening |
What the table points to for Usk houses
11:00
Monmouthshire and the Welsh position on rooflights
Planning in Usk is Monmouthshire County Council's business. A rooflight on a house may qualify as permitted development in Wales, with the limits in our planning guide for Wales.
One conservation area in Monmouthshire's list is named Usk. In Wales, putting a rooflight into the roof slope of a house inside a conservation area is not permitted development, so it needs a planning application. The council confirms on which side of the boundary a house stands, and its conservation area appraisals are the place to look.
Monmouthshire may also have withdrawn permitted development rights from some Usk houses by Article 4 direction, or the original consent for a house may carry a condition with that effect. Where it is unclear, Usk owners can seek formal certainty through a Lawful Development Certificate.
Flats have no householder permitted development rights. For a listed house, the council also decides listed building consent, which is needed where the work would affect the character of the building.
12:00
Close to Usk
An old slate roof and the conservation question
Conservation rooflights, and who decides.
Usk won the Wales in Bloom competition 35 times in a row between 1982 and 2016. A town that has put so much into how it looks deserves care on the roof as well, and roofs are seen from the castle ground above and from the streets below.
Care starts with finding out where the house stands in planning terms. In Wales, a rooflight put into a roof slope is not permitted development where the house stands inside a conservation area (see the Welsh planning guide). Monmouthshire's list includes a conservation area named Usk. The council is the body that confirms whether a given house is inside the boundary, and it is worth asking before any money is spent.
If the answer is yes, the project becomes a planning application, for a stated position and a stated product. The sort of rooflight to consider in that case is described in our hub on conservation rooflights, and a careful choice of profile and finish can help an application. The steps in order are in our conservation area rules for rooflights, written for Wales.
If the answer is no, the position is different. On a house outside any protected area, a rooflight can be permitted development within limits that the Welsh planning guide explains, and an Article 4 direction or a condition that came with the house's first planning permission can remove those rights. So the council is asked even when the answer looks likely to be simple.
Listed houses are a separate matter. Listed building consent is applied for through the local planning authority, and it is needed where work would affect the building's character. Cadw recommends which buildings are listed and the Welsh Ministers compile the list. Cadw also says that replacing traditional windows with uPVC on a listed building will not normally be acceptable.
The survey does not settle any of this. It collects what a council can ask about: the roof covering, the slope and the room, and a position that sits comfortably with the lines of the building. A rooflight set in line with the windows below usually looks calmer from the street than one placed at random on the slope.
| Question | Who decides |
|---|---|
| Is the house inside a conservation area? | Monmouthshire County Council |
| Is a planning application needed? | The council, under the Welsh rules |
| Is the house listed, and is consent needed? | The council as planning authority; Cadw recommends listings |
The hall that never gets the afternoon
A sun tunnel through the loft, and what decides the route.
Houses with a front door in the middle and rooms either side often have a hall with no window of its own. Daylight reaches it only through glazing in a door or from the rooms around it, and at one in the afternoon on a grey day the hall is still lit by a bulb.
A sun tunnel can change that without moving a wall. Its three parts are a dome fixed to the slope, a tube across the roof void and a diffuser set in the hall ceiling. The dome catches daylight, the tube carries it, and the diffuser lets it into the space below. It brings daylight only while the daylight is outside; at night the ceiling disc is a pale circle again.
What decides whether it will work is the route through the loft. We look at the line the tube would take down from the slope to the ceiling, what is stored in the way, and whether any timber or cable needs to be avoided. A straight run is the simplest case. If it needs a bend, the rigid or flexible question comes into play, and the page on rigid or flexible sun tunnel compares the two.
The roof covering matters at the dome. The covering can decide the flashing at the dome, so we note whether the slope is slate or tile, and pick the face of the roof with the widest view of sky. A slope shaded by a tall neighbour gives the dome less sky to work with, and that is worth knowing before an order is placed.
A sun tunnel has no sash, so it will not ventilate anything. Over a bed, a blind-fitted roof window suits better. Landings, halls, dressing spaces and a small cloakroom are where tubes earn their place. In a hall the diffuser is usually best placed where it throws daylight along the stairs and over the doors, and that spot may sit off to one side of the ceiling.
For the roof opening, the Welsh guidance on Building Regulations for a sun tunnel is gathered on its own page.
A sun tunnel through the day
- 09:00MorningThe diffuser brightens the hall with the sky outside.
- 13:30AfternoonThe dome has its best view of the sky.
- 17:30DuskThe ceiling disc fades to the same grey as the sky.
- 22:00NightA pale disc in the ceiling, with the hall light doing the work.
A bathroom against the roof pitch
Roof windows, blinds and what the glass does at night.
Is there a bathroom in your house where the ceiling runs up at the angle of the roof? That shape is a good place for a roof window, because the glass can go in above the bath or the basin and take in the sky straight over it. In the evening the picture changes.
After dark the glass overhead goes black, and a lit bathroom shows itself back to itself, a bright box with a reflection on the ceiling. A blind turns that into a plain surface and takes the worry out of being seen. That is a point for the survey: where the window sits, what is above it on the neighbours' side, and whether a blind is wanted for privacy as well as for sleep.
Steam is the second matter. Bath and shower water ends up as vapour in the air within minutes, and the glass tends to be the chilliest surface, so condensation settles there first. Air is the cure: a sash that can be lifted, an extractor left running after a bath, and a window that is not asked to do the whole job alone.
On the solar and electric models in VELUX's range a sensor shuts the sash when it rains. The manual ones carry no sensor. A switch matters most where the window is out of arm's reach, which is common above a bath, and the question of electric against manual is worked through on its own page.
Cutting a roof window into a slope usually means altering the roof structure, and approval under the Building Regulations will generally be needed. Where the work is notifiable, we handle the Building Regulations notification with local authority building control or a registered building control approver.
Tell us at the survey if the window is to go over the bath or the basin, what the floor above or the loft allows, and how the room is aired now. Each answer changes the window and the blind.
Usk, one query at a time
Is my house in the Usk conservation area?
That is for Monmouthshire County Council to say, house by house, because a boundary can run through a street. Its conservation area appraisals list Usk, and we check your address with the council before a rooflight is ordered.
Who handles listed buildings in Usk?
Listed building consent is applied for through Monmouthshire County Council. Consent is required where work alters what makes the building special. Cadw puts buildings forward for listing, and the list is the Welsh Ministers' to compile.
What would brighten a hall that has no window?
A sun tunnel can, provided the loft has a clear run between slope and hall ceiling. Daylight is all it delivers, which makes halls, landings and small bathrooms its natural homes. Bedrooms call for a different product, and a roof window fitted with a blind is the one to look at.
Does your work reach Raglan and Penperlleni?
We cover Raglan, Penperlleni, Pontypool and Ponthir, which are close to Usk. Each has its own page on this site.
Is the work guaranteed, and for how long?
Supreme Skylights gives a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing. You get the free survey first and then a fixed written quote, so you can weigh the price in writing before you decide anything.
How do I arrange a survey?
Usk, Brynbuga in Welsh, is 13 miles by road north-east of Newport. Book a survey through the form. Our WhatsApp line, 07880 284133, takes messages too, as does info@supremeskylightsnewport.co.uk. The address and the room are the useful details, along with whether the house is listed.
Book your free survey
10-year workmanship guarantee.
Building Control notification handled where notifiable.