Skylight and rooflight fitting in Abergwili

Abergwili is a village and community in Carmarthenshire, close to the town of Carmarthen and near the confluence of the rivers Towy and Gwili. Until 1802 the Towy ran past the back of the Palace. It then changed course and left an oxbow lake where the old channel had been.

The village is known for its Bishop's Palace. In 1542 Bishop William Barlow transferred the palace of the Bishop of St David's from St David's to Abergwili, re-using the premises of an older college of priests. The palace building is believed to have been built between 1283 and 1291, when Thomas Bek was made bishop of St Davids, and it was almost completely rebuilt in 1903 after a disastrous fire. The grounds of the former Bishop's Palace are listed on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. That older college kept its status until it was amalgamated with another to create Christ College in Brecon.

Glangwili General Hospital is here, and so is the Gwili Railway, a heritage line. Merlin's Hill Centre is a farm that has been opened up to the public.

Reaching Abergwili from Swansea means 29.4 miles of road heading north-west, which keeps Abergwili inside the 30 road miles that we work within. Pontyberem is another Carmarthenshire village on our list.

Settlements with this much history hold roofs of many ages. Start any conversation about glass with the roof itself, because its shape picks the product. A sloping surface of slate or tile suits a window that sits flush with the covering. Over an extension with a level roof, the choice is glass raised on a kerb, or a lantern standing on an upstand. A landing without an outside wall to cut into can borrow daylight from a sun tunnel instead. Those are general pairings by roof type, and the visit to your own house confirms or changes them.

Anyone applying to alter a roof in Abergwili deals with Carmarthenshire County Council, the local planning authority. Building Regulations are a separate track, and you can take that one to the council's building control service or to a registered building control approver.

A rooflight in a house can go in without an application when the work stays within a short list of conditions about how far the glass projects, how high it reaches and where the window faces, provided the house is outside a conservation area, National Park, AONB or World Heritage Site. We keep those conditions in one place, our guide to skylight planning permission in Wales, so read it against your own house before you commit to a plan. Abergwili is not inside the Gower AONB.

Where a building has been split into flats or maisonettes, the householder permitted development rules do not reach it at all. For houses, a council may withdraw those rights through an Article 4 direction, and a planning condition from when the house was built can do the same job.

A listed house needs separate handling. Where a rooflight would affect the building's character as one of special architectural or historic interest, it needs listed building consent, under the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023. That application is made through the local planning authority, and Cadw's page on listed building consent sets out how it works.

If you are unsure which side of a condition your roof falls, ask Carmarthenshire's planning team for a view. For a formal answer, apply to the council for a Lawful Development Certificate, which can be sought before any work begins.

Fitting a new rooflight will generally need Building Regulations approval, because the roof must be opened up and then carry the weight of the new unit. Where the work is notifiable, we handle the Building Regulations notification with local authority building control or a registered building control approver.

Paperwork and glass go in a sensible order. The survey comes first, it is free, and it tells you which of these routes your house is on. A fixed written quote follows, so you know the figure before you decide.

A loft bedroom is where wind-driven rain does its work, because a sash left open for air meets every gust. Manufacturers such as VELUX offer solar and electric roof windows whose built-in rain sensor shuts the sash as soon as rain begins, a useful feature in a room you air in the morning and leave. One opens upwards clear of your head. Another pivots on a central axis, so you can wipe the outer pane from indoors. Our roof windows page covers the types, and electric opening rooflights deals with the motors. In Wales, a new or replacement roof window should reach 1.4 W/m²K or Window Energy Rating Band B, according to Approved Document L (Wales).

Swapping an old loft window also touches ventilation. Under Approved Document F (Wales), a replacement should keep the house ventilated at least as well as it was. If the old window carried trickle vents, the new one should carry vents of at least the same size, adjustable by the occupant or automatically.

Escape deserves a line for a loft room. Only a roof window sized and placed as an escape window gives a way out, and Approved Document B (Wales) describes what that means.

Landings and hallways are the dim corners of many houses, with a loft overhead and nowhere to hang a window. A sun tunnel starts with a small dome on the roof, runs a reflective tube down through the loft and ends in a diffuser on the ceiling. When drizzle sets in, the dome sheds the wet quickly and the stairs get a soft, even glow.

A single-storey extension has glass nearly level with the sky. Over a level roof, a flat roof rooflight belongs on a kerb with a proper fall, so rain runs off. A roof lantern stands on a builder's upstand, and Brett Martin recommends building that upstand level. A lantern rises well above the roof around it, so putting one on an existing flat roof normally calls for planning permission. On a new extension we confirm the position with the council. A rooflight in Wales should reach 2.2 W/m²K.

A bungalow with a shallow roof brings a different problem. VELUX sets its low-pitch roof window for roofs from 10° to 20°, and its flat roof dome for 0° to 15°, so a bungalow can still take a unit made for its roof.

A rooflight that has already misted between its panes has usually lost the seal on its glazed unit. We replace misted rooflights as well as fitting new ones.

Whichever room it is, the job starts with a free survey. After that comes a fixed written quote, and once the glass is in, our 10-year workmanship guarantee is put in writing. To arrange it, ring 01792 929062 or book your survey online.