Skylight and rooflight fitting in Blackmill

Blackmill sits within the community of Ogmore Valley, and its Welsh name is Melin Ifan Ddu. The ward population at the 2011 census was 2,493, and a ward covers more ground than the village alone. For the built-up area of Blackmill itself, the 2021 Census gives 630 usual residents.

Two buildings in the record say something about how the place has used its roofs. A Wesleyan Methodist chapel went up in 1885. By 2005 it was no longer in use as a church, and it was due to be converted to housing. In 1915 a new church, All Saints, opened in the community. A chapel marked for conversion to housing is a useful reminder that a roof built for one purpose can be asked to do another, and a rooflight has to suit what the building has become.

For somebody reading from Swansea, Blackmill lies east, at 24.64 miles by road, so the 30 miles we cover takes it in with a little to spare. Neighbours with pages here include Llangeinor and Heol-y-cyw, along with Pant-yr-Awel and Bettws.

The first thing we want to know about a house is how its roof is shaped. Where the roof is pitched, a window can sit flush with the covering. Where it is flat, glass goes up on a kerb. A landing with nothing above it but loft and slates takes a tube of reflective material and a small dome. Choosing among them has more to do with the roof than with the village.

If you tell us which room feels dark, and what is above it, we can say which of the three belongs there.

At Blackmill, the people who decide a planning application work for Bridgend County Borough Council. The Gower AONB does not cover Blackmill, and on an ordinary house here the usual rules for a house in Wales apply. On the Welsh Government's conservation area map, no area falls within a kilometre of the village centre. That is not a ruling on every street, so the council can confirm any address, and in Wales a rooflight on a house inside a conservation area needs planning permission.

Under those ordinary rules, a rooflight can be permitted development provided the conditions are met, and the page on planning permission for skylights in Wales lists them. That page also names the kinds of land where the permitted route closes, and says what to do if you think yours is one of them.

Flats and maisonettes do not have those rights to begin with. Even a house can lose them, through an Article 4 direction from the council or because the planning permission it was built under carried a condition that removed them. The planning team can tell you from the file whether either applies to your house, and a quick call settles it before you spend anything. Where a house is listed, listed building consent decides the matter for any rooflight that changes its character, and you apply for it through the local planning authority with Cadw consulted.

Building control is its own track. Wales has two kinds of building control body, the council's service and a private registered building control approver, and you are free to choose either one. Private firms in Wales must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator as registered building control approvers, and the checks are carried out by registered building inspectors, working for the firm or advising it. For a new rooflight the approval is generally needed, because cutting the opening usually changes the roof structure, and the roof has to be strong enough for the unit. Where the work is notifiable, we handle the Building Regulations notification with the building control body you have chosen.

If doubt remains after reading the guide, the council's planning team will advise, and the formal route is an application for a Lawful Development Certificate, which fixes the answer on paper.

The darkest room in many houses is the one with no outside wall: a landing, a hall or a small bathroom wedged into the middle. That is the territory of the sun tunnel. A small dome on the roof gathers daylight, a reflective tube carries it down, and a diffuser in the ceiling spreads it. In drizzle it still lights the stairs, though softly. The dome is the only part on the roof.

Loft bedrooms ask more. A roof window brings in air as well as light, and the sash can be left open on a mild evening. VELUX makes INTEGRA windows, solar or electric, with a rain sensor built in that shuts the window as the first drops fall. Our page on VELUX windows goes through the range, and the one on electric opening rooflights covers the opening kinds.

Judge any of these on the wettest afternoon you can imagine, since the dry ones look after themselves. A hard shower is louder under a roof window in a bedroom than at a ground-floor window, and VELUX includes rain noise reduction among the glazing variants for some windows. Say if the room is somewhere you sleep.

If an existing window is to be swapped, the size code on its type sign gives the width and height; MK06, for example, is listed by VELUX as 78 by 118 centimetres. A replacement roof window in Wales should reach 1.4 W/m²K, or Window Energy Rating Band B.

A kitchen at the back with a flat roof takes a flat roof rooflight, which in Wales should reach 2.2 W/m²K under Approved Document L (Wales). Rainclear's guide for flat glass rooflights recommends a fall on the kerb to minimise water pooling, so the fall around the glass needs looking at. A rooflight's figure is worked out over the whole unit, and when a kerb arrives attached as part of the same assembly, the limit applies to the pair together. For a lantern, Brett Martin's bulletin specifies a minimum upstand height and recommends building it level. If a lantern appeals, the position for one on a new extension is something we confirm with the council. A rooflight that has misted can be replaced, and there is more under misted rooflights.

A laminated inner pane is among the VELUX glazing options, built so that an accidental break does not drop glass into the room below. The window and the variant decide whether it is on offer, so it is worth raising early.

What each of these has in common is that the survey comes first. It is free. The fixed written quote follows, and a guarantee on our workmanship, ten years long and in writing, closes the job. To start, ring 01792 929062 or complete the survey form.