Skylights and rooflights in Capel Hendre

Capel Hendre is in Carmarthenshire, and from Swansea it lies to the north, 15.02 road miles away. Saron, Tycroes, Penybanc and Blaenau are the closest places on the map, and we fit in all of them: Saron, Tycroes and Penybanc have their own pages.

Our range is the same in Capel Hendre as anywhere else on the map: roof windows, electric opening rooflights, walk-on rooflights, energy-efficient rooflights and the products covered below. Pick the one that matches the roof and the room, and the rest of the decision follows from it.

Planning for a Capel Hendre house is decided by Carmarthenshire County Council, and the same council runs a building control service, one of the two routes for Building Regulations. The Gower AONB sits elsewhere, so a Capel Hendre address is not caught by the Gower rules.

For a house, a rooflight can sometimes be added without an application, provided it meets a short set of conditions. Those are listed in the skylight planning permission guide, which is the place to test your own roof before you commit to anything. A flat or maisonette has no such rights to begin with. A council can also withdraw them from houses with an Article 4 direction, and the original planning permission for a house can remove them through a condition.

Listed houses have a separate route. Work that affects the special architectural or historic interest of a listed building needs listed building consent from the local planning authority, and Cadw publishes the records that show what is listed. Doing the work first and asking afterwards risks a criminal offence.

Where a roof sits close to a rule's edge, the planning officers at the council can confirm the position. When you want the position recorded formally, the council can be asked for a Lawful Development Certificate.

A roof window or rooflight that has misted, leaks at one corner or simply looks tired is a replacement job. Replacing a unit sits in a different place from adding a new one, because the opening is already cut and the position has stood up to the weather for years.

The first job is naming what is there. A roof window sits in the plane of the slope. A rooflight stands up on a kerb or upstand, and the energy limit for each differs: a new or replacement roof window in an existing home should reach 1.4 W/m²K or Window Energy Rating Band B, and a rooflight should reach 2.2 W/m²K, as set out in Approved Document L (Wales).

If the old one is a VELUX, open it and look along the top edge of the sash for the metal type sign. It carries a size code, such as MK04 or UK04, and VELUX publishes the width and height that go with each code. Read off that code for the window's width and height; a type sign has been fitted to VELUX windows since 1968.

Fog trapped between the panes tends to mean the sealed unit has gone. Replacing a misted rooflight is one of the things we do, alongside fitting new ones.

Heritage changes the sums. On a home of architectural or historic interest, a replacement roof window that cannot get to 1.4 has a fallback of 1.2 W/m²K at the centre of the pane, or low-e secondary glazing. A rooflight has no such fallback, so the 2.2 W/m²K figure stands.

Some replacements are building work and some are not. Fitting a new roof window or rooflight in place of an old one counts. A repair does not, and swapping only the glass inside an existing frame sits outside building work for the energy rules. Any Building Regulations notification that the job calls for is made by us.

A flat-roofed rear extension is the classic place to want more light, because the new room tends to sit deep and dim at the back. The two products worth setting side by side are the flat roof rooflight and the roof lantern.

The rooflight is the lower of the two. It sits on a kerb, can be fixed or opening, and lets light straight down into the room. The lantern is the taller, with pitched glass above its base, and it gives the room the sense of a ceiling lifted at the middle. Brett Martin, which makes lanterns, specifies a builder's upstand of at least 150 mm and recommends building it level.

Planning is where the two part company. A lantern stands well clear of the roof it sits on, so putting one onto an existing flat roof will normally call for a planning application, and we confirm that with Carmarthenshire County Council at survey. On a new extension we also confirm the position with the council, because the rules for that situation are not settled in the guidance we work from.

The walls matter as much as the glass. A kerb or upstand has to be built level, or with the fall the maker asks for, and the roof beneath has to carry the weight. The joists or rafters often have to be cut for the opening, and that is one of the reasons a new unit generally needs Building Regulations approval.

Whatever you choose, ask for the position of the glass to be checked against how the room is used, since a rooflight over a worktop behaves differently from one over a dining table.

Glazing is the other half of the choice. VELUX sells flat and curved glass rooflights with double or triple glazing, for the sake of warmth and a quieter room. Which build suits the extension depends on how the room is used and on the energy limit of 2.2 W/m²K that a rooflight has to meet.

Reach settles the opening question. A kitchen rooflight sits high above any worktop, so an electric opening rooflight saves a pole or a stepladder. Where it carries a rain sensor, the glass shuts itself when a shower begins, so a forgotten window is not a worry on the day you were out.

For the sake of the finished room, ask for an opening version if the space will be used for cooking. Fresh air from above helps clear the steam, and an electric opener puts it within reach. The free survey opens every job here. A fixed written quote comes next, and ten years of workmanship guarantee, in writing, sit behind the finished work. Call 01792 929062 or book online.