Skylight and rooflight fitting in Croeserw

Croeserw is a village of about 1,380 inhabitants, in the Gwynfi and Croeserw area of Neath Port Talbot. The Welsh name means Crossing-acre, from croes for cross or crossing and erw for acre, and it possibly points to the road crossings where the lip of the Afan Valley meets the upper reaches of the Llynfi Valley.

The village splits into two. Old Croeserw holds the older buildings and the large cemetery on the hill above the A4107. It grew in the 19th century as coal mining pushed into the upper Afan Valley, and local mines included the Scatton, Avon and Dyffryn pits as well as many drift mines. New Croeserw was built higher up the hill to house mining families for the growing coal industry, and it now consists mainly of post-war public housing, many of the homes now in private hands. The local authority substantially refurbished those houses in the 1980s and 1990s.

The farm that gave the village its name, with a woollen factory that may go back to the Elizabethan period, was demolished in 1982 for the widening of the A4107.

At the 2021 Census, 1,294 people lived in the Croeserw built-up area. Getting about is straightforward. Croeserw has regular direct buses to Maesteg and Bridgend, with road links onward to Port Talbot, Neath, Swansea and the M4. Swansea to Croeserw is a drive of 18.05 road miles, with the village east of the city. Cymmer and Abergwynfi are close neighbours where we also work.

For daylight, the two halves of the village ask different questions. Older buildings come in many shapes, so a window gets sized to the roof as it stands. For post-war housing, a roof window in a rear slope and a sun tunnel over a landing are both worth raising at the survey; whether either fits your roof is settled there.

A house that was refurbished decades ago may now be asking for more daylight, or less cold. That is a good moment to look up. A roof window brings a loft or a landing into use, and a sun tunnel lights a hall without needing a loft conversion.

For a flat-roofed rear or side addition, there is a choice. A flat roof rooflight sits on a kerb and offers a clean line of sky; a roof lantern adds pitched glass and a more definite shape. Wherever a rooflight is a glazed unit on a kerb or upstand, the Welsh guidance asks for 2.2 W/m²K. That figure takes in the full developed surface of the unit, a larger area than the hole it covers, and if the kerb is bought with the rooflight, it is counted in the same figure.

A hilltop house changes how you open a window. Electric models with a rain sensor close themselves once it rains; VELUX builds that arrangement into its solar and electric models. Over a stairwell or a high landing, where you would otherwise need a pole, it may be the practical choice. See electric opening rooflights for the controls.

Older windows come out as well as new ones going in. A cloud inside the double glazing normally signals a failed seal, and replacing misted rooflights is part of our work alongside new fitting.

Windows get replaced for comfort, too. A new roof window that meets the Welsh limit loses less heat than an ageing one, and a house on a hill can feel that difference. We would rather state what the figure is than imply what it saves, and the survey is where your own roof is looked at.

Safety is the other thing to check on a replacement. Glazing close to the floor, or to a person, has its own rules under Approved Document N in Wales, and VELUX lists a laminated safety option among its glazing choices. Roof window glass usually sits well above the floor, but a low window under a sloping ceiling is the case to ask about.

It helps to have the paperwork from earlier roof work to hand when we come. Receipts, certificates or notes on what was done and when will tell us more than a guess from the ground, and they save a conversation with the council later.

Neath Port Talbot Council is the authority for Croeserw. The village is not in the Gower AONB. Whether a given rooflight needs an application turns on the house itself, and our planning guide for skylights across Wales sets the conditions out. For anything near the edge of those conditions, the council can give a view.

Owners do not all start from the same place. Householder permitted development rights do not exist for a flat or maisonette, and a house can lose them through an Article 4 direction or a condition on its first permission. Many homes in New Croeserw were once public housing and are now private; if any such house carries a condition of that kind, only the council can say. A listed house needs listed building consent for work that would affect its special interest.

In the end, the surest route is to ask early. Council planning teams can answer address-specific questions that no guide can, and they would rather hear them before work than after. Ask what applies to your roof, then bring the answer to the survey. If the council says an application is needed, the survey can wait until you have decided whether to make one.

A roof lantern usually stands well proud of an existing flat roof, and that normally brings a planning application. If the lantern is planned together with a new extension, the council gets the question from us.

Then there are Building Regulations. Windows, roof windows and rooflights are all controlled fittings under the regulations, so putting one in counts as building work. A brand-new rooflight generally needs approval, because cutting the opening usually alters the structure and the roof then carries the new unit. Where the work is notifiable, the notification is ours to make, with local authority building control or a registered building control approver.

First comes the survey, which is free. A fixed written quote follows, and then the work, with a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing. Request your survey or call 01792 929062.