Rooflights and skylights fitted in Garnant

Garnant (Welsh: Y Garnant) is a mining village in the valley of the River Amman, in Carmarthenshire. It stands where the Rivers Garnant and Pedol meet the Amman, at the junction of three rivers. Before coal was found, the spot was part of Cwmamman, the Amman valley, a remote place of a few farms and rough mountain roads until the 18th century.

Coal changed all that. The Raven colliery, named after the Dynevor family's emblem, was working by 1854 and opened a new shaft in 1907. The railway that arrived in 1840 let coal leave on an industrial scale through the docks at Llanelli, and its decision to build two stations, at Garnant and Glanamman, helped the two halves of Cwmamman grow their own identity, as did the building of Christchurch in Garnant at about the same time. A rail strike in the early 1920s brought mass unemployment, and the last big colliery closed in 1936.

Other industries followed in the 19th century. The Amman Tinplate Works ran from 1883 to 1932 and is now Parc Golwg Yr Aman, while Garnant Park began as the Cwmamman Recreation Ground, part of Lord Dynevor's Glanrafon Farm estate. A village with a history spread across that many decades has houses of different ages, which is a good reason to study the roof before choosing the glass.

The mining itself began earlier than the boom. Digging appears to have started at Brynlloi in Glanamman in 1757, and small coal workings multiplied in the first half of the 19th century. An advert of 1830 offered the lease of a "Garnant Colliery", probably on the border with Gwaun-cae-gurwen near the main road. By the time the Raven shaft opened, the valley already knew what a working colliery looked like on its skyline.

Heading up the valley, Garnant is a 15.62-mile run by road from Swansea, to the north, and sits inside our working radius. Glanamman and Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen are the next villages along, and we fit in both.

Planning for a Garnant house sits with Carmarthenshire County Council. Whether a particular rooflight needs an application turns on the house and the work, and the conditions are spelled out in the Welsh planning guide.

Building Regulations are a second decision. Approval is generally needed for a brand-new rooflight, since the opening has to be cut and the roof must then carry the glass. In Wales you pick the body that gives it: the council's building control service, or a registered building control approver, a private firm on the Building Safety Regulator's register. Notifiable work comes with a notification from us.

A loft room adds another layer. A bedroom in the roof needs a way out if there is a fire, and a roof window can fill that role when it meets the size and height rules in Approved Document B (Wales). The details for a given house depend on its stairs and floors, and the guide to Building Regulations for skylights covers them.

Swapping an old unit raises its own question. Swapping a roof window or rooflight for the same type is building work, while repairing one is not, and keeping the frame while changing only the glass is outside the energy rules. For a unit whose sealed glazing has failed, the choice between new glass and a new unit is one we weigh up with you on the roof.

Enlarging an opening or creating a new one brings in the energy rules. Approved Document L (Wales) sets a ceiling on the combined window and door area against the floor area of the home, so a loft conversion with several new windows is worth totting up before the order goes in.

Householder rights do not extend to flats and maisonettes, and an Article 4 direction or a planning condition on the first permission can remove them from a house. If you cannot tell where a house stands, the planners at the council can advise, and the council issues Lawful Development Certificates for anyone wanting the answer in writing before work starts.

For a loft bedroom, the question is what happens when you are out and the sky opens. VELUX says its solar and electric roof windows have a sensor that shuts the sash automatically at the first rain. An electric opening rooflight suits glass that is awkward to reach, and a manual one suits glass within easy reach of a hand or a pole. The roof windows page lays out how each style opens.

The landing outside that bedroom is where a sun tunnel belongs. A little dome up top, a reflective tube running across the loft void and a ceiling diffuser at the bottom give daylight to a space without an outer wall. Drizzle slides off the dome, and the diffuser glows evenly below.

An opening roof window does a second job besides lighting the room. Approved Document F (Wales) calls fast airing of a habitable room purge ventilation, and a hinged or pivoting window can provide it when it opens by 15° or more. A roof window that opens wide enough therefore helps a bedroom clear stale air on a still evening, and it can be paired with the rain sensor so that a forgotten sash does not mean a wet carpet.

A kitchen with a flat-roofed extension behind it can take a flat roof rooflight with a fall on its kerb. A rooflight in the Approved Document L sense is a glazed unit on a kerb or upstand, and Welsh guidance puts the figure at 2.2 W/m²K for one that is new or replacing an old one. Roof lanterns are a different product, and we confirm the rules for them with the council.

An old unit upstairs that has clouded between its panes has a failed sealed unit, and our misted rooflights work covers swapping the failed unit as well. Call 01792 929062 to arrange the free survey.