Skylights and rooflights in Llanharan

Llanharan is a village in Rhondda Cynon Taf, historically part of Glamorgan. Its best-known features are the historic town square, Llanharan House and the Church of St Julius and Aaron. The square is made up of several old stone buildings beside the Ewenny Fach, the local river.

The South Wales Railway opened a station here in 1850, which made the place a strategic spot for surrounding industry. Tin and coal mines gave work during the Industrial Revolution, and the Meiros was listed in 1888 as employing 228 men. By the end of the 19th century 80 more houses had been built, and the population had passed a thousand.

Llanharan House was built in 1750 by Rees Powell. It stayed in the Powell family until 1795, when Richard Hoare Jenkins bought it, and after his death in 1856 the house and estate went to Colonel John Blandy-Jenkins.

When heavy industry declined, the village went through economic decline, though the M4 close by gives residents easy access to most of South Wales. The cinema, the library and the original railway station all closed over the years, and the station reopened in 2007.

Head east out of Swansea for 28.88 miles by road and you arrive in Llanharan, which keeps it just inside our service area. Pencoed and Heol-y-cyw are close neighbours that we cover as well.

Stone buildings around a square are the kind of setting where the choice of glass shows from several angles. VELUX makes a conservation roof window with a laminated inner pane and a toughened outer one, which holds together if it is accidentally broken. That kind of glazing, set low in the slope, is made for older roofs, and the conservation rooflights page explains when it is the one to ask about.

Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council decides planning in Llanharan. On the Welsh Government's map of conservation boundaries, an area called Llanharan covers the point we use as the village centre. That is a map of boundaries, not of properties, so the question for your own house is whether its address falls inside the line. The council can tell you.

Inside a conservation area in Wales, a rooflight put into a roof slope needs planning permission. The conservation rooflights page describes glass designed for older roofs, and the conservation-area planning guide explains the application.

Beyond that area, a rooflight on a house may be permitted development if it passes the tests in our Welsh planning guide. The village is outside the Gower AONB boundary, which keeps that label out of a job here. It is worth saying plainly because the Welsh rule on protected land lists AONBs alongside conservation areas.

Permitted development is not available to everyone. Flats and maisonettes never get it, and a council may remove it for an area with an Article 4 direction. A planning condition on the original permission for a house can have the same result. Where nobody is certain, ask the council's planning staff. A Lawful Development Certificate turns their view into a document you can keep.

An older stone building in a village centre might be listed. Listed building consent is needed for any rooflight that would affect the character of a listed house; the local planning authority handles the application and Cadw is consulted. Without the consent, going ahead can amount to a criminal offence.

Building Regulations run alongside. Cutting a new opening is likely to need approval, since the structure is usually altered and has to carry the unit. Where the work is notifiable, we handle the Building Regulations notification with local authority building control or a registered building control approver.

You choose which body does the checking. Either the council's building control team or a private registered approver can take the job. Taking out an old roof window and putting in an equivalent is building work as well, while mending one is not, and fitting new glass into a frame you keep falls outside the energy rules.

Take a loft office first, since a desk under a slope wants good light. A roof window gives a desk a view of sky. A top-hung sash opens clear of your head, while a centre-pivot turns right over for cleaning from inside; the comparison page sets them side by side. In Wales a new or replacement roof window should reach 1.4 W/m²K or Band B on the Window Energy Rating scale.

A landing between two bedrooms can be the darkest corner of a house, with no outside wall to put a window in. A sun tunnel sends light down a mirrored tube from the roof, so the stairs are bright without an extra switch. The dome that sits on the roof is a small shape for the rain to pass over.

Behind a house, a single-storey extension often has a flat roof and a gap where the light should be. A flat roof rooflight on a kerb fits that gap, and a rooflight in Wales should reach 2.2 W/m²K. A roof lantern stands higher; if the extension is still being planned, we check the lantern's planning position with Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council.

A roof window with an electric motor can help in a room that gets aired while the house is empty. VELUX offers solar and electric roof windows with a rain sensor that closes them when it rains, and our electric opening rooflights page covers the controls.

An older rooflight that has fogged inside is not a loss. Fogging points to a failed seal, and the unit can be swapped. Misted rooflights are part of our replacement work, and the size code on an existing VELUX makes the order simple.

Bathrooms deserve a word. Steam climbs to the roof window above a bath, so pair the window with an extractor and a sash that opens a little for airing. When a window is replaced, Approved Document F (Wales) normally applies: ventilation afterwards should be no worse than before. Trickle vents in the old frame mean vents of no smaller size in the new one.

The route from enquiry runs one way: a free survey, a fixed written quote, and a 10-year workmanship guarantee set down in writing. Ring 01792 929062 or send an enquiry.