Rooflights and skylights fitted in Tonna

Tonna counts as a village within Neath Port Talbot, and its Welsh name is Tonnau. Getting there from Swansea means roughly 11 miles on the road, heading north-east, so it lies inside our 30-mile radius. Neath Port Talbot Council is its planning authority.

Our work covers Cilfrew, Neath, Briton Ferry and Pontrhydyfen too.

Tonna has a small place in the story of science. Between the village and the adjoining parish of Llanilltud stands a cottage once occupied by the Welsh-born engineer and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who reached the theory of evolution independently of Charles Darwin and later corresponded with him. On the hill above the village, a bank and a ditch were cut into the rocky ground along the top of a broad ridge. At the 2022 council elections the combined Resolven and Tonna ward returned two councillors to Neath Port Talbot Council. Those two seats cover Resolven as well as Tonna, so the village shares its ward.

For a rooflight the setting of a house matters more than the village history. A mapped conservation area lies near enough to Tonna that an address deserves checking, because a new rooflight on a house inside one needs planning permission.

The shape of the roof decides what happens after that. A slope with a covering of slates or tiles suits a roof window set in line with it. Over a flat extension the choice lies between glass on a kerb and a lantern on its upstand. A landing without an outside wall gets its light from a tunnel through the loft.

The Welsh Government's national map of conservation areas includes one called Tonna Canal Depot, and its boundary runs about 655 m from the point we take as the centre of the village. A map of outlines says nothing about individual properties, so inside or outside is something only the exact address can tell you. That boundary distance, about 655 m, is measured from a single point, not from your house. The council can answer it, and the DataMapWales conservation area layer draws the boundary.

Wales treats this differently from England. A house inside a conservation area cannot use the householder allowance for a rooflight in the roof slope, so the work goes through a planning application instead. Our guide to applying for a rooflight in a Welsh conservation area takes you through it, and the wider rules sit in the planning guide.

Councils can take householder rights away from a house by Article 4 direction, which tends to be used in conservation areas, and a condition on the original permission can do the same job. Flats and maisonettes were never given those rights.

Listed buildings follow a separate path. Any alteration that would affect the special architectural or historic character of a listed building needs listed building consent, and the consent reaches inside the house as well as the outside, taking in historic fixtures, fittings and details. Minor work can fall under it. Cadw, the Welsh Government's historic environment service, notes that replacing traditional windows with uPVC on a listed building will not normally be acceptable. Our page on listed building rooflights goes into more detail.

The Welsh energy guidance makes an allowance for old houses. Where a replacement window or roof window on a home of historic interest cannot reach 1.4 W/m²K, Approved Document L (Wales) accepts 1.2 W/m²K at the centre of the pane, or low-emissivity secondary glazing. Rooflights on a kerb get no such allowance and stay at 2.2 W/m²K.

Some roof windows are made with an older roof in mind, and the page on what a conservation rooflight is sets out the idea. The conservation rooflights page lists the range we fit. Whether one is the right choice depends on the roof, the house and the council.

Appearance matters to a planning decision. For a house where permitted development does apply, the rules ask that the materials match the existing house so far as is practicable. The same instinct is sound inside a mapped area, where the finish of the frame and the pattern of the glass both come into the conversation.

Behind the frame, the glass still has to cope with the weather. VELUX's conservation roof window offers a laminated inner pane, a layer meant to keep broken glass from dropping into the room after an accident, and its glazing options include rain noise reduction. What can be fitted to a given model depends on that model.

Not every Tonna roof wants a roof window. A flat roof over a kitchen at the back takes either flat glass set on a kerb or a lantern, and the lantern needs the council's view because it stands tall above the roof. A landing under a loft takes a sun tunnel, which needs only a small opening in the roof.

Listing is a matter of public record. The Welsh Ministers compile the list of listed buildings on Cadw's recommendation, and each building's record is published in Cof Cymru, the National Historic Assets of Wales. Checking a house takes a few minutes, and it is worth doing before a design is drawn up for the roof.

Energy figures for a rooflight count every surface of the unit, so the area measured can be greater than the hole it fills. Where the kerb arrives together with the rooflight as one assembly, the figure includes the kerb as well. That is a point for the survey to confirm on any flat roof, and it applies whatever the age of the house.

Units age too. Fogged glass between the panes is a case for replacing the glass or the whole rooflight, and in a mapped area the replacement is worth discussing with the council first.

Every Tonna job begins in the same way, with a free survey. The fixed written quote comes after it. The Building Regulations notification is our job wherever the work is notifiable, and a 10-year workmanship guarantee is written down for you at the end. Call 01792 929062 or use the booking form.