Skylights and rooflights in Tumble

Tumble, in Welsh Y Tymbl, is a village in Carmarthenshire. It developed in the 19th century to house the anthracite miners who worked at the nearby Dynant Fach and Great Mountain collieries. The village once had its own railway station, on the line that carried coal from the local mines to Llanelli Docks.

Tumble has a name of note, too. Gary Owen, the snooker player, was among its best-known residents, and he was world amateur champion in 1963 and 1966.

Tumble is north-west of Swansea, and at 17 road miles it sits well within our 30-mile reach. If you live nearby, we also fit rooflights in Cross Hands, Foelgastell, Llannon, Carmarthenshire and Pontyberem.

Houses built in the 19th century were often modest in size, with narrow rooms and small windows. That is a general remark about the age of a house, and it says nothing about any one street in Tumble. Yours may have been altered, extended or rebuilt, and the visit shows which.

Whatever a village's history, light in a house should come through glass sized for the room, set into a roof that has been looked at, and priced after the visit. That order of events holds on every street, whether the house is old or new, and it applies to a small landing window as much as to a large kitchen rooflight.

Position on the slope matters. A roof window set high and one set low meet the wind and the run-off differently, because the flashing and the water above it differ. The survey allows for that.

For a house with dim rooms, the question to ask is how daylight can reach them. A back bedroom under a slope can take a roof window. A middle landing can take a sun tunnel. A kitchen that has been pushed out at the back can take overhead glass. The survey tells us which of those your house can carry.

For any planning question in Tumble, the body to ask is Carmarthenshire County Council. The answers turn on details of the roof and the house, and the guide to planning for skylights in Wales sets out the limits that apply to a rooflight on a house. Begin there.

Some situations sit outside those limits. A flat or maisonette is excluded from householder permitted development. An Article 4 direction removes it in areas where the council has made one, and a condition on a house's first planning consent can remove it for that house alone. A listed building needs listed building consent for work that touches its special character, and you apply for it through the council. Formal confirmation comes as a Lawful Development Certificate from the planning department.

Building control is the other approval. The Building Regulations treat a window, roof window or rooflight as a controlled fitting, so fitting one counts as building work. A new rooflight generally needs that approval. The choice of body is yours: the council's building control team, or a registered building control approver. Work that has to be notified is notified by us.

The energy figures are worth knowing. Approved Document L (Wales) says a new or replacement roof window should reach 1.4 W/m²K, or Window Energy Rating Band B, and a rooflight should reach 2.2 W/m²K. Where a replacement window cannot reach 1.4 on a building of architectural or historic interest, the document offers a fallback for windows and roof windows. There is none for rooflights.

Where a window or door opening is enlarged or a new one made, the guidance asks that the total area of windows and doors stay within a set proportion of the home's floor area.

Swaps touch ventilation too. Guidance asks that a replaced window leave the room breathing as freely as it did, which in practice means vents in the new frame to match any trickle vents in the old. Escape is a separate matter, because a roof window counts as an escape window solely when specified for that job, and the roof window Building Regulations page explains the rules.

Lanterns need a note of their own. A lantern set onto a flat roof that is already built will normally call for planning permission, as it stands tall. Where the lantern is designed into a new extension, we ask the council what applies.

The easiest room to brighten is the bedroom at the back. Over the back slope, a roof window gives it light from above and a view of the sky. The choice between a top-hung and a centre-pivot style depends on headroom, and our comparison page sets out the difference.

A room that sits empty during the day suits an electric unit. Where the window is a solar or electric VELUX, its sensor closes the sash once rain starts. An electric opening rooflight therefore keeps a bedroom aired without anyone being home to catch a shower.

Bedrooms under a slope can feel closed in when the ceiling follows the roof. A window in that slope lifts the eye as well as the light, and the sky becomes part of the room. For a child's room or a spare room used as an office, that change can be the whole point of the job.

The landing is next. A sun tunnel catches light on a small roof dome and passes it down a tube to a ceiling diffuser. Rigid and flexible tubes both exist, and the loft decides between them, since pipes, joists and a water tank all get in the way.

Where a kitchen extension at the back has a flat roof, two products compete for it. Kerb-mounted glass is the low option, covered under flat roof rooflights. A roof lantern raises pitched glazing over the room. Either way, the roof beneath needs its fall.

Glazing safety is worth a thought in a busy room. One VELUX option is safety lamination: an inner pane that is laminated, so broken glass stays out of the room after an accident. What you can have depends on the window and the glazing variant.

Cooking steam is the reason a kitchen rooflight earns its keep, and also the reason it needs thinking about. Steam climbs to the glass, so an extractor over the hob does half the work. A rooflight you can open does the other half, particularly on a damp day when the washing is drying indoors.

Misted glass is the last case. When the seal fails between the panes of an old rooflight, fresh glass or a new rooflight cures it. We take on misted rooflights along with new fittings.

Start with a visit. Call 01792 929062 or use the quote form. A fixed written quote follows the survey, and the work finishes with a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing.