Skylights and rooflights in Wick, Vale of Glamorgan

Wick, Y Wig in Welsh, is a small village and community in the Vale of Glamorgan, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the coast. Walks from the village lead to the beaches of Traeth Bach and Traeth Mawr, along the Cwm Nash footpath at Monknash or from Dunraven Bay at Southerndown. The cliffs along that stretch form part of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, roughly a mile and a half from the village.

The history is long. A hill fort on the Trwyn y Witch headland, about 1.5 miles away, is thought probably to have been occupied at one time by Caratacus, who led the Silures against the Roman occupation. The village is thought to have come under Norman control around 1097. In later times it likely sat on a medieval drovers' route that bypassed the toll road through Cowbridge.

From 1822, parts of the village and the surrounding land became part of the Dunraven Estate, under the 1st Earl of Dunraven. A directory records that the village once had six public houses, of which only The Lamb and Flag and The Star remain. A topographical dictionary published in 1811 counted 259 people in Wick in 1801.

At Broughton nearby, former brewery malthouses, used from the 1930s to the 1960s by the Quakers as holiday accommodation for children and older people, have been converted into private flats.

In a place where a malthouse becomes flats and an estate takes in land, buildings change purpose over the years, and roofs are sometimes altered to follow. That makes a close look at the real covering, the structure under it and any earlier work the sensible start for anything new, whatever a building's story says.

Heading south-east out of Swansea, you reach Wick after 26.59 road miles, which is within the radius we serve. Nearby are Colwinston, St Brides Major, St Donats and Corntown.

The Welsh Government's boundary map includes a conservation area named Broughton, whose edge lies about 400 m from the point we use for Wick. The map draws lines and nothing more, and it settles no individual house. Vale of Glamorgan Council is the body to ask whether an address falls inside.

That matters because Welsh rules differ from English ones. A new rooflight on the roof slope of a house inside a conservation area needs a planning application in Wales. The route is longer than the permitted development one, and it ends with the council's consent.

If you want the council's own reading before committing, its planning team will say how it sees your address. A Lawful Development Certificate then fixes that reading in a formal document that travels with the property, which is useful to know if you ever come to sell.

The village itself lies outside any Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

For a house that is outside a conservation area, the question moves to the permitted development conditions on how far a rooflight projects, how high it rises and how it sits against a side boundary. The planning guide for skylights in Wales lists them in full, so read it against your roof first.

The Broughton malthouses, now private flats, make a different point. Flats and maisonettes sit outside householder permitted development altogether.

Councils can remove permitted development rights from houses by means of an Article 4 direction, and a condition on the original permission can do the same. A listed building needs consent for an alteration that touches its character, applied for through the council with Cadw consulted.

The Building Regulations come next. Putting a rooflight where no opening existed usually calls for approval, since the roof has to be shown able to take the unit. Replacing a window or rooflight with an equivalent is building work, whereas a repair is not. The question of which route applies is easier to answer with the roof in view than from a distance. Wales has two kinds of building control body, registered approvers and the council's own team, and any notification we make goes to the one you prefer.

Start in the loft. A bedroom or study under the slope takes a roof window, and the usual question is how it opens. A top-hung window swings out from the bottom edge, while a centre-pivot rotates about the middle, which makes the outside face reachable from the room. The roof windows page describes both. In an existing home, a replacement or new roof window should reach 1.4 W/m²K, or Window Energy Rating Band B, under the Welsh edition of Approved Document L.

Next, the flat roof of an extension. Here the contest is between a roof lantern and a flat roof rooflight. The lantern gives height and sends rain down its glass to the roof around it. The flat unit sits low. For rooflights in Wales, 2.2 W/m²K is the limit, and the figure for a lantern is one we agree with you at survey, alongside its planning position. Brett Martin's notes say a lantern's builder's upstand should be at least 150 mm high.

The hall and landing come third. Where no outside wall exists, a sun tunnel can bring in daylight from a dome above.

Glass has options beyond the frame. VELUX publishes a dirt-repellent finish and a laminated inner pane among its choices, and which of them reaches a given window depends on the model. The decision follows the survey, since the position of the glass and the room below drive it.

Fourth is any room where reaching the sash is awkward. An electric opening rooflight gets round that, and VELUX's electric and solar models carry a rain sensor that shuts them when rain starts.

Where VELUX makes a flat or curved glass rooflight, it offers the unit with two or three panes and connects that choice to warmth and sound. How many layers a particular room wants is something to discuss once the room has been seen and its use understood.

Finally, there are the units already in the roof. If the panes of a rooflight have misted, the seal has probably failed, and misted rooflights can be replaced. VELUX gives the size of each model in its table, and every window made after 1968 has a type sign.

Everything starts with a survey, which is free. The fixed written quote comes after it, and a 10-year workmanship guarantee is given in writing. For a visit, telephone 01792 929062 or fill in the survey form.