Insulation in Bashley
Loft depth brought up to standard on newer houses, garage conversions warmed properly, cavity checks and sloping ceilings, across Bashley and the BH25 lanes.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Most Bashley houses are new enough to have been built with insulation, which is exactly why people leave them alone. The depth that came as standard then is well short of what is expected now, so on a house of this age the job is nearly always a top-up laid straight over what is already up there.
Cold in a Bashley home tends to be one fault turning up in different rooms. A house that was comfortable for years and now feels like it needs the heating on earlier. A converted garage or a room above one that stays cold whatever you do to it. And a loft somebody has looked into properly for the first time since they moved in, where the wool lies flat between the joists with the tops of the timbers showing above it.
We come out and look before quoting. That means into the roof space and along it, not a glance from the hatch, a measured depth, a check that the eaves are still open, and photographs of what we find. Then a written itemised quote with each element priced separately, so you can see what the loft costs, what the garage costs and what you can leave for another year. The survey is free and so is the quote.
The work
A warm room with a cold garage under it
Top-ups on trussed roofs. The bulk of the housing here dates from the 1980s and 1990s, built on factory made trusses with the quilt laid between the ceiling joists at the depth that was normal at the time. Nothing is wrong with it.
There simply is not enough of it. We lay a fresh layer across the joists at right angles, taking the total to around 270mm, which is the depth that gets a ceiling to the 0.16 U-value Approved Document L sets for a loft ceiling under a pitched roof. Trussed roofs are full of bracing and awkward to move around, which is why this is a job done on hands and knees from crawl boards, and no truss member ever gets cut to make it easier.
A warm room with a cold garage under it. A lot of the detached houses in Bashley have an integral garage, and when one becomes a study or a bedroom the fabric usually gets less attention than the plasterboard does. The floor over an unheated garage, the wall between the garage and the house and the ceiling under a room above it all need treating, or you have built a warm room with a cold box under it. Rigid board between and under the floor joists, a proper job at the junctions, and the cold bridge round the edge dealt with rather than ignored.
Houses of this era were often built with insulation boards already inside the cavity, so a blown fill is not automatically the right call and may not even be possible. A borescope tells us in minutes what is in there and whether it is intact, and where the cavity is genuinely empty, blown bead or mineral fibre is a day of work. Where a wall is solid the routes are an internal lining or external wall insulation, and in the National Park the second one is a planning question first. Where a loft has been converted the insulation line moves from the ceiling to the roof slope and it has to be continuous: foil faced PIR between and under the rafters, joints taped, a vapour control layer on the warm side and a clear air gap above so the roof still breathes. Where the rafter depth is tight, a multi-layer foil quilt does more in less thickness. Then loft legs so boarding sits above the full depth, an insulated and draught sealed hatch, vent trays holding the eaves open, lagging on the tank, and fire rated covers over downlighters.
How it runs
Roof space, walls or a garage room: how the job runs
Thomas starts in the loft, then looks at the walls. In a Bashley bungalow the roof space covers every room, so the loft is often the first job. He checks the depth and condition of what is there, whether anything blocks the eaves, and which pipes and tanks will need lagging. The quote itemises survey, clearing, material and depth, ventilation and disposal.
Most hatches here are in a hall or landing with room for a ladder. Where a garage, or a room above one, is cold, he looks at the walls and floor too. We cover the floor under the hatch, bag the old material in the loft and carry it out cleanly. If we find the felt wet or a cable damaged, you get a picture and a cost for dealing with it, and the choice is yours.
A loft top-up needs no planning application and no building control notice, which is what the Planning Portal explains. Cavity fill has to be notified to building control or self-certified by a registered installer. Bashley is different in one respect: it sits inside the New Forest National Park, which is the planning authority here, and on National Park land cladding the outside of a house is not permitted development. So external wall insulation is an application here, and the National Park keeps an interactive property map if you want to check your address. VAT on insulation in a home is currently zero rated.
Cost
Flattened wool, hatches and cold rooms: the insulation price
No rate per square metre; the area is simple to measure. Getting in. A detached house with a loft ladder and a boarded landing, a bungalow with a small hatch over a wardrobe, and a converted roof space with no way into the voids behind it are different mornings before any material goes in.
What is there. Old material that has to come out and be bagged is a cost of its own. In many nineties houses the original layer has settled, and the tops of the joists now show above it.
The cold rooms. A converted garage, or a room over one, may need insulating under the floor or in the walls, which is a different job from topping up a loft.
The walls. Many later houses in Bashley were built with partial fill in the cavity, so filling it again may add little. We check with a borescope first rather than assume.
Ventilation. The eaves must stay clear, and some roofs need extra vents before more goes in. Approved Document L sets what the work has to reach.
Ask other quotes what depth goes down, whether anyone has looked into the cavity, and whether the hatch and pipework are covered.
If it is urgent
Mould, condensation or a room that stays cold
If water is dripping in the loft, black mould comes back straight after cleaning, or a room never warms up, ring rather than using the form. Keep the room aired, and do not add insulation until the cause is known, because that can trap the damp.
The first visit works out whether it is insulation, ventilation or both, and deals with any immediate risk. Bashley is a short run for us from the New Milton side. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Try again later if you like, though we ring missed numbers back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Built with insulation is not the same as properly insulated
Most of Bashley is newer housing, with the biggest single share of it built in the 1990s. That is why so many people here never think about the loft: the house came with insulation, the survey when you bought it said there was insulation. The problem is the depth.
What went in as standard on a house of that age is a good deal less than half of what is asked for today, and the wool has had thirty years to settle since. You are not looking at a bare ceiling, you are looking at a job that is half done and has been quietly costing you ever since.
The good news is that a top-up is the cheapest and least disruptive insulation job there is. Nothing has to come out, because there is nothing wrong with what is there. The new layer goes straight over the top, cross laid so the joists stop conducting heat through the ceiling, and a typical house is a day.
When you compare quotes, ask what total depth is being laid rather than how many rolls are being delivered. Ask too whether the boarded area by the hatch is being raised on loft legs or simply put back down on top, because putting boards back on compressed wool undoes the part of the loft you actually walk on.
Who you are dealing with
Insulation from a Boscombe firm you can check
Our Boscombe base and Bashley are about eight and a half miles apart. We insulate lofts and walls in homes across Bashley and Ashley, Wootton and the forest edge. The National Park Authority deals with planning; New Forest District Council with building control.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is the company, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen, the owner, checks the loft and walls himself before pricing. On Checkatrade a verified customer's score for us is 10 out of 10. We make no charge for the visit or the itemised written quote. Before you book a visit in Bashley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Bashley?
Most repairs in Bashley need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.
| Question | In Bashley |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Bashley. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Bashley, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Bashley. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the New Forest National Park, where design is looked at more closely and permitted development rights are narrower. |
Questions
Questions about insulation in Bashley
The Park is our planning authority. Does that reach indoors?
A cold loft is outside its reach. New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Bashley, and its interest is what can be seen: a change of roof covering, a dormer, insulation applied to the outside of a wall. Material laid over the joists alters nothing visible from anywhere. Five listed entries fall within the settlement and those need consent in their own right, inside as well as out. Ask before you order render, not quilt.
Our house is from the nineties. Is there anything left to do?
There is nearly always depth to add. 39.3% of Bashley was built between 1983 and 2008, with the largest single slice in the 1990s, and the depth that satisfied the standards then falls well short of what goes in now. Those roofs are trussed, which is quick to work in but easy to skimp where the truss meets the wall. The usual picture is the right idea at the wrong thickness and a bare perimeter.
Where does the old material go when it comes out?
Out with us in the van, the same day. Most of the time it does not come out at all: unless it is wet, contaminated or full of debris it stays put and the new layer crosses the joists over the top, which is warmer and far less disturbance. When it does have to go, it is sealed in bags at the joist before it moves, because loose fibre travels the moment it is dropped through a hatch.
Should we use quilt over the joists or boards?
Over a cold roof space, quilt nearly every time. Rigid board belongs where you are insulating the slope itself and thickness is limited, because it buys performance in less depth and it is slower to fit. A Bashley loft with modern trusses has plenty of height above the joists, so quilt laid in two directions is the simpler and better job. Where you want a deck for storage, we raise it on battens so nothing is squashed flat.
Do you come out twice, once to look and once to work?
One visit to price and one to do it. Thomas comes out, goes into the roof space, measures it and writes the quote himself rather than sending someone to take notes for a salesman. The visit and the written quote are free and itemised, so the depth, the area and every extra sit on separate lines. If you accept it, the next van at the door is the one doing the job.
Nearby, and next door
Insulation near Bashley
Nearby places we also cover for insulation, with straight-line distances from Bashley, and the other trades we offer in Bashley itself.
Insulation nearby
Our other trades in Bashley
Insulation guides
Part L: do you have to insulate when you re-roof? Black mould on walls: what causes it and what stops it PIR board vs mineral wool: which insulation?Everything we do in New Milton Insulation, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get a price for insulating your Bashley home
Tell us the address and roughly when the house was built. We will measure what is in the loft now and put an itemised price in writing. No charge and no obligation.