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.
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 nearly everything we do here is a top-up laid straight over what is already up there.
The three calls we get from Bashley are all versions of the same thing. 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 renovated thermal element. 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
From your call to a written price
The quote is itemised: survey, clearing, material and depth, ventilation and disposal on separate lines. Loft and cavity work needs no planning application and no building control notice, which is what the Planning Portal explains. Bashley is different in one respect worth knowing before you plan anything: it sits inside the New Forest National Park, which is the planning authority here rather than the district council, and on National Park land cladding the outside of a house is not permitted development. So external wall insulation is an application here where it would not be a mile down the road, and the National Park keeps an interactive property map if you want to check what covers your address. Insulation in a home is currently zero rated for VAT.
Cost
What decides the price of an insulation job
No rate per square metre: the area is the easy part. 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 remaining access to the void behind it are three different mornings before any material goes in. Old material that has to come out and be bagged is a cost of its own. Approved Document L sets what the work must reach. Ask what depth is going down, whether the cavity has been looked into first, and whether the hatch and the pipework are in.
If it is urgent
Damp, condensation or a room you cannot heat
Ring rather than use the form. A dripping loft, black mould that comes back faster than you can wash it off, or a room that will not hold heat gets looked at quickly, and the first visit works out whether it is insulation, ventilation or both. Bashley is a short run from the New Milton side, so within days. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
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, and there is. 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 this is the cheapest and least disruptive work we do. 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.
Two things are worth asking about when you compare quotes. First, what total depth is being laid rather than how many rolls are being delivered. Second, 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
A local firm you can check
We cover Bashley, Ashley, New Milton, Wootton and the BH25 lanes on the edge of the forest. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.
Questions
Bashley questions we get asked
The Park is our planning authority. Does that reach indoors?
Not into a cold loft. 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. What we normally find 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. VAT is charged.
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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.