Insulation in Canford Heath

The loft is usually the first job and the cheapest per room warmed. A top-up of mineral wool, glass wool or rockwool roll to about 270mm, laid in two layers crossing each other, with the eaves kept open for ventilation and any storage raised on loft legs. The ceiling then reaches the U-value that Part L looks for, and heat loss through the top of the house falls more than anywhere else. The loft page has the detail.

Rooms over an integral garage. Common in houses of this age, and covered in the section below. Mineral wool batts between the joists from underneath, boarded with fire resisting plasterboard, is the usual fix.

Flat roofed extensions and dormers. Plenty of houses here have a flat roofed kitchen, porch or garage extension, and some have a dormer. If the flat roof is being re-covered, PIR insulation board such as Celotex or Kingspan goes on top of the deck as a warm roof, with a vapour control layer under it. That is far better than stuffing the void, which traps condensation. Flat roofing in Canford Heath covers the covering itself.

Cold walls. Most houses in Canford Heath have cavity walls, and whether they suit a fill depends on what a borescope shows. Where a wall should not be filled, or one room is cold, internal insulation with insulated plasterboard or rigid board behind a new skim is the answer, and it lifts the thermal comfort of that room noticeably. The wall insulation page explains the choice.

Floors. Most houses in Canford Heath were built with solid concrete ground floors, which cannot be insulated from below. A new floor finish over rigid board is possible when a room is being redone, but it raises the floor, so doors and thresholds need thought. We will tell you when it is not worth it.

Draughts and ventilation. The loft hatch, gaps round pipes going into the loft, and old window trickle vents are checked. In a Canford Heath house, insulation works best with draughts sealed, but kitchens and bathrooms still need extract fans running, or condensation moves somewhere else. Thin multi-foil products are sold as a quick fix; on their own they rarely match the depth of wool they replace, and we will say so. The heating bill and the EPC both move most when the big areas are done properly.

Maisonettes, flats and neighbours on the same close. In a Canford Heath maisonette or flat the roof and outside walls normally belong to the freeholder, so the loft and any wall insulation go through whoever manages the block, and a large job needs the leaseholders consulted under section 20. On a close where the houses went up in the same year, the lofts usually hold the same thin layer, so two or three neighbours can have the work done on consecutive days, each with their own quote.

No rate per square metre, because the area is the easy part and the awkward part is everything around it.

Getting to it. A detached house with a clear loft and a bedroom over the garage, a mid terrace with a small loft and a flat roofed kitchen, and a top floor flat with a shared roof space do not share one access plan. A loft hatch you can stand a ladder under is one job, a crawl space or a room in the roof is another. Where boarding has to come up and go back, that is time before any material is laid.

What is already up there. Old material that has to come out, and be bagged and taken away, is a cost before anything new goes down. So is anything stored in the loft that has to be moved and put back.

Ventilation and the awkward edges. Eaves that must stay clear, downlighters that need covers, a tank and pipework that still need lagging, and getting depth right into the corners rather than just across the middle. Approved Document L sets what the work is expected to reach.

Comparing quotes? Ask what depth is actually being laid, whether the old material is being removed or covered, whether the eaves are being kept clear, and whether the hatch and the pipework are included.

We insulate homes across Canford Heath and the rest of BH17, from Gravel Hill to Mannings Heath and from Adastral Square to Culliford Crescent, from our base in Boscombe, about six miles away.

You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of 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. Before you book a visit in Canford Heath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Canford Heath 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.