Insulation in Corfe Castle
Loft, rafter and internal wall insulation on Purbeck stone cottages and the newer houses at the edge of the village.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a stone cottage in Corfe Castle the insulation that pays is the layer you cannot see from the street, and the material has to be chosen so the building can still dry out. That means depth in the roof, a breathable build-up against solid stone rather than a sealed one, and the eaves left open enough to breathe. The newer houses on the edge of the village are a straightforward loft job and often a cavity wall question as well.
Two situations bring people to ring. A cottage that costs a fortune to heat and still has a room at the end that never gets warm, usually one under the roof slope. And a loft that has gone damp since somebody stuffed it full of wool, with the eaves choked and water sitting on the timbers in the morning.
Both are fixable and neither is fixed by simply buying more material. We come out, get into the roof space properly, measure the depth, look at how the roof breathes and look at what the walls are made of. The site visit is free, the written itemised quote is free, and if the honest answer is that your loft is fine and the draughts are the problem, that is the answer you will get.
The work
Ventilation first, then depth
Getting depth into an old roof space. In the village the roof spaces are small and awkward: a hatch over the stairs, purlins in the way, low eaves you cannot get a hand into and a ceiling of lath and plaster you must not put a foot through. The work is mineral wool, ordinary eco roll, laid between the joists and a second layer across them at right angles, worked out to the wall plate rather than stopped short at the easy bit. Full depth is around 250 to 270mm, which takes a roof close to the 0.16 u-value a renovated roof is expected to reach.
Stone walls, and why the material matters more here. A rubble stone wall has no cavity and was built to take on damp and give it back to the air. Seal that with a foil faced board bonded straight to the inside face and you can trap moisture in the wall and push it out as damp on the plaster. An internal lining on a wall like that wants to be vapour open, wood fibre board and lime plaster rather than foam and gypsum, with a proper detail where it meets a window reveal or a joist end. With a conservation area over the village, external wall insulation is almost never the answer here.
Where an attic has been made into a room in the roof there is no loft left to lay a roll into, so the insulation goes between and under the rafters as rigid board, foil faced PIR, cut tight with the joints taped, or a multi-layer foil quilt such as TLX where a sloping ceiling has no headroom to lose. A dormer on the back is built as a warm roof, cheeks and flat top together. On an old roof there is often no membrane at all under the covering, so an air gap has to stay above the insulation rather than be assumed away. On the newer houses at the edge of the village it is more ordinary: roll between and over, boarding lifted and raised on legs, and a borescope in the cavity to see whether it has been filled and whether the fill has slumped.
Every damp loft we get called to in Purbeck has the same story behind it: wool pushed hard into the eaves, the air path blocked, and warm moist air arriving in a cold roof with nowhere to go. Vent trays hold the eaves gap open, and Approved Document F is the standard for that half of the job. Then an insulated and draught sealed hatch, lagging on the tank and on pipework now sitting above the warm layer, and covers over the downlighters.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
The same two of us from the first visit to the last, and the quote itemised: survey, clearing, material and depth, ventilation works and disposal on separate lines rather than one figure.
Work inside the roof or on the inside face of a wall is permitted development, invisible from the street, and on an unlisted house it needs no permission, though building control still has a regulation to satisfy where a thermal element is renovated. With 134 listed entries in the parish the odds that yours is one of them are better here than almost anywhere we work, and on a listed building listed building consent can be needed even where nothing shows outside, so we ask that question at the survey rather than on the morning.
Cost
What decides the price of an insulation job
A stone cottage with a trap door over the stairs and eaves you cannot reach into, a converted attic with no loft left at all, and a newer house at the edge of the village with a drop down ladder are three different mornings. Old material to bag and take away, storage to move and put back, and eaves that must stay clear all come before the material, and Approved Document L sets what the work has to reach. Comparing quotes, ask what depth is being laid, whether the old material is removed or covered, and whether the hatch and pipework are included.
If it is urgent
Damp, condensation or a room you cannot heat
Ring rather than use the form. A loft dripping with condensation, mould coming back faster than you can wash it off, or a room that will not hold heat before a cold snap gets looked at quickly. Insulating a roof space that cannot breathe makes it worse, so the first visit settles which of the two you have. We are over into Purbeck most weeks and under ten miles away.
The one local thing
A conservation village, and most of it listed
Corfe Castle has its own conservation area and well over a hundred listed entries in and around it, which is a density you do not meet often. For insulation that rules one option out and changes another. Out goes external wall insulation: it thickens the wall, buries the window reveals and replaces a stone face with a rendered one, and in a conservation area appearance is controlled.
What changes is the inside work. On a listed building, internal alterations that affect the character of the place can need listed building consent in their own right, and that can include lining an original wall, boxing in a beam or cutting into a lath and plaster ceiling, even though a passer by would never know.
What this means in practice is that the order of work here is different from an ordinary house. Start with the roof, because loft insulation over the ceiling joists is reversible, does not touch the historic fabric of the walls and is rarely contentious. Then draughts, then pipework, then secondary measures at the windows.
Leave the walls until last and get the consent question answered before anyone prices them. When a wall does get done, ask for a vapour open build-up in writing. A cottage that has stood for centuries has been drying outwards the whole time, and the fastest way to give an old building a damp problem it never had is to wrap it in something that stops it.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Corfe Castle and the villages around it, Kingston, Church Knowle, Harmans Cross, Stoborough and out towards Wareham, and the BH20 addresses between them. 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
Corfe Castle questions we get asked
There are 134 listed entries here. Is mine likely one?
It is a real possibility here. Corfe Castle carries 134 listed entries in a small village, which is an unusual concentration, so plenty of houses are individually listed rather than simply sitting inside the conservation area. Listing does not rule out insulation. It changes what may be fixed to the historic fabric and means Dorset Council need to consent to the work before anything goes up into the roof.
Would a room in the roof need extra approvals here?
That one does. Corfe Castle sits in the Poole Harbour nutrient catchment, which engages whenever a scheme adds overnight accommodation, so a bedroom in the roof brings that in on top of the conservation area and, for a listed house, listed building consent. Insulating the roof space you already have triggers none of it. The two jobs get confused because both involve someone with a tape measure in your loft.
Can we insulate the walls from outside in the conservation area?
Almost certainly not, and it would be the wrong thing for the building anyway. Wrapping a solid wall in board and render changes the appearance, which is exactly what the Corfe Castle conservation area controls, and Dorset Council would want an application. Old walls also need to pass moisture outward. Internal lining on the coldest rooms, done in a breathable build up, is the realistic route here.
What do you check in an old Corfe Castle roof?
Three things before anything else. Whether the ceiling below is lath and plaster and can carry weight, whether the eaves still have an air path, and whether the timbers are dry. In a village where the conservation area and Dorset Council control the outside, the answer is nearly always to work from inside, so the condition of the inside is what decides the specification. Thomas does that survey himself.
Can this be done without us moving out?
Yes for a loft. The work happens above your head and the only disruption downstairs is the ladder position and a sheeted route to the front door. Internal wall lining is different, because the room being lined has to be emptied and it goes room by room. In a listed house in Corfe Castle we also agree with you where materials can be stacked before the first day.
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A free site visit, the depth and the ventilation both checked, and a written itemised quote for the work that is genuinely worth doing.