Insulation in Crossways
Loft top ups, boarded lofts raised properly and rafter work in the converted roofs, with the ventilation checked before any depth goes down.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Crossways is one of the easier places on our patch to insulate properly, because almost everything here is a house with a real loft you can get into and stand a ladder under. The work is usually a top up rather than a first fit: lift the boarding, find out what depth is genuinely under it, and bring the whole ceiling up to a sensible thickness with the eaves kept clear.
Two things bring most people to the phone. A house that was warm enough when heating was cheap and now clearly is not, with the bedrooms above an unheated garage or a porch the worst of it. And a loft somebody has boarded out over the years, where the insulation has been squashed flat under chipboard and nobody has looked at it since.
There is a third we get out here more than most: people who have just moved in and want to know what they have bought. That is a fair question and it is exactly what a survey is for. We get into the roof space, measure the depth in several places, look at the eaves, the hatch and the pipework, and check whether the walls are solid or cavity. Free site visit, free written itemised quote, and no pressure to do all of it at once.
The work
The depth changes from one street to the next
Knowing what you already have. The houses here are not all the same age and the depth in the loft varies enormously between one street and the next. A third of the stock went up between 1945 and 1982 and nearly as much again between 1983 and 2008, so a 1970s house was built with an inch or two while a 1990s house has more, often still less than today's figure and frequently buried under boarding. We measure rather than assume, because the honest answer on a newer house is sometimes that the roof is fine and the money is better spent on draughts, the hatch and the pipework.
Loft top ups. Mineral wool goes down in two layers, the first between the joists and the second across them at right angles, so no joist runs as a cold bridge through the middle of the ceiling. Full depth is around 250 to 270mm and takes the roof close to the 0.16 u-value expected of a renovated thermal element. Whatever is up there already usually stays, because settled, compressed wool is still doing a job and counts towards the total. Boarding screwed straight to the joists caps that depth, so loft legs raise it clear and your storage comes back at the new height.
Where an attic has been converted, or a chalet was built with rooms in the roof, the cold surface is the sloping ceiling. Rigid PIR board is cut tight between and under the rafters and the joints taped, or a multi-layer foil quilt where the headroom will not stand board, with an air gap kept above unless the covering is coming off and a proper warm roof is on the table. The dead triangles behind the knee walls are where the heat really goes and they get done too.
Most of the stock here has a cavity wall, so the first question is whether it has already been filled and the second is whether the fill has slumped or bridged, which is a borescope check that takes minutes. The older places out towards the lanes have solid walls with no cavity at all, and those are lined on the inside or insulated outside. Then vent trays at the eaves so the wool is not blocking the air path into the roof, because a well insulated ceiling makes the loft above it colder and that roof has to breathe, and Approved Document F is the standard there.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: survey, clearing, material and depth, ventilation works and disposal on separate lines. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job.
Nothing about a loft or an internal lining needs permission, and Crossways has no conservation area and nothing listed at all, which is rare on this patch. Insulating the outside of a wall does change the look of the house, and Planning Portal guidance on external walls sets out where that sits. What renovated or new insulation has to achieve is set by regulation 23 of the Building Regulations, the standard worth quoting back at any specification that looks thin.
Cost
What decides the price of an insulation job
A 1970s detached house with the hatch on the landing, a bungalow with the whole floor area under one roof, and a newer house with a room already built into it are three different jobs even when the plan looks similar. Old material to bag and take away, storage to move and put back, and eaves that must stay clear all come first, 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 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. Crossways is twenty miles out and we group work over that way, so you get an honest date.
The one local thing
Nothing listed, no conservation area, and what that frees up
This is rarer on our patch than you would think. Crossways has no conservation area and no listed entries, which means appearance is not controlled here the way it is in the villages a few miles up the road. For insulation that matters for one job in particular. Insulating the outside of a wall is the option that gets ruled out in a heritage village, because it thickens the wall, buries the reveals and changes the finish.
Here you are not on the designated land where the permitted development right to clad a house is withdrawn, so external wall insulation is normally judged on whether the finished appearance is similar to what was there and on the building control standard it has to reach, rather than on whether it suits a historic street. Planning Portal guidance on insulation sets out the general position and Dorset Council will confirm it for your address in writing, which is worth having before you spend anything.
Two caveats, so nobody gets caught out. Flats and maisonettes have no permitted development rights at all, so if you are in one, the freeholder and the council both come into it whatever the street looks like. And a free hand is not the same as a good idea: external insulation is the most expensive way to warm a house and it only makes sense once the cheap work is done.
On the stock here that order is nearly always the same. Get the loft to full depth. Seal the hatch and the obvious draughts. Find out whether the cavity is filled properly. Then, if the house is still not holding heat, look at the walls with a proper heat loss figure in front of you rather than a salesman's brochure.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Crossways and the villages around it, Woodsford, Moreton, Warmwell, Owermoigne and Broadmayne, and the DT2 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
Crossways questions we get asked
Nothing in Crossways is listed. Does that make life easier?
It does, and it is unusual on this patch. Crossways has no conservation area and no listed entries at all, so what goes on the outside of your roof is your decision under ordinary permitted development rather than something Dorset Council have to approve on appearance grounds. That keeps external wall insulation, rooflights and a change of covering on the table from the start.
Is a newer Crossways house already up to standard?
Not to today's standard, no. Close to three in ten homes in Crossways were built between 1983 and 2008, and the depth expected in a loft has gone up more than once since then. What you usually find is one layer sitting between the joists and the joists themselves left bare. Adding a cross layer over the top is quick work and the single biggest gain in the house.
We are adding a bedroom. Anything unusual about Crossways?
One thing catches people out. Crossways sits in the Poole Harbour nutrient catchment, and that engages on schemes which add overnight accommodation, so a new bedroom or an annexe brings a nutrient requirement with it while a re-roof or a loft top up does not. Nothing about heritage applies here, so the nutrient position is usually the only planning hurdle worth checking before you draw anything up.
How much dust comes down into the rooms below?
Less than you would think, because the material goes up sealed and gets opened in the loft. What does come down is whatever has been lying on your ceiling since the 1970s, which is why we sheet the landing and the stair and bag the old stuff at the hatch. In a bungalow, and roughly a quarter of Crossways is bungalows, everything comes down through one opening, so that route gets protected properly.
Is this a one day job or longer?
A standard loft in Crossways is a day, sometimes half of one if it is only a top up over existing quilt. Two storey detached houses with a lot of ceiling area, and detached is 28.9% of the stock here, can run into a second day. Internal wall lining is measured in rooms rather than days. We put the expected duration on the quote so it is not a surprise.
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Find out what depth is actually up there
A free site visit, the loft measured and the eaves checked, and a written itemised quote for the work that is worth the money.