Insulation in East Boldre
Loft insulation, warm roofs and wall insulation across East Boldre and the SO42 lanes. We survey before we price, and the visit and the written quote are both free.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
If you heat with oil or electricity, the loft is worth more to you than it is to somebody on the gas main. Every unit of heat the ceiling gives back is a unit you have paid a lot for, which is why in East Boldre we start at ceiling level and only talk about walls once that is right.
The calls here tend to come in one of three shapes. The oil tank is emptying faster than it used to and nobody can say why. There is a room over the kitchen, or under a sloping ceiling, that the heating never quite reaches. Or somebody has put their head through the hatch, seen a thin grey layer lying between the joists, and realised it has been up there since long before they moved in.
We come and look before anybody quotes anything. That means the roof space, the room underneath it and the hatch, and it means asking what you heat the house with, because the answer changes the order of the work. Then you get it in writing with each part on its own line, and you decide what to do and when. Nothing is priced off a photograph and nothing is sold to you that the survey did not show a reason for.
The work
Bare joists show up later as stripes in the paint
Clearing the loft, then laying it properly. Most of what we take out of a roof space here is old, thin and has settled into the gaps between the joists rather than sitting proud of them. It comes out, gets bagged and leaves with us. What goes back is mineral wool roll, either standard or an eco roll made largely from recycled glass, laid between and over the joists so the timber itself is covered. Joists left bare under the top layer are a cold bridge running the length of the ceiling, and you can often see them later as clean stripes in the paint.
Depth is the number that matters. Approved Document L expects a loft being upgraded to reach a u-value of about 0.16, which in ordinary mineral wool means 270mm, or nearer 250mm in a denser product. Anything much under that is not a thin version of the job, it is most of the heat loss still happening.
Where a ceiling follows the pitch the work goes at the rafters instead: PIR rigid board cut between them with a second layer under, or a foil faced multi-layer quilt where there is not the headroom for board, with a vapour control layer on the warm side and a clear air gap above.
Then vent trays holding the eaves open, covers over any downlighter, a draught seal and an insulated panel on the hatch, and lagging on the tank and on every pipe now sitting above the insulation, which matters more out here than in town because a burst in an unheated loft is a long wait for anyone to reach you. With a third of the households around here heating on oil, the fabric decides how much of it you buy.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
The quote is itemised, with clearing, the material and its depth, ventilation works and disposal on separate lines. Anything nobody could have seen beforehand gets a photograph and a price first.
Insulating a loft or a cavity is permitted development and needs no application, which Planning Portal guidance on insulation confirms. East Boldre sits inside the New Forest National Park and inside the Forest South East conservation area, so anything that changes the outside of the building is looked at closely, and the Authority's heritage and conservation guidance is where that starts. There are eight listed entries in the parish, and if yours is one of them we will say so before we price anything.
Cost
What decides the price of an insulation job
A bungalow with a hallway hatch and an empty loft is one job, a cottage where the hatch is small and the roof is shallow at the edges is another, and a converted roof where flooring has to come up and go back is another again. 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 before a cold snap gets looked at quickly. If you are on oil and the tank is emptying faster than last winter, that is worth a visit before the cold sets in, because the fabric is usually the reason.
The one local thing
Off the gas main, and what that changes
Oil heats 34.3% of households in East Boldre and another 11.1% run on electricity. That is the most useful fact on this page, because it changes the arithmetic rather than the building. The fabric of the house decides how much heat you have to buy. The fuel decides what that heat costs you.
On oil or on direct electric, every bit of heat the ceiling lets go is expensive heat, so the same 270mm of loft roll that is worth having on the gas main is worth considerably more here. It is also why the bill arrives as a shock: oil comes as one delivery rather than a monthly figure, so a badly insulated house shows up as filling the tank again sooner, not as a number creeping up on a statement.
The practical consequence is an order of work. Ceiling level first, because it is the cheapest square metre of thermal improvement you will ever buy and it does not disturb the house. Draughts and the hatch second, because they are hours rather than days. Sloping ceilings and any room in roof third, since those are the surfaces losing heat straight to the sky in the rooms you actually sit in. Walls last, and only where the survey shows a reason.
If you are weighing up a new heat source at the same time, do the fabric first: a smaller heat demand means a smaller system, and that order round is far cheaper than the other one. How this work is treated for VAT is set out in HMRC VAT Notice 708/6, and it is worth asking your installer about before you commit.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover East Boldre and the SO42 lanes across to Boldre, Beaulieu and Brockenhurst, and out towards Lymington. 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
East Boldre questions we get asked
A third of East Boldre is on oil. Worth insulating?
Worth it, and the reason is the tank rather than the loft. Oil heats 34.3% of East Boldre households, so every unit of heat has been delivered and stored on your own property, and anything the ceiling lets go is a delivery you paid for early. Cutting the loss means fewer refills across a winter. The heating system stays exactly as it is.
Which conservation area covers East Boldre, and what does it control?
Forest South East, and it controls appearance. That means the New Forest National Park authority is interested in a change of covering, a new rooflight or anything added to an elevation, and not at all in what sits above your ceiling. Eight listed entries fall within East Boldre, and those carry a separate consent that reaches inside the building as well. We establish which applies to your address first.
Can we put insulated cladding on the outside out here?
In the New Forest that is a design question before it is a technical one. Anything visible in the National Park gets scrutiny on how it looks, and East Boldre sits inside the Forest South East conservation area on top of that, so cladding a front elevation is unlikely to go through easily. Rear elevations and internal lining are the practical routes. We would rather say that than waste your time.
Is there a bad time of year to do this?
The loft itself does not care, but the roof does. We would rather not have a hatch open and the eaves disturbed in the middle of a wet spell, because that is when water finds its way in at the edges. Autumn and early spring are the sensible windows. In East Boldre a lot of the houses we look at are off the gas main, so people want it done before the first cold snap, and that books up.
Would converting the roof into a bedroom need anything extra?
It would, on two counts. East Boldre lies in the Solent nutrient catchment and that bites when a scheme adds overnight accommodation, so a roof bedroom carries a nutrient requirement while a straight insulation job carries none. On top of that, dormers and rooflights change what the house looks like, and in the National Park that is scrutinised. Insulating the existing roof avoids both, which is why we usually suggest doing that first.
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Find out what the ceiling is costing you
A free survey in the loft and in the rooms below it, then an itemised written price with each part on its own line. No obligation.