Insulation in Furzehill

Loft top-ups. Plenty of the homes around Furzehill and Colehill went up between the fifties and the early eighties, and many of those roofs were built with an inch or two of mineral wool and nothing else.

Almost all have been topped up once since, so what we find is two generations of material: an old settled layer squashed flat with a newer roll thrown across it, stopping short of the walls. Starting again is rarely the answer. We lift, straighten and top up to an even finished depth, one layer between the joists and a second across the top so the timber is covered too. Aim at 270mm of mineral wool. A loft that honestly measures 250mm out to the wall plate beats one that reads deeper in the middle and nothing at the edges.

Bungalow lofts, which are most of the awkward ones. A quarter of the housing here is bungalows, and a bungalow has more ceiling per room than any other shape of house, so more of its heat loss goes straight up. The trouble is at the eaves, where the rafters come down onto the wall plate with almost no headroom, which is exactly where the wool stops and exactly where the cold bridge over the wall head sits. Vent trays hold the material out over the wall without closing the air path.

Plenty of lofts here have chipboard laid straight onto the joists with the material crushed flat underneath, which is storage bought at the cost of the ceiling below it. Raised boarding on legs keeps both. The cold water tank and its pipework get lagging, and the patch of ceiling directly under the tank is left uninsulated on purpose so a little warmth still reaches it in a hard frost. Downlighters dropped through a seventies ceiling get fire rated covers so the wool can run over the top, and the hatch gets rigid board on its back and a compression seal round the frame.

Where a bungalow here has been converted upward, or a dormer added, there is no loft left to fill and it becomes a warm roof: PIR board such as Celotex cut tight between the rafters, a continuous layer over them to kill the cold bridge, a vapour control layer on the warm side and a clear air gap kept above. Houses of that age have an unfilled cavity wall, and in a sheltered spot like this a cavity fill is usually the cheapest warmth you will ever buy. The older cottages have no cavity, so it is internal wall insulation on the coldest elevations, or external wall insulation.

The area is the easy part. What surrounds it sets the price. The type of house. A chalet bungalow with a hatch on the landing, a seventies detached with a boarded loft full of boxes, and an old cottage with no loft worth the name are three different jobs before a single roll is ordered.

What is in the way. Boarding that has to come up and go back, stored boxes, and old flattened mineral wool that has to be bagged all take time before new material goes down.

Which walls you have. Most post-war houses in Furzehill have cavity walls, which can often be filled. The older cottages and farm buildings usually have solid walls, which have to be lined inside or insulated outside, and that is a bigger job.

Ventilation. Adding depth without keeping the eaves clear causes condensation. Approved Document F covers ventilation and Approved Document L sets what the work is expected to reach.

Access to the loft. A hatch big enough to pass rolls through is quick. A small hatch, or one in a bathroom ceiling, means cutting rolls down or enlarging the opening first.

Ask any quote what finished depth is being laid, whether the hatch and pipework are in it, and how the ventilation is handled.

We work across Furzehill, Colehill, Holt, Wimborne Minster and the rest of BH21 from a base about eight miles away in Bournemouth, at Boscombe. Planning and building control for Furzehill are with Dorset Council.

You will be dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719, registered in England and Wales. It is owned by Thomas Hannen, who comes to your house, looks at the loft and walls and prices the job himself. Checkatrade shows a 10 out of 10 from a verified customer. The survey visit is free of charge, as is the written quote with each item listed. Before you book a visit in Furzehill, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Furzehill 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.