Insulation in Hyde

Low lofts over old ceilings. A fair number of roofs here are shallow, and the ceiling below is lath and plaster that will not take any weight at all. So crawl boards go in first, and the material is fed along the bays rather than walked in. The joists in an old roof are shallow and irregularly spaced, which means the between and over method matters more here than anywhere: a thin layer between the joists and the real depth run across the top as a full width eco roll, because you will never get 270mm between timbers only a few inches deep. Where the roof is so low that full depth would close the eaves, vent trays hold the material clear and we insulate to what the roof can honestly take rather than sealing it up to reach a number.

Solid walls that need to keep drying. There is no cavity to fill in a brick or cob cottage. Internal wall insulation is the usual answer, and on this kind of fabric it has to be a breathable build-up: wood fibre board and a lime or mineral finish rather than a foil faced board sealed against the brick. A vapour tight layer on a wall carrying moisture moves the damp to the edge of the board, and you find it at skirting level a winter later. External wall insulation works technically and changes the outside of the building, which inside the Western Escarpment conservation area is a harder conversation than it is elsewhere.

Suspended timber ground floors with a draught coming up between the boards are common, and on a windy night that draught can be worth more than the walls. Where there is a crawl space we insulate between the joists from below and leave every airbrick clear, because the void has to stay dry. Surface water runs high on this ground and Huckles Brook is a little over half a kilometre away, so if a floor has taken water we want to see it before anything goes back down.

Converted outbuildings, annexes and dormers have no loft floor left to fill, so it becomes a warm roof: PIR board cut tight between the rafters, a continuous layer over them or a multi-layer quilt such as TLX where the depth is not there, a vapour control layer on the warm side and a clear air gap kept above. On a sloping ceiling with shallow rafters the gap is the thing people sacrifice to get more thickness in, and it is the thing that causes the condensation. On a post-war house the cavity may be empty or already part filled, and only a borescope tells you which. Then the practical end: an insulated hatch, fire rated covers over any downlighter, lagging on the cold water tank and the pipe runs left above the new layer, and a raised deck where boarding and storage go back.

No rate per square metre: the area is the easy part. A Forest cottage with a loft you crawl into over a lath and plaster ceiling, a converted outbuilding with a vaulted ceiling and no loft at all, and a newer house with a hatch and a fitted ladder are three different jobs before any material comes off the van. Old material has to be bagged and taken away before anything new goes down. Approved Document L sets the U-value a renovated ceiling has to reach, and 0.16 means nearer 270mm of quilt than the 250 people remember. Ask what finished depth is being laid, and whether the eaves are being kept open.

We cover Hyde, Frogham, Godshill, Fordingbridge and the SP6 villages, and out across the Forest as far as Burley and Ringwood. 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.