Insulation in Langton Matravers
Loft top-ups, breathable linings on solid stone, and the eaves detailing an exposed roof space actually needs.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
On this hillside the question is almost never how much insulation to lay. It is whether the roof space above it can still breathe and whether the wind can get into the layer once it is down. We survey that first, free, and the quote that follows says what depth is going in at your Langton Matravers house, what is happening at the eaves, and why.
Houses in Langton Matravers lose their warmth through stone walls, damp lofts and sloping ceilings. A stone cottage that costs a fortune to warm and still has cold corners. A loft that has gone black on the underside of the boards over one winter. And a sloping bedroom ceiling that is either too hot or too cold and has never been anything in between.
None of those is fixed by ordering more material. A roof space on the seaward side of Purbeck is a windier, damper place than the same loft ten miles inland, and it behaves differently the moment you make it colder underneath.
So the site visit in Langton Matravers is a proper look: what is up there and how deep it measures, whether the eaves are open, what the roof is covered with and whether there is anything under it, where the tank and the pipework sit. You get a written itemised quote off the back of that, with the method on it as well as the number.
The work
The stone roof breathes through a hundred gaps
Lofts under a stone slate roof. A Purbeck stone roof is heavy, laid in diminishing courses on riven lath, and often has nothing under it but old lime torching between the slates. That roof has always ventilated itself through a hundred small gaps, which is why the ceilings below have got away with a thin layer.
We lay between and over, quilt between the joists and a second eco roll layer at right angles across the top so no joist is left bridging the cold, and we leave the Langton Matravers torching alone. Where it has already crumbled into the loft, that is a roofing question and we will say so, not bury it. A renovated ceiling is expected to reach a U-value of 0.16, which in mineral wool is nearer 270mm than the 250 people remember.
The pinch at the eaves. On the older Langton Matravers cottages the roof comes down almost to head height at the wall plate, so the space where you most need depth is the space where there is least of it. Rolling the quilt out until it jams into the eaves is how a loft ends up both under insulated at the perimeter and unable to breathe. We fit vent trays to hold the airway open, stop the roll clear of the wall plate, and where the pinch is severe we cut rigid board in at the perimeter to keep the depth up without closing the gap.
Langton Matravers rubble stone under lime has no cavity in it, and it stays dry by letting water back out again. Internal wall insulation on a wall like that has to be built to breathe, with a wood fibre or mineral board and a lime finish, never a sealed plastic sandwich, and it has to deal with the cold bridge left at the joist ends, the window reveals and the internal wall junctions. External wall insulation would work thermally and is a non starter on most of these elevations, which is a conservation area answer as much as a technical one.
The post-war houses in Langton Matravers do have cavities, and they are worth a borescope before anybody quotes a fill. Two and a half kilometres from the water, with the weather coming in off the Channel, a full fill is not automatically the right answer on the elevation that takes it, and we would rather tell you that than sell it. Where the attic has been converted there is no loft left to work in, so a room in roof is PIR board between the rafters with a clear air gap kept above, a foil faced board or a multi-layer quilt such as TLX under the sloping ceiling to break the cold bridge, and the knee wall voids and dormer cheeks done at the same time, because those are the parts that get left out.
How it runs
Insulating a stone house without trapping damp in the walls
Thomas surveys the whole house, loft and walls, before he prices anything. A solid stone wall has to be able to dry, so whatever goes on it must let moisture through, and a loft needs air moving at the eaves. His written quote covers the survey, clearing out, the insulation and its depth or thickness, ventilation, and removing the waste.
The work follows that quote throughout. Old loft insulation is bagged up and carried out, eaves are kept open, pipework and the cold water tank are lagged, and a draught seal goes round the hatch. On stone, lining uses wood fibre, or mineral wool finished with lime, never foil-faced boards that lock damp in. Any driven rain getting through a south west wall is stopped first, or the new lining would soak it up. Waste leaves each day. If damp, rot or tired wiring turns up, a photograph and a separate price come to you first.
Insulating a loft or lining a wall from inside improves a house without counting as development, and the Planning Portal sets out where that stops. Building control is involved when a loft is turned into a room or a thermal element is renovated. Insulation fixed to the outside changes how the house looks, so talk to Dorset Council first, all the more so inside a conservation area. listed building consent can reach inside as well as out.
Cost
Hatch size, hip ends and stone walls in an insulation price
Insulation is not priced per square metre. The area is the easy part. Getting into the loft. A small hatch on a half landing, a bungalow hip end that closes down the working space, and a full-height loft with a proper ladder are different days' work before any roll is opened.
What is there now. Old insulation settled flat or crushed under boarding has to be bagged and removed.
The walls. Cavity walls can often be filled, but a solid stone wall has to be lined with breathable materials, which is a larger job, and any damp from driven rain has to be dealt with first.
The standard. Approved Document L is the standard the finished U-value is measured against, and ventilation must be kept.
Getting at the walls. Internal lining means rooms emptied one at a time, with sockets, skirting and radiators off and back on. Cavity fill high on a gable means a scaffold, erected under the work at height rules.
Ventilation. On the coast, a loft that is insulated but not vented turns damp quickly, so eaves or tile vents may be added and priced.
Ask another firm whether it keeps the eaves open, and whether the hatch draught seal, tank lagging and a raised deck for storage are included.
If it is urgent
Condensation and cold rooms before winter sets in
If the loft is wet with condensation, or a room stays cold however high the heating goes, ring us. On the coast, damp air gets into a badly ventilated loft quickly, and it is the timbers that suffer.
On the first visit we work out whether the cause is poor ventilation, a leak, or insulation laid in the wrong place, and what should happen before any more goes down. Often the fix is clearing blocked eaves, not buying more material. Scheduled work is Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Leave a message if the line is busy and we will ring as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Wind gets into the insulation here, not just over the roof
The village sits a mile or so up from open water with its weather arriving from the south west, and that changes one thing about a loft that catches people out. In a sheltered roof, air moves over the top of the insulation. In an exposed one it moves through it.
Wind driven in at the eaves lifts the face of a mineral wool quilt, works along the perimeter and cools the layer from inside, so you can measure a perfectly good depth and still have a cold ceiling in the rooms nearest the weather. It is why the back bedroom is the one people complain about, and why simply adding more on top of the same open edge does not fix it.
The answer is detailing, not depth. Vent trays at the eaves keep the airway open while stopping the wind blowing straight into the quilt, the perimeter is closed off with board, not left as a ragged edge, and the ceiling below is sealed where the air is actually getting through: the hatch, the downlighters, the pipe and cable holes and the top of the stud walls.
Then the ventilation has to be right for the roof you have, because salt laden air off the Channel keeps a roof space damp between showers and a newly colder loft has less warmth to dry itself with. Approved Document F covers what ventilation the space needs. If the roof was felted at some point and the eaves were closed up in the process, that gap has to be opened again before any new material goes down, and we will tell you that at the visit, not after it.
Who you are dealing with
Insulation surveys across Purbeck from Boscombe
We travel 11.2 miles from our base in Boscombe to survey houses here. We insulate homes in Langton Matravers and in Kingston, Worth Matravers and Swanage on BH19, out through Corfe Castle and the rest of Purbeck, with planning and building control handled by Dorset Council.
You deal with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. The survey is done by the owner, Thomas Hannen. Our Checkatrade profile shows a verified customer's 10 out of 10. You pay nothing for the survey, and the written quote, itemised, is free too. Before you book a visit in Langton Matravers, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Langton Matravers?
Most repairs in Langton Matravers 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.
| Question | In Langton Matravers |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Langton Matravers. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Langton Matravers Conservation Area 1, Conservation Area 2 and Acton Conservation Area 1 and 2. They cover parts of Langton Matravers, so check whether your street is inside one. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Langton Matravers. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the Dorset National Landscape (formerly AONB), so anything visible from outside gets more attention. |
Questions
Questions about insulation in Langton Matravers
Does the conservation area affect what we can do inside?
The inside is unaffected. Langton Matravers Conservation Area 1 controls the look of the village, so it bites on a change of roof covering, new openings or anything bolted to a visible face. What sits above your ceiling is outside its scope. Where ventilation is needed as part of the work, it goes in low at the eaves rather than as vent tiles cut into a slope facing the street.
We are close to the sea. What does salt do up there?
It eats the metalwork. Langton Matravers is about 2.6km from the coast and salt carried inland corrodes nails, clips and eaves grilles from the edge inwards while keeping surfaces damp between showers. A roof space that has been done properly runs colder than it used to, so those vents matter more, not less. I replace corroded grilles as part of the job instead of sealing a cold roof up tight.
The walls are solid with no cavity. What then?
Then the choice is internal lining or external render, and both need thinking about before the first board goes up. Internal changes nothing outside, which counts for something in a village where appearance is controlled, but it moves the dew point and needs a breathable build up instead of a foil faced board. External alters what the house looks like. Ceiling and floor first, walls after.
Why start with one wall rather than the whole house?
Because the south west face is the one doing the damage. That is the exposed elevation here and driven rain works at the reveals, corners and eaves rather than the middle of a wall, so that side stays wet and pulls heat out long after the rest has dried. Lining a soaked wall only hides it. Deal with the wetting on that elevation before insulating any of it.
Our cottage is old. Do we need consent for any of it?
You need it if the building is listed, and there are 50 listed entries in this parish. On those, ceilings, plaster and floors are usually protected and Dorset Council has to agree before they are opened up. If the house is not listed, improving it is your own business, conservation area or not. I check the entry and do not guess, because the two often sit next door to each other.
Nearby, and next door
Insulation near Langton Matravers
Nearby places we also cover for insulation, with straight-line distances from Langton Matravers, and the other trades we offer in Langton Matravers itself.
Insulation nearby
Our other trades in Langton Matravers
Insulation guides
Part L: do you have to insulate when you re-roof? Black mould on walls: what causes it and what stops it PIR board vs mineral wool: which insulation?Everything we do in Swanage Insulation, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Start with a look in the loft
A free site visit in Langton Matravers, a rule in whatever is already up there, and a written itemised quote with the method on it as well as the number.