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.
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.
Three things bring people here to the phone. 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 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 torching alone. Where it has already crumbled into the loft, that is a roofing question and we will say so rather than 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 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.
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 rather than 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 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
From your call to a written price
One team, one person to ring, nothing sub-contracted out. The quote is itemised line by line: survey, clearing, material and depth, ventilation and disposal. What comes out leaves with us. Laying insulation in a loft or lining a wall inside is an improvement, not development, so it sits inside permitted development. The Planning Portal sets out where that stops. Building control is engaged once a thermal element is renovated or the loft becomes a room. Langton Matravers has its own conservation area and around fifty listed entries, so external wall insulation above all is a question for Dorset Council first, and listed building consent can reach inside as well as out.
Cost
What decides the price of an insulation job
No rate per square metre, because the area is the easy part and the awkward part is everything around it. A quarryman's cottage with a small hatch on a half landing, a bungalow on the ridge with a hip end that closes down the working space, and a modern house with a full height loft and a proper ladder are three different days before a roll is opened. Old material that has settled or been compressed flat under boarding has to be bagged and taken away first. Approved Document L sets what the work is expected to reach. Two quotes for the same loft are usually two different jobs: ask which keeps the eaves open, and whether the hatch draught, the tank lagging and a raised deck for storage are on it.
If it is urgent
Damp, condensation or a room you cannot heat
Ring rather than use the form. A loft dripping with condensation, or a room that will not hold heat before a cold snap, gets looked at quickly. Langton Matravers is a short run out from us past Corfe, so you will get an honest day on the phone rather than a promised hour we would miss. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Wind gets into a loft here, not just over it
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 rather than 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 rather than 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 rather than after it.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Langton Matravers, Kingston, Worth Matravers and Swanage on BH19, out through Corfe Castle and the rest of Purbeck, and Dorset Council is the planning and building control authority for this address. 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
Langton Matravers questions we get asked
Does the conservation area affect what we can do inside?
Not inside. 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 rather than 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 rather than 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 rather than guess, because the two often sit next door to each other.
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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.