Insulation in Merritown
Rafter level board, floor insulation and wall linings on the converted farm buildings and cottages around Hurn.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Out here the heat does not only go upward. A lot of the buildings around Merritown have no ordinary loft to fill, and a good number sit on suspended timber floors over a ventilated void, so the survey looks under the house as well as over it. The written quote then says what is going where, at what depth, and what is happening to the ventilation.
Three things bring people to the phone from these lanes. A converted farm building with a high open ceiling that eats fuel and never feels warm. A ground floor room that is cold underfoot all winter, with draughts coming up between the boards. And somebody wanting a barn, a garage or an outbuilding turned into a room they can actually use through the year.
None of those is answered by a phone price. The site visit is a look at the whole envelope: what the roof is built of and whether there is any void behind the ceiling, whether the walls have a cavity in them at all, how the ground floor is built, whether the airbricks are clear, and where the moisture is coming from. The itemised written quote comes off that, method as well as figure, and nothing is ordered until you have said yes.
The work
Where the ceiling follows the roof, there is no loft
Where the ceiling follows the roof. Farm buildings and barns turned into houses catch people out, because there is often no loft at all: the ceiling follows the roof and the trusses are on show, which makes it rafter work rather than loft work. Where the covering is coming off anyway the right answer is a warm roof, with rigid board laid over the rafters so the timber stays on the warm side. Where the covering is staying it is PIR board cut between the rafters with a clear air gap held above and a foil faced board or a multi-layer quilt like TLX fixed under the sloping ceiling, taped so the vapour control layer stays continuous. The walls behind are usually a single skin with no cavity wall to fill, so an internal lining, and the cold bridge at every junction in it, comes into the same conversation.
Plenty of the older houses on this ground sit on joists over an open void. We insulate between the floor joists from below where there is crawl access, mineral wool held up in netting or board cut tight, and we seal the perimeter and the gaps at the skirtings. The airbricks stay clear and the void keeps breathing, and that rule never bends, because the surface water risk on this ground is high and the Moors runs less than a kilometre away.
The lofts that do exist tend to be purlin roofs rather than modern trusses, so there is room to move about, and the original layer is usually thin and stopped short at the eaves. We lay between and over, an eco roll across the joists at right angles, and 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. We also get asked for insulation here when what is wanted is quiet, and that is a denser acoustic slab between the ceiling joists rather than a light roll. Then the details that decide it: an insulated hatch, fire rated covers over any downlighter, lagging on the tank and the pipe runs above the layer, and a raised deck for storage.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
The quote is itemised, with material, depth, ventilation and disposal on separate lines. Insulating a loft, lining a wall on the inside or lifting a floor is an improvement rather than development and sits inside permitted development, and Planning Portal guidance on insulation sets out where that stops. Building control is engaged once a thermal element is renovated, an outbuilding changes use or a roof space becomes a room. There is no conservation area over Merritown and only three listed entries, but if yours is one of them consent comes first. BCP Council is the authority for this address and the council keeps the list. Insulation fitted in an existing home is zero rated for VAT under HMRC Notice 708/6.
Cost
What decides the price of an insulation job
No rate per square metre: the area is the easy part and everything round it is the awkward part. A cottage with a purlin roof you can stand up in is one day; a barn conversion with no loft and a tower needed inside to reach the rafters is another. Old material to bag and take away, and boarding to lift and put back, come before anything new goes down. Approved Document L sets what the work has to reach. Ask what depth is being laid, whether the old material comes out, and whether the eaves and hatch 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 that keeps coming back, or a room that will not hold heat gets seen quickly. The first visit settles whether that is insulation, ventilation or both, because insulating a space that cannot breathe makes it worse. Merritown is a few miles out, so a look is days not weeks. Outside Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm is by arrangement.
Worth knowing
The ground here is wet, and that decides what goes under the floor
Merritown sits on low ground in the Avon valley with the Moors River not far away, part of it falls inside flood zone 2, and the surface water risk over this ground is rated high. That second one matters more day to day than the first, because it is about rain that ponds and runs across the surface rather than a river coming over its bank. For insulation it points at one place: the ground floor and the void underneath it.
A sub-floor void on damp ground is already working hard to stay dry, and the way it does that is by moving air through the airbricks from one side of the house to the other. It is worth checking the government flood risk service against your own address before you spend money on a floor build-up, because the answer changes the specification rather than the price.
What follows from that is practical. Airbricks stay clear, always, and if a patio, a raised bed or a new path has buried them, that gets sorted before any insulation goes in underneath. Material under a floor is held up clear of the ground rather than resting on it, and where the void runs damp we would use a board that does not care about a wetting instead of a quilt that will hold it.
On a solid concrete floor we insulate over the top with rigid board and a new deck rather than digging it out, which keeps the work above any water that arrives. And internal wall insulation on a wall that takes up moisture at its base will trap it and make the room worse, so the ground levels, the drainage and the gutters get looked at first. That is not us finding extra work. It is the order the jobs have to happen in for the insulation to be worth anything.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Merritown, Hurn, Parley, Sopley and Christchurch on BH23, out through Bournemouth, Ringwood and Bransgore, and BCP 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
Merritown questions we get asked
We are in flood zone 2. Does that affect the floor?
It affects what we are prepared to put down there. Merritown sits in flood zone 2 with a high surface water band and the Moors running less than a kilometre away, so a ground floor here can take water that will not drain off quickly. Mineral wool held in a floor void that floods stays wet and stops working. Where the risk is real we use a closed cell board that can dry and be inspected, and keep the airbricks clear.
There is no loft in our barn conversion. What can be done?
You insulate the roof slope instead of a ceiling. In a building with rafters open to the room the material goes between and under the rafters, with a ventilation gap held above it against the underside of the covering, or above the rafters if the covering is coming off anyway. Losing that gap is what makes an old barn roof sweat. At Merritown it matters more, because the ground is naturally wet and the building already carries moisture.
The wind hits one side of the house. Does that matter?
It does, and it decides where we start. The most exposed elevation at Merritown faces south west, and wind driven rain works at edges and openings rather than at the middle of a wall or a roof slope. Where water gets in around a verge or a window head it wets whatever sits behind, and that section stops performing long before the rest does. The survey follows the weather side first and prices that elevation on its own.
How quickly can somebody come out and look?
Usually within a few days. Merritown is under five miles from the yard by road, so a look at a roof space is a short run rather than a scheduling problem. Thomas comes out himself, gets into the loft, measures what is there and writes the quote up afterwards as an itemised list rather than one figure at the door. The visit and the written quote are both free and neither carries any obligation.
Only three buildings here are listed. Does ours need permission?
Almost certainly not. Merritown has three listed entries and no conservation area, so unless your house is one of those three, insulation counts as maintenance and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council need no application for it. Material fitted inside a roof or under a floor changes nothing anybody can see from the lane. If the building is listed, the question becomes what the work does to historic fabric, and we would raise that first.
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Get the whole building looked at, floor included
A free site visit that goes under the floor as well as into the roof, and an itemised written quote with the method on it.