Insulation in Merritown
Loft top-ups, rafter level board, floor insulation and wall linings for bungalows, houses and conversions around Hurn.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Out here the heat does not only go upward. Some buildings around Merritown have no ordinary loft to fill, and some 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.
Along the Merritown lanes the usual problems are a thin loft, a cold ground floor and an outbuilding. A bungalow loft laid decades ago that has settled thin and stops short at the eaves. 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, the rafters take the insulation
Where the ceiling follows the roof. If yours is one of the farm buildings around Hurn turned into a house, there may be no loft at all: the ceiling follows the roof and the rafters 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. In a conversion the walls behind may be a single skin with no cavity to fill, so an internal lining, and the cold bridge at every junction in it, comes into the same conversation.
Where a house on this ground sits on joists over an open void, the floor is part of the job. 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 over a post-war bungalow or house are usually trussed, so the webs limit where you can move, and the original layer is often 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. Sometimes what you want from insulation is quiet, and that is a denser acoustic slab between the ceiling joists, not 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
Insulating a home in Merritown: what to expect
Thomas comes out, checks the loft, the walls and the floors, and prices the work himself. The fitting follows his survey. The quote is itemised: the material, the depth or thickness, ventilation, and disposal of anything old.
In the loft, mineral wool goes between and over the joists, with the eaves kept clear so air can move. For walls, we find out whether you have a cavity or solid brick before recommending anything. Under a suspended floor, insulation is fitted between the joists from below if there is room, or by lifting boards if not. Old material is bagged and taken away, and carpets and landings are protected. If we come across damp timber, a wasps' nest or wiring that needs attention, you get a photo and a price and nothing extra happens without your say.
Insulating a loft, lining a wall inside or lifting a floor is usually permitted development, and Planning Portal guidance on insulation shows where that stops. Building control comes in once a thermal element is renovated. Merritown has no conservation area, but if yours is one of the few listed buildings in the parish, consent comes first. BCP Council is the authority and the council keeps the list. Insulation in an existing home is zero rated for VAT under HMRC Notice 708/6.
Cost
Walls, floors and roofs each price differently
We do not quote a rate per square metre. The area is simple; getting to it and dealing with what is already there is not.
Access. A loft you can stand up in is quick. A low loft, a hatch over the stairs, or a room with no loft at all, where the rafters have to be reached from inside, takes much longer.
What is there already. Old, thin or damp insulation has to be bagged and removed first. Boarding has to come up and go back down.
Ventilation. Insulating without keeping the eaves clear, or without a way for moist air to leave, causes condensation. Vents or a breathable membrane can be part of the job, and BS 5250 covers managing moisture in buildings.
Walls and floors. A cavity wall, a solid wall and a suspended timber floor are different jobs at different prices. Approved Document L sets the standard the work has to reach.
Wet ground. Where the ground stays wet, the void under a suspended floor must stay ventilated, so the air bricks are checked and cleared as part of the job.
Ask anyone else: what depth or thickness is going in? Is the old material coming out? Are the eaves and the hatch included?
If it is urgent
Condensation, mould or a room that stays cold
Condensation and mould are worth a phone call, not an email. A loft dripping with condensation, black mould that keeps coming back, or a room that will not warm up needs a look before winter sets in.
The first visit finds out whether the cause is missing insulation, poor ventilation or both, because packing insulation into a space that cannot breathe makes things worse. Insulation work is booked Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Ring us. Scheduled work runs Mon to Fri, 8am to 6pm, and if we miss you we call back.
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, not 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, never 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
The company insulating your home
Merritown, in Hurn parish, BH23, is 3.6 miles from where we are based in Boscombe. Nearby we also cover Parley, Sopley, Christchurch and Bournemouth, and BCP Council is the planning and building control authority for your address.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, has the company number 15471719. Its owner, Thomas Hannen, goes through your loft and walls and prices the job himself. Look us up on Checkatrade and you will find a verified customer's 10 out of 10. The visit is free, and so is the itemised quote in writing. Before you book a visit in Merritown, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Merritown?
Most repairs in Merritown 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 Merritown |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Merritown. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Merritown, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Merritown. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Merritown. |
Questions
Questions about insulation in Merritown
We are in flood zone 2. Does that affect the floor?
Yes, flood zone 2 affects what we are prepared to put into the floor. 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.
Who comes out to look, and how far is it?
Merritown is about three and a half miles from our base by road, a short run. Thomas comes out himself, gets into the loft, measures what is there and writes the quote up afterwards as an itemised list, never 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.
Nearby, and next door
Insulation near Merritown
Nearby places we also cover for insulation, with straight-line distances from Merritown, and the other trades we offer in Merritown itself.
Insulation nearby
Our other trades in Merritown
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 Moordown Insulation, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
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.