Insulation in Parkstone
Loft top-ups on the semis and bungalows, and careful, breathable work on the older solid-walled houses near Ashley Cross.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Insulation in Parkstone depends on the age of the house: a loft brought up to full depth on the semis and bungalows, and a more careful, breathable approach on the older solid-walled houses near Ashley Cross. We survey first and price each part separately.
Parkstone mixes house types more than most places, so the problems vary. A Victorian house near the station with a front bedroom that never gets warm, where the owner has been told to put foil-backed board on every wall. A semi up by Ashley Road with a thin, dusty layer in the loft put down decades ago and the boxes stacked on top of it. A bungalow with a big loft and a cold hallway. And a top floor flat in a converted house where the roof space above belongs to the freeholder.
We come out, get into the loft, look at the walls, and tell you plainly which of them is worth the money first. The site visit and the itemised written quote are both free.
The work
Roof spaces, roof rooms and walls across Parkstone
Loft top-ups on the semis and council-built houses. Upper Parkstone has a lot of inter-war and post-war houses, and their lofts usually have an old layer sitting only between the joists, compressed and patchy.
We lift and straighten what can be kept, fill the gaps, then lay a second layer of mineral wool roll across the joists, between and over, to around 270mm in total, which is what a U-value of 0.16 asks for. Eaves stay clear, vent trays go in where the rafters meet the wall plate, downlighters get covers, the tank and pipework get lagging and the hatch gets insulated and draught stripped. Usually a day. Our loft insulation in Parkstone page covers boarding and storage in more detail.
Bungalows. A bungalow has a big loft for its floor area, so the loft is the whole job and the return on it is high. If you want storage, the boarding goes on raised legs so the wool underneath is not squashed flat.
Rooms in the roof on the older houses. Where a Victorian or Edwardian house has an attic room with sloping ceilings, there is no loft floor to lay onto. Insulation goes between and under the rafters, usually rigid PIR board with a vapour control layer, keeping a ventilation gap under the slates or tiles. It means new plasterboard and a skim, so it is best done when the room is being decorated anyway. Priced by the room.
Walls. The inter-war and later houses usually have a cavity wall. Before anyone fills one we look inside with a borescope, because some were filled years ago and some have settled. The older houses near Ashley Cross mostly have solid brick walls with nothing to fill, so the choice there is internal wall insulation on the coldest rooms, or external wall insulation where the planning position allows it. Our wall insulation in Parkstone page goes through those options.
When would we talk you out of it? When the loft is already at depth and the heat is really going through draughty floorboards, an open chimney or single glazing. Then we tell you, and you keep your money.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
One person to ring from the first visit to the last. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: the survey, clearing what is there, the material and its depth, ventilation works and disposal on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing in a Parkstone house is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Nothing done inside a loft or on an inside wall needs planning, as the Planning Portal guidance on insulation explains. Ashley Cross is a conservation area, so external wall insulation on a street-facing wall there needs checking first; the council keeps the list. Under regulation 23, renovating more than half of a wall or roof brings the whole of it up to the current standard, and BCP Council handles building control.
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.
Getting to it. A boarded semi loft off Ashley Road, a Victorian attic room near the station and a bungalow loft with a hatch in the hall are three different starting points. A loft hatch you can stand a ladder under is one job, a crawl space or a room in the roof is another. Where boarding has to come up and go back, that is time before any material is laid.
What is already up there. Old material that has to come out, and be bagged and taken away, is a cost before anything new goes down. So is anything stored in the loft that has to be moved and put back.
Ventilation and the awkward edges. Eaves that must stay clear, downlighters that need covers, a tank and pipework that still need lagging, and getting depth right into the corners rather than just across the middle. Approved Document L sets what the work is expected to reach.
Comparing quotes? Ask what depth is actually being laid, whether the old material is being removed or covered, whether the eaves are being kept clear, and whether the hatch and the pipework are included.
If it is urgent
Damp, condensation or a room you cannot heat
Ring rather than use the form. Insulation is rarely an emergency, but a loft dripping with condensation, black mould coming back faster than you can wash it off, or a room that will not hold heat before a cold snap all get looked at quickly.
The first visit is about finding out whether the problem is insulation, ventilation or both, because insulating a roof space that cannot breathe makes it worse. In an older Parkstone house, mould in a corner of an outside wall is often a cold spot where the wall meets the ceiling, and we check that before blaming the loft. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For anything urgent, ring rather than use the form, and if we cannot pick up we ring you back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
An old solid wall needs to dry out, not be sealed in
Plenty of Parkstone's houses, especially in the lower part around Ashley Cross, were built before the First World War, with solid brick walls and lime mortar. Those walls take up a bit of rain on the outside and dry out again, inwards and outwards.
Stick a foil-faced board or a plastic vapour barrier on the inside face and the drying stops. The wall behind stays wet and colder than before, and the joist ends built into it can start to rot.
So the rule for an older Parkstone house is to fix the water first, then insulate with something that lets the wall breathe. Get the gutters and downpipes working and any washed-out pointing done, so the brick is not soaking up water it never used to. Then line the coldest rooms with a breathable system, such as wood fibre board finished in lime plaster, and pay close attention where joists sit in the wall and around the window reveals. It takes a little space off each room and costs more than a standard board, but it keeps the wall healthy. We set out on paper which rooms and which walls, so you can do it in stages.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We insulate homes across Parkstone, from Heatherlands and Ashley Road in the upper part down to Ashley Cross and Penn Hill, in BH12 and BH14, 4.6 miles from our Boscombe base, and BCP Council handles planning and building control.
You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of 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. Before you book a visit in Parkstone, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Parkstone?
Most repairs in Parkstone 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 Parkstone |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Parkstone. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Ashley Cross Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Parkstone. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Parkstone. |
Questions
Questions about insulation in Parkstone
How deep should loft insulation be?
Around 270mm of mineral wool in total, laid as two layers with the top one across the joists. That is roughly what reaches the 0.16 U-value Approved Document L expects when a loft is renovated. Many older lofts have far less, and what is there has settled.
Can I still store things in the loft afterwards?
Yes, if the boarding goes on raised legs above the new depth. Boarding screwed straight down onto the joists squashes the wool and it stops doing much. We price the raised boarding as its own line.
How long does the work take?
A loft top-up in a semi or a bungalow is usually a day. An attic room with sloping ceilings, or internal wall insulation on a couple of rooms, runs to several days because of the plastering. The time is on the quote.
Will it make a mess in the house?
We sheet the landing and stairs, bring material up in sealed bags, and bag the old insulation in the loft before carrying it down. The house is hoovered and tidied at the end of each day.
Our Victorian house near Ashley Cross has solid walls. What can we do?
Start with the loft and the draughts, which are cheap and cannot harm the building. Then line the coldest rooms with a breathable internal system. External insulation is possible on some houses, but in the conservation area the front wall is a planning question, so we tell you what that would involve before you spend anything.
Nearby, and next door
Insulation near Parkstone
Nearby places we also cover for insulation, with straight-line distances from Parkstone, and the other trades we offer in Parkstone itself.
Insulation nearby
Our other trades in Parkstone
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 Parkstone Insulation, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Find out which part of the house is losing the heat
Thomas gets into the loft, looks at the walls and sends a written itemised quote, loft, roof and walls on separate lines. The visit and the quote are free.