Insulation in Post Green
Boarded lofts lifted and laid properly, roof rooms done at the rafters, garages and flat roofs sorted, all priced in writing first.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Most of the housing around Post Green went up in the seventies and early eighties, when insulation was already standard but the standard was a fraction of today's. So the typical loft here is not an empty one, it is a shallow old layer with boards and boxes sitting on top of it, and the boards are half the work.
Post Green houses are weakest under boarded lofts, in added roof rooms and over garages. A loft that has been boarded out for storage since the house was new, where the wool underneath has been squashed flat and has not been looked at since. A room that was put into the roof later on and is the coldest part of the house every winter. And the cold that comes up rather than down: a bedroom over an attached garage, or a bathroom on the end of a flat-roofed extension.
We come out and look at all of it in one visit, including under the boarding, because that is where the answer usually is. The visit is free and the itemised written quote is free with it. If all it needs is the deck lifting, a proper depth laid and the deck raised back up on legs, we will quote that and nothing more.
The work
Boarded straight down, the wool is doing nothing
Boarded lofts, the fault to look for first here. A chipboard deck screwed straight down onto the joists squashes the wool underneath it to nothing, and a compressed layer is a thin layer whatever the label said when it went in.
We lift the boards, straighten and repair what is under them, then lay a fresh eco roll across the joists at right angles, between and over, to roughly 270mm finished, and put the deck back up on loft legs so it floats above the insulation instead of crushing it. You keep the storage and you get the depth, which is the choice people expect to have to make. That depth is what a U-value of 0.16 asks of a renovated ceiling, rather than the 250mm people remember. The edges decide as much as the roll: a vent tray holds the airway open at the eaves, the tank and the pipe runs above get lagged, and any downlighter below gets a fire rated cover.
Bungalows, and the cold that comes from beside you. Bungalows are common around Post Green, and on a bungalow the ceiling is the biggest heated surface you own, so depth in the loft pays back harder than anywhere else in the house. The other half of the problem is what sits beside it. An attached garage is an unheated space with a warm room next to it or above it, and the party wall and the floor between them are usually bare. A flat-roofed extension on the back is the same story, best dealt with as a warm roof with rigid board over the deck when the covering is next renewed, not stuffed in from below.
More than half the stock here went up between 1945 and 1982, and houses of that age were built with a proper wide cavity, many of them before filling it was routine, so what is in the wall varies house by house on the same road. The survey starts with a borescope, not an assumption: is there anything in there, has it slumped and left the top of the wall bare, is the cavity clean at the bottom. In the older core there is no cavity worth using, so it is internal wall insulation in a breathable build-up. Where the roof space has been turned into a bedroom it is rigid PIR board between the rafters with a ventilation gap kept above and a taped second layer under so the vapour control layer stays continuous, or a multi-layer foil quilt such as TLX where the head height will not take it, and the dormer cheeks are the cold bridge left out of most quotes.
How it runs
Insulating a bungalow, from the hatch to the walls
Thomas visits, climbs into the loft and checks the walls, then puts the figures together himself. His quote, in writing, separates out clearing old material, the insulation and its depth or thickness, ventilation, boarding, the hatch, and disposal.
With so many bungalows in Post Green, the loft is usually the biggest single area, and it is often low at the eaves where the insulation is hardest to reach. Chalet bungalows have rooms in the roof with sloping ceilings and knee walls. We keep the eaves clear for ventilation, sheet the rooms below, and bag and remove everything. If we find damp timbers, you get a photograph and a price first.
Insulation in a loft, at rafter level or on the inside of a wall needs no planning permission, and Planning Portal guidance on insulation sets out the boundaries. Outside walls are different in the older core, which the Lytchett Minster conservation area partly covers; there, external wall insulation needs an application. For a listed house, listed building consent is needed before anything, even an internal lining. Regulation 23 means renovating more than half of an element brings all of it up to the current standard. Dorset Council handles both.
Cost
What changes the price of insulating a home
Which part needs doing sets the price. Topping up a bungalow loft, insulating the sloping ceilings of a chalet bungalow, and lining a cold wall are different jobs with different materials: mineral wool across the joists, rigid boards between and under the rafters, or insulated plasterboard.
What is in the way. A bungalow loft with half the floor boarded and years of storage on it is a morning of moving boxes before anything is laid. An older cottage with a hatch the size of a cushion is slow in a different way.
Rooms in the roof. On a chalet bungalow, reaching the sloping ceilings and the void behind the knee walls often means taking plasterboard down and putting it back, which is plastering as much as insulating.
Ventilation. Insulating without keeping air moving at the eaves causes condensation on the underside of the felt. Vents and eaves trays are part of the price. Approved Document L sets what the work has to reach.
Loft conversions. Post Green is in the Poole Harbour nutrient neutrality area, which Dorset Council applies to new dwellings and separate overnight accommodation, not normally to a bedroom added to your own house. Plain insulation never engages it.
Ask anyone else what depth is being laid, whether the old material comes out, and whether the eaves and hatch are included.
If it is urgent
Condensation, mould, or a room that will not warm
Pick up the phone for anything like this. A loft dripping with condensation, mould that comes back however often you clean it, or a room over the garage that stays cold needs looking at before anything more is added.
The first visit works out whether it is insulation, ventilation or both, because insulating a space that cannot breathe makes it worse. If the cold room is over a garage, tell us. Insulation work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If it is urgent, call. Scheduled work runs Mon to Fri, 8am to 6pm, and if we miss you we call back.
Worth knowing
Insulating the roof space and converting it are two very different decisions
On a bungalow with a big roof space, insulating the loft and converting it are two ideas that sit next to each other. They are not the same job and they do not carry the same paperwork. Insulating a loft, boarding it for storage, laying board at rafter level or making a cold roof breathe properly is work between you and building control.
It needs no planning application and it is measured in days. Turning that space into a bedroom is a building project: floor strength, a protected stair, escape windows, head height and fire separation all come into it, and the insulation is a small part of the cost.
There is one more thing worth knowing before you commit either way. This side of the Poole Harbour catchment, any scheme that needs planning permission and adds overnight accommodation can engage nutrient neutrality, which means demonstrating the extra wastewater is offset before consent is granted. Plenty of loft conversions never need a planning application at all and so never touch it, but a dormer beyond permitted development, or anything creating a separate dwelling, might.
Insulation never does, at any depth, in any material. So if the plan is to insulate now and convert later, get Dorset Council's answer on the conversion before you buy board for a build-up that assumes it, and in the meantime the loft can be done properly and reversibly, which is money that is not wasted either way.
Who you are dealing with
Who insulates your home
From Boscombe, where we are based, it is just short of nine and a half miles to Post Green. We insulate homes there and in Lytchett Minster, Lytchett Matravers, Upton, Organford and the BH16 addresses around them, and Dorset Council covers planning and building control.
Send the postcode and we will confirm. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. The owner, Thomas Hannen, goes into your loft and prices the work himself. There is a verified 10 out of 10 from a customer on Checkatrade. You pay nothing for the visit or the itemised written quote. Before you book a visit in Post Green, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Post Green?
Most repairs in Post Green 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 Post Green |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Post Green. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Lytchett Minster Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Post Green. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Post Green. |
Questions
Questions about insulation in Post Green
We are in the Lytchett Minster conservation area. Does that cover us?
Yes, the conservation area covers the look of the building, not the roof space. The Lytchett Minster Conservation Area takes in Post Green, and inside it a like for like repair is maintenance while a change of covering or external material needs Dorset Council to agree it first. Insulation laid over a ceiling or under a floor is not visible and is not caught. Cladding the outside of a wall is caught, so ask before ordering any materials.
Many houses here are postwar. What does that mean?
It means a top-up, not a first fit, in most cases. Much of Post Green went up between 1945 and 1982, so the loft has usually had something laid in it at some point and the question becomes depth and coverage rather than starting from bare joists. Old material that is dry and clean stays and new goes over it crossways. Anything damp, rodent damaged or laid over a leak comes out, and we say which on the visit.
How much mess does a strip out make inside the house?
Enough that it has to be managed, which is why it gets planned. Old wool is bagged in the loft rather than dropped loose down the ladder, the landing under the hatch is sheeted, and the bags go straight into the van the same day. On the Post Green lanes we park close and carry a short distance, so nothing stands in the road. The hatch area is the only part of the house we work through.
Our semi shares a roof space with next door. Is that trouble?
It is, and it is common in the postwar semis around Post Green. Where the party wall stops at ceiling level instead of running up to the tiles, the two lofts are really one space, so heat and everything else moves across it. Insulating your half while the void is open sends warm air next door. We close that wall off at the top before laying anything.
Would adding a bedroom in the roof need more than building control?
Usually only planning, and only if the outside changes in the conservation area. Post Green drains to the Poole Harbour catchment, but nutrient neutrality is aimed at new dwellings, annexes and holiday lets, so a bedroom for your own household is not normally caught; ask Dorset Council if it might be let. Insulating the roof space you already have adds no accommodation and stays outside all of that. Worth knowing before drawings get commissioned for a conversion.
Nearby, and next door
Insulation near Post Green
Nearby places we also cover for insulation, with straight-line distances from Post Green, and the other trades we offer in Post Green itself.
Insulation nearby
Our other trades in Post Green
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 Hamworthy Insulation, all areas Every area we cover
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Want to know what is under the loft boards?
We will lift a board, measure what is really down there, check the eaves and the hatch, and put the options in writing. The visit and the quote are both free.