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.
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 usual job here is not an empty loft, it is a shallow old layer with boards and boxes sitting on top of it, and the boards are half the work.
Three things get people ringing. 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 commonest job 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. Close to a third of the homes around here are bungalows, 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 rather than 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
From your call to a written price
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 is different in the older core: the Lytchett Minster conservation area takes it in, and inside it external wall insulation needs an application. There are eighteen listed entries in and around here, Post Green House among them, and on a listed building listed building consent comes first, internal linings included. regulation 23 means renovating more than half of an element brings the whole of it up to the current standard, which is why a flat roof being re-covered gets quoted as a warm roof. Dorset Council is the authority for both.
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 seventies bungalow with half the loft boarded and years of boxes on it is one morning; a cottage in the old village with a hatch the size of a cushion 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
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. Post Green is a short run out of town. If the cold room is over the garage, say so. Outside Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm is by arrangement.
Worth knowing
Insulating the loft and converting it are two very different decisions
A lot of people here ask about the loft and the loft conversion in the same phone call, because on a bungalow with a big roof space the two ideas 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
A local firm you can check
We cover Post Green, Lytchett Minster, Lytchett Matravers, Upton, Organford and the BH16 addresses around them, with Dorset Council for planning and building control. Send us the postcode and we will confirm before we come out. 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
Post Green questions we get asked
We are in the Lytchett Minster conservation area. Does that cover us?
It 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.
Over half the houses here are postwar. What does that mean?
It means a top-up rather than a first fit, in most cases. 54.3% 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, which are 20.4% of the housing. 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?
A new bedroom does, yes, because Post Green drains to the Poole Harbour catchment. Overnight accommodation is exactly what the nutrient neutrality requirement is aimed at, so Dorset Council will want it dealt with in the application alongside the conservation area point. 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.
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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.