Insulation in Rockbourne
Loft, floor and breathable wall insulation for old buildings, put in where it works and left out where it would do harm.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Insulating an old cottage is not the same job as insulating a modern house, and Rockbourne is a village of old cottages. The rule we work to here is simple: put the depth in where it does not stop the building drying out, and leave alone anything that would trap moisture in a wall or a roof that has always breathed. The site visit and the written quote are free.
Rockbourne cottages raise the insulation question at a purchase or after years of a cold room. Somebody is buying or has just bought a cottage in Rockbourne, the heating bill has arrived and they want to know what can honestly be improved without wrecking the fabric. Or somebody has lived with a cold bedroom over an unheated room for years and has finally had enough of it.
Neither is answered from a doorstep. We go up into the roof and under the floor where we can get there, measure the existing depth with a probe instead of guessing at it, look at what the ceilings and walls are actually built of, and check where air is moving through the building. Then you get an itemised written quote with the method on it, and nothing is ordered until you have agreed it.
The work
Half these ceilings will not carry a man's weight
Lofts under thatch. Thatch is already a warm covering and it works because it is open to the air and dries from both sides. So the insulation goes at ceiling level in mineral wool, with nothing sealed across the underside of the thatch and no vapour barrier laid where it would stop the roof breathing.
Recessed downlighters and thatch do not belong in the same building, and where we find them shining up into a quilt we say so and price the covers, never bury them. Getting depth over irregular joists in a low Rockbourne roof space is slow, patient work, and we would rather take the extra half day than leave a gap along every edge.
A lot of the ceilings in Rockbourne are lath and plaster and will not carry a person's weight, so we crawl on boards laid across the joists. The joists are rarely at any spacing a roll was made for, so the wool is cut to fit, not pushed in and left to spring back. We lay between and over where the space allows, the second layer straight across the joists so none of them is left as a cold bridge. The number that counts is the finished ceiling: a ceiling under a renovated pitched roof is expected to reach a U-value of 0.16, nearer 270mm of quilt than the 250 people have in mind.
Where we stop on the walls. Cob, brick and flint and old solid brickwork have no cavity to fill, so the choice is internal wall insulation on the coldest rooms in wood fibre or another breathable board bedded in lime, or nothing at all. External wall insulation is a different conversation in a village that is a conservation area, and mostly the answer here is no. On the newer houses at the edge of Rockbourne a borescope tells us in minutes whether the cavity is clear, already filled, or slumped and leaving a cold band.
A suspended timber floor over a ventilated void is one of the biggest sources of draught in a cottage and often easier to deal with than the walls. Where there is access we insulate between the floor joists with a breathable quilt on netting, keep every air brick clear so the void still ventilates, and seal the gaps at the skirtings. Where a roof has already been lived in, a room in roof is insulated at rafter level: PIR board such as Celotex between the rafters with a clear air gap above, a foil faced board across the underside, or a multi-layer quilt like TLX where the headroom is tight.
How it runs
Insulating an older house without trapping damp
Thomas handles the survey and the price. He checks the loft and how it is ventilated, works out whether the walls are solid or cavity, and looks for any damp. The quote lists the survey, removing old material, the insulation and its thickness, ventilation, the hatch and pipework, and disposal.
Thomas prices it all and stays your contact throughout. Dust sheets go down, the house is cleaned each day, and old material is taken away. If a timber turns out to be damp or rotten, you get a photograph and a price before we go further.
Laying insulation in a loft or lining a wall inside is an improvement, not development, so no planning permission is needed; the Planning Portal sets out where that stops. Cladding the outside of a wall is different, and inside a conservation area it is not permitted development, as Planning Portal guidance on external walls explains, so it is worth asking New Forest District Council whether your address is in one. On a listed building consent reaches inside as well, so we check before we quote. Regulation 23 sets what a renovated thermal element has to reach.
Cost
Old roofs, solid walls and awkward hatches
Insulation is not priced per square metre, because the building and the access set the price. Getting in. A cottage with a small hatch and purlins in the way, a house where the loft is reached through a bedroom cupboard, and a newer bungalow with a fitted ladder are different days' work.
The walls. Solid walls cannot take cavity fill. They are lined inside with a breathable system, such as wood fibre or mineral wool behind a vapour-open finish, or damp builds up.
What is up there. Old insulation that has to be bagged and carried out adds cost before anything new goes down.
Ventilation. Older roofs often rely on air moving through them. Blocking that with insulation causes condensation, so vents or gaps at the eaves are part of the job.
Approved Document L sets the target U-value. Ask any quote what depth is going down, whether the eaves are kept clear, and how the walls will be kept breathable.
If it is urgent
Condensation, damp or a cold room
A loft dripping with condensation, mould that keeps coming back, or a room that will not hold heat is worth looking at soon. Phone us, and leave the web form aside. Booked insulation work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm; if nobody answers, we return your call when we can.
Rockbourne is out past Fordingbridge, so we will tell you plainly which day we can come. The first visit tells you whether it is insulation, ventilation or both, before anything is added.
Worth knowing
Off the gas main, the fabric is worth more here
Rockbourne is off the gas main, and oil and electric heating are common, which is a very different picture from a town street. That does not change how a loft is insulated. It changes what the same loft is worth.
Every unit of heat that goes out through a cold ceiling here has been bought at the price of a tank of oil or a unit of electricity rather than at the mains gas rate, so the same job pays for itself sooner in Rockbourne than it would in a town, and the case for going to full depth rather than a token top-up is stronger. It also changes what happens when the tank runs low in February, because a house that holds its heat gives you a few more days between deliveries.
The order of work matters too. If a heat pump is anywhere in your thinking, the fabric comes first: a heat pump gives you warmth at a lower flow temperature, which only feels comfortable in a house that is not leaking heat through the ceiling and the floor. Insulate first, then size the heating to the house you have made, rather than the other way round.
When you compare quotes, check that each one names the depth or thickness going in and says whether the old material comes out first. We are happy to look at the whole house and tell you the order we would do it in, even where that means telling you to leave the walls alone for now.
Who you are dealing with
Who surveys your home and prices it
Rockbourne is 16 miles from our base in Boscombe. We cover the village, Sandleheath, Breamore and Fordingbridge in SP6, and across the Avon valley to Ringwood. New Forest District Council is the planning and building control authority.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Surveys and prices are done by Thomas Hannen, who owns the company. The verified Checkatrade score from a customer is 10 out of 10. Neither the survey visit nor the itemised written quote costs anything. Before you book a visit in Rockbourne, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Rockbourne?
Most repairs in Rockbourne 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 Rockbourne |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest District Council is the planning authority for Rockbourne. The National Park boundary runs close by, and the Park's property map shows which side an address falls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Rockbourne Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Rockbourne. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Rockbourne. |
Questions
Questions about insulation in Rockbourne
We heat with oil out here. Where does insulating pay?
Insulating pays in the fabric first. A lot of households in Rockbourne burn oil or run on electricity, so every unit of heat is bought and stored, not metered off a main. That makes the roof the first job, then draughts at doors, letterboxes and floorboards. Filling the loft before you touch the boiler means the tank in the garden lasts further into the winter.
Does the Rockbourne conservation area reach inside the roof?
No, the designation controls how the place looks, so it reaches the covering, the render, the windows and anything fixed to an elevation. Quilt rolled between joists is invisible from the lane and sits outside all of that. Where it does matter is a change of material, because swapping a covering for something different is not like for like maintenance and New Forest District will want to see it first.
The cottage is near the stream. Does flood risk change anything?
The ground floor can. Parts of Rockbourne along Sweatfords Water are in flood zone 3, so check your address on the flood checker. If yours is, I would not pack a suspended timber floor with something that holds water and cannot dry out again. Mineral quilt slung under boards in a void that floods is a mistake. Roof work is unaffected by any of it and goes ahead as normal.
Can you get right out to the eaves in an old roof?
Usually, with a rake and a crawl board, but not always. Old cottage roofs out this way have a low pitch at the wall plate and often no gap left for air, so pushing material hard into the corner blocks the only ventilation the void has got. Where I cannot reach it safely I say so and price a vent tray rather than pretending the corner has been done.
Which side of the house loses the most heat?
The south west face, on almost every property here, because that is the elevation taking wind and driven rain off open ground. Wind blowing at a wall pushes air through the gaps around openings and along the eaves, and moving air strips heat far faster than still air does. So on a Rockbourne survey I look hardest at that corner, the window reveals and the top of the wall.
Nearby, and next door
Insulation near Rockbourne
Nearby places we also cover for insulation, with straight-line distances from Rockbourne, and the other trades we offer in Rockbourne itself.
Insulation nearby
Our other trades in Rockbourne
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 Verwood Insulation, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Ask what your cottage actually needs
A free site visit, a probe into what is already there, and an itemised written quote with the materials and the method on it as well as the price.