Insulation in Sixpenny Handley
Top-ups over what is already up there, rafter work in the barn conversions, and honest advice about which walls are worth lining.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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A Sixpenny Handley loft is decided by whether the insulation is deep enough, whether it still reaches the edges, and whether the roof space above it can breathe once you make it colder underneath. Nearly all of them already have something in them. We come and measure all of it, free, before anybody talks about a price.
A Sixpenny Handley house losing heat shows it in the oil tank, the back bedroom and a flat, grey loft. An oil tank that seems to empty faster every winter. A back bedroom in an old cottage that never warms up whatever the heating does. And a loft that was done once, years ago, where the roll has gone flat and grey and stops a foot short of the wall on every side.
None of those is fixed by ordering more material and pushing it up through the hatch. A downland roof space is a windier, draughtier place than a sheltered one, and it behaves differently the moment you make it colder underneath.
So the visit is a proper look: what is up there and what it actually measures with a rule in it, whether the eaves are still open, what the roof is covered with and whether there is anything under it, where the tank and the pipe runs sit, and how you get to the awkward end of it. The written itemised quote comes off the back of that, with the method on it as well as the number.
The work
A cavity wall quote here is a quote for another house
Topping up a loft that was done once. Most lofts in Sixpenny Handley have a layer in them from an earlier scheme, laid one way between the joists and never touched again. Twenty years of standing on it and stacking things on it leaves it compressed, settled into the gaps and short of the perimeter.
We lift it and look rather than assume. If the old mineral wool is dry and intact it stays and a fresh roll goes over the top at right angles, between and over, so no joist is left bridging the cold. A renovated ceiling is expected to reach a U-value of 0.16, which in ordinary mineral wool is nearer 270mm than the 250 people remember. If it is wet, mouse eaten or crushed flat it comes out, gets bagged and leaves with us.
The older houses in and around Sixpenny Handley have no cavity in them at all, so a cavity wall quote on one of them is a quote for a different house. What works is internal wall insulation built to breathe: a wood fibre or mineral board with a lime finish rather than a sealed plastic sandwich. External wall insulation changes the outside face of the building, which up on the Chase is a planning conversation before it is a technical one. Where there is thatch there is usually no usable roof space, and we will not pack foil quilt against the underside of it.
A good deal of the accommodation on the farms around Sixpenny Handley is converted outbuildings, and in a room in roof there is no loft left. That is rigid board: PIR such as Celotex between the rafters with a clear air gap above, a foil faced board under the sloping ceiling, or a multi-layer quilt like TLX where a dormer cheek has no depth to give. The post-war bungalows are the straightforward ones and most are a single day. Out here the pipework matters more than most places, because a colder loft is a loft where an unlagged pipe freezes, so the tank and every run above the new layer gets lagged, and any downlighter cut into the ceiling below gets a fire rated cover before the boarding goes back.
How it runs
Insulating a roof, a wall or a floor: how we go about it
Thomas Hannen drives up from Boscombe, puts his head through the loft hatch and then goes round the outside walls. He measures what insulation is there and how deep, checks the eaves are open for air, works out whether the walls are cavity or solid, and notes any damp. An older cottage with solid brick or flint walls needs a breathable approach, while a newer house may take a simpler fix.
What you get is a written breakdown: clearing old material, the new mineral wool or board and its thickness, keeping the eaves open, the hatch, pipe lagging and waste. Every item is priced separately. Floors and landings are covered, and old material is bagged and taken away. If something turns up, like a damp patch on a rafter, a photograph and a price reach you before we go on.
Planning does not reach inside a house, so a loft top-up or an internal lining needs no application, which The Planning Portal explains. Building control is involved once you renovate a roof or wall as a whole, or turn the loft into a room, and the Building Regulations then set the standard. Sixpenny Handley has no conservation area, but on a listed building listed building consent covers the inside too. Anything that alters the outside face is a question for Dorset Council first in the National Landscape.
Cost
What decides the cost of insulating your house
We do not work to a rate per square metre. Getting into the space and dealing with the edges is where the time goes.
The way in. A cottage with a small hatch over the stairs, a bungalow with a wide open loft and a ladder, and a barn conversion where the roof is the ceiling each set the day up differently. The smaller the hatch and the lower the roof, the slower the work.
What is already there. Old insulation that is thin, damp or full of debris has to be bagged and taken out before anything new goes down. A loft full of stored boxes has to be cleared first.
The type of wall. A cavity wall can be filled from outside. A solid wall has to be lined inside, which means new plasterboard, a skim, and moving sockets and skirting. That is a bigger job.
The standard. Approved Document L sets the U-value the finished work must reach, and that decides the thickness.
Ask other quotes what depth or thickness they are fitting, whether the eaves will be kept clear, and whether the water tank and pipes in the loft are included.
If it is urgent
Condensation, mould or a room that will not warm up
If the loft is dripping with condensation, black mould keeps coming back on a wall, or a room will not hold its heat, it is worth a call. Open a window in the affected room and, if the loft is wet, leave the hatch shut so more warm air does not get up there.
If you are worried about pipes freezing in a cold loft, we will tell you what to do first over the phone. On the first visit we find where the moisture is coming from before we add anything. Planned work runs 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
Off the gas main, and what that changes
Most houses in Sixpenny Handley are off the gas main, on oil or on electricity, because the main does not come out this far. That changes nothing about how a loft is insulated. It changes what the loft is worth.
When you buy heat by the tank load, or on a meter, every degree that goes out through the ceiling was paid for in advance, and the same depth laid over the same joists holds on to more of your heating bill in a house here than it does in one on the gas.
It also changes the order things should be done in. If a new boiler or a heat pump is anywhere on your list, the fabric goes first, because the size of the thing you end up buying is set by the heat loss of the house as it stands on the day it is specified. Insulate afterwards and you have paid for capacity you no longer need, and it will run badly on top of that.
Energy saving materials fitted in a home currently carry a zero rate of VAT, and HMRC VAT Notice 708/6 sets out what qualifies, which is worth reading before you compare one quote against another. We do not touch the heating side. We do the fabric, and we will tell you which walls in your house are worth lining and which are honestly not.
Who you are dealing with
Insulation fitted across the Chase, from Handley to Ashmore
From Boscombe we come 17.1 miles to insulate homes in Sixpenny Handley, in Pentridge and Tollard Royal, and in Cranborne and Ashmore. For this address Dorset Council handles planning and building control.
Thomas Hannen gets into your loft himself and writes the price, as the owner of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. On Checkatrade, a verified customer rated us 10 out of 10. The visit is free, as is the itemised written quote. Before you book a visit in Sixpenny Handley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Sixpenny Handley?
Most repairs in Sixpenny Handley 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 Sixpenny Handley |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Sixpenny Handley. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Sixpenny Handley, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Sixpenny Handley. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the Cranborne Chase & West Wiltshire Downs National Landscape (formerly AONB), so anything visible from outside gets more attention. |
Questions
Questions about insulation in Sixpenny Handley
We are on storage heaters. Which job comes first?
The ceiling comes before anything else. In Sixpenny Handley a lot of households heat with oil or electricity, and electricity is the least forgiving fuel to lose through a ceiling. Get the depth right across the whole loft, then chase the draughts at the hatch and the doors. Only after that is there a sensible argument to have about the walls or about changing the heating.
You are the far side of the Chase. Do you come out?
We do. Sixpenny Handley is 17.1 miles from our base in Boscombe, up the A354, so getting eyes on the job is straightforward. Thomas comes out himself, gets into the loft and prices it, and the site visit costs you nothing. What helps is knowing the age of the house and roughly what is up there already, so the right kit comes on the first trip.
What is actually written on the quote?
The material and the depth it will be laid to, the area it covers, what happens at the eaves and at the hatch, whether vent trays are needed, and what becomes of the old material. It is itemised and it is written, so you can hand it to somebody else and get a like for like comparison. Nothing appears later because it was mentioned on the doorstep.
Where does the old material end up?
In bags, in the van, and off site the same day. Old mineral quilt is filthy and it breaks up the moment it is disturbed, so it goes into sealed bags in the loft rather than being carried loose down the stairs. Floors are sheeted from the hatch to the front door. Out at Sixpenny Handley there is no skip left on the verge unless you have asked for one.
Does the Cranborne Chase designation affect what we can do?
Only where something can be seen. The Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs landscape designation puts scrutiny on anything visible from open ground, so external cladding, a change of covering or a rooflight on a prominent slope will get looked at. Material between joists is seen by nobody. Listed buildings in the parish, the Church of St Mary among them, are different, because listing is what reaches indoors.
Nearby, and next door
Insulation near Sixpenny Handley
Nearby places we also cover for insulation, with straight-line distances from Sixpenny Handley, and the other trades we offer in Sixpenny Handley itself.
Insulation nearby
Our other trades in Sixpenny Handley
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
Start with a look round the house
A free site visit in Sixpenny Handley, a rule put in whatever is already up there, and a written itemised quote with the method on it as well as the number.