Insulation in Verwood
Loft, rafter and cavity wall insulation for the bungalows, chalets and eighties houses of Verwood, surveyed before it is priced.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
In a bungalow the loft is the best piece of work you can do to the building, because every room in the house sits under that one roof. Verwood is full of them, which is why a loft top-up is the job we do here more than any other, and on most of them it is a single day. Chalet bungalows are the exception. The rooms are already in the roof, so there is no loft to work in and the job moves to the rafters instead.
Three calls come in more than any others. A bungalow that is cold across the whole of it rather than in one room, which almost always points at the ceiling. A chalet where the upstairs bedrooms are freezing in winter and stifling by July. And a loft somebody has finally climbed into, where the original layer is flat, patchy and stops short of the walls.
So we look before we price. That means getting into the roof space and putting a rule into what is already up there rather than guessing, crawling out to the eaves to see whether the depth actually reaches the wall plate and whether the ventilation path is still open, finding the tank and any pipe runs that will end up above the new layer, and borescoping an outside wall to see what is really in the cavity.
On a chalet we measure the rafters, because that number decides what can be done from inside. Then you get a written itemised quote with the method on it as well as the number.
The work
The chalet bungalow is the hardest one to warm
Loft top-ups in the eighties stock. Over half the homes here went up between the early eighties and the late two thousands, the peak falling in the 1980s, and a loft of that age was built to the standard of its day. Add thirty years of settlement and everything stored on top and there is less than the original figure. Fresh mineral wool between the joists, a second run at right angles across the top so the timbers stop bridging the cold, 250mm to 270mm all in, which carries a ceiling to the 0.16 u-value Approved Document L expects of a renovated roof.
Chalet bungalows and rooms in the roof. Bungalows are 44.4 per cent of the dwellings here and a good many have rooms in the roof, which is the trickiest heating problem in the town. The insulation has to follow the shape of the room, so it becomes rigid board rather than quilt: PIR such as Celotex between the rafters with a clear air gap kept above it, a foil faced board fixed under the rafters to break the cold bridge at every timber, or a multi-layer quilt like TLX where the rafter depth is not there. The dormer cheeks and the voids behind the knee walls are where these rooms lose most heat, so they go in at the same time with a vapour control layer on the warm side.
Walls of that age have a proper cavity, and many were built with a partial fill of batts rather than a full one. A partial fill can have slipped, and a full fill on top of a slumped one is hard to put right, so we drill a small hole and borescope it first, then tell you what is in there.
A bungalow has no other storage, so boarding comes up on almost every job here. Boards laid straight onto the joists crush the insulation under them, so the deck goes back on legs above the new depth. A lot of these bungalows have gained a flat roofed extension or sun room as well, and a shallow deck with quilt between the joists and no ventilation designed in is a sealed void that collects condensation; the answer there is a warm roof with the insulation above the deck, next time the covering comes off. Then the hatch, fire rated covers over downlighters, vent trays at the eaves and lagging on the tank and pipework now sitting in a colder roof space.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
The quote is itemised: survey, clearing, the material and its depth, ventilation works and disposal on separate lines.
Insulating a loft, a floor or the inside face of a wall is an improvement rather than development, so no planning permission is involved and it sits inside permitted development, which is what the Planning Portal's insulation guidance says. Building control is the separate question, and on a bungalow here a loft becoming a room is a common enough project to be worth asking about early. Verwood has no conservation area of its own and nine listed entries, so on most houses nothing restricts the outside face. Dorset Council for both.
Cost
What decides the price of an insulation job
No rate per square metre. A bungalow with a hatch on the hall ceiling and a clear loft, the same bungalow boarded out and full, and a chalet where the work is all at rafter level inside a finished bedroom are three different days. Old material to bag and take away, and storage to move and put back, come before anything new goes down, and Approved Document L sets what the work has to reach. Comparing quotes, ask what depth is being laid, whether the old material is removed or covered, and whether the hatch and pipework are included.
If it is urgent
Damp, condensation or a room you cannot heat
Ring rather than use the form. Condensation dripping in the loft, mould that keeps coming back, or a room that will not hold heat gets looked at quickly. Insulating a roof space that cannot breathe makes it worse, so the first visit settles which it is. Verwood is a regular run for us and we are often out that way anyway.
Worth knowing
A bungalow has twice the ceiling to lose heat through
Close to half the homes in Verwood are bungalows, and that single fact should change what you spend money on first. A bungalow puts every room under one roof, so for the same floor area it has roughly twice as much ceiling as a two-storey house, and the ceiling is the surface heat leaves through fastest because heat rises.
Put those together and the loft is the first job here rather than the third, and usually the cheapest square metre of improvement in the building. It also tends to be a straightforward day, because a bungalow loft is one big open run rather than a set of awkward voids.
What is awkward about them is the edge. A bungalow roof is wide and often shallow, so the space narrows to almost nothing where it meets the wall plate, and that is exactly where the depth gets skimped because it is uncomfortable to reach. It shows up inside as a cold band around the outside of the ceiling, and on a bungalow that band runs round every room in the house rather than just the top floor.
Doing it properly means getting out to the eaves on your front and carrying the material right over the wall plate, with a vent tray holding the ventilation path open above it so the roof space still breathes, which is the point Approved Document F makes and the reason we price vent trays as a line rather than an extra. Two other bungalow habits are worth naming. The cold water tank usually sits in the middle of the loft, and once the ceiling below it is properly insulated that tank is in a colder place than it was, so it and its pipework get lagged on the same visit. And with no upstairs to store things in, the loft is somebody's cupboard, so the boarding goes up on legs rather than flat onto the joists.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Verwood, Three Legged Cross and West Moors on BH31 and BH21, out towards Alderholt, Cranborne, St Leonards and Ringwood, and Dorset Council is the planning and building control authority for this address. 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
Verwood questions we get asked
Verwood is nearly half bungalows. Does that change the loft job?
It changes the size of it. 44.4% of Verwood is single storey, so the ceiling you are insulating covers every room in the house instead of only the upstairs ones. The area is a lot more than people picture from the drive, and the eaves run is longer, which is where most of the time goes. A shortfall in depth is then felt across the whole house rather than in one back bedroom.
Our house is mid eighties. Is there already insulation up there?
There will be something. 55.6% of the housing here dates from 1983 to 2008, with the 1980s the biggest slice at 29.0%, and those lofts were built with a quilt laid one direction between the joists. It was shallower than what is asked for now and it has usually settled since. So the normal answer is a cross layer over the top, and the finished depth is what does the work.
Why do the ceiling edges feel cold in a Verwood bungalow?
Because the quilt stops before it reaches the eaves. In a Verwood bungalow the perimeter is long against the floor area, so any shortfall at the edge shows straight away as a cold band round the outside of the ceiling below. The answer is to carry the material out over the wall plate while keeping a clear air path at the eaves, normally with trays, so the roof space still breathes.
There are only nine listed buildings in Verwood. Does that help us?
It means most addresses have nothing hanging over them. Verwood has no conservation area of its own and nine listed entries across the whole town, so for the great majority of houses insulating the roof space is plain maintenance with nothing to apply for. Dorset only comes into it if you alter the shape of the roof or turn the space into a room, which is a different job entirely.
What does the written quote actually break down into?
Materials by depth and by area, labour, removal of anything that comes out, and any eaves trays or ventilation work, each on its own line. On a single storey house the area figure is the one to read hardest, because it is the whole footprint. Thomas measures it himself on the visit rather than working off a plan. The site visit is free and so is the written quote. VAT is added, as we are a limited company.
Nearby, and next door
Insulation near Verwood
Insulation nearby
Our other trades in Verwood
Everything we do in Verwood Insulation, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get a look before you get a price
A free site visit in Verwood, a rule put into whatever is up there now, and a written itemised quote with the method on it as well as the number.