Insulation in Walhampton and Portmore

The loft, wherever there is one to work in. On the later houses it is a top-up: repair what is down, close the gaps at the ends of the runs, fit vent trays at the eaves, then lay eco roll across the joists at right angles, between and over, to a finished depth of around 270mm, which is what the 0.16 u-value in Approved Document L expects of a renovated roof. Better than a quarter of the homes here predate 1919, and on an old cottage the loft is often small, shallow and reached through a hatch the size of a tea tray, so the wool is cut and carried in piece by piece rather than rolled out.

Cottages and estate cottages here tend to sit with the roof coming down close to the wall head, so there is very little room over the wall plate. Filling that gap with wool blocks the airflow the Approved Document F standard expects and turns a dry roof space into a condensation problem within a couple of winters. Trays go in first and the insulation runs up to them, not into them. Where there is genuinely no ventilation path at all, we say so before laying anything, because more depth in an unventilated roof makes matters worse.

Plenty of the older buildings here have a room in the roof, or an outbuilding that has become one. That is rafter level work: rigid PIR board such as Celotex cut tight between and under the rafters with a clear ventilation gap above, a vapour control layer before boarding, and the dormer cheeks and the voids behind the dwarf walls done at the same time. Where the covering is coming off anyway, a warm roof built from above is the better job on an old building because it leaves the ceilings and the plaster alone. If the roof is thatched, that is a specialist trade and not us, and we will tell you that on the phone rather than at the end of a visit.

Flats, and the roof space you do not own. Getting on for a third of the homes around here are flats, and if you are on the top floor the loft above your ceiling normally belongs to the building. The freeholder or managing agent has to agree in writing before anything happens, and where the building pays and it is recharged, section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 sets out the consultation leaseholders are owed. We will quote in a form an agent can put to the other leaseholders.

Later houses have cavity walls that may already be filled, which a borescope settles in minutes. Older solid walls take internal wall insulation, or external wall insulation, EWI, where the elevation allows it. Then the details that decide whether the rest works: a boarded, draught sealed hatch, storage decking lifted and put back on legs so nothing is compressed, lagging on the tank and pipework, and covers over downlighters.

No rate per square metre. An estate cottage with a small hatch and a shallow loft, a converted outbuilding with the roof space already lined, and a top floor flat reached from a communal landing are three different jobs before any material is ordered. 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.

We cover Walhampton, Portmore, Boldre, Pilley and the SO41 addresses around Lymington, with the New Forest National Park Authority as the planning authority. Send the postcode if you want to be sure. 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.