Insulation in Walhampton and Portmore
Loft depth and eaves ventilation done properly on older roofs, rafter level work in rooms under the slope, and honest advice on solid walls.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
A lot of the older houses around Walhampton and Portmore have solid walls with no cavity in them, so there is nothing to fill and the sensible order of work is the loft, then the draughts, then the walls as a separate decision. On the newer houses it is usually a straight top-up.
Walhampton and Portmore houses range from old cottages to top floor flats, and each loses heat in its own place. An old cottage or estate house that eats oil or electricity and never feels warm, where somebody has already suggested filling walls that have no cavity to fill. A bedroom tucked up under the slope of the roof that is cold in winter and airless in summer. And a top floor flat with a roof space above the ceiling that belongs to the building, not to the flat.
We come out and get into the roof before anybody talks about money, because on old buildings what you can see from the ground tells you very little. The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. If the right answer is to leave a wall alone and spend the money on depth overhead and draught proofing, we will say so.
The work
More depth in an unventilated roof makes it worse
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.
Where the house around Walhampton and Portmore is 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, not rolled out.
Cottages and estate cottages in Walhampton and Portmore 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 in Walhampton and Portmore 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, not at the end of a visit.
Flats, and the roof space you do not own. If you live in a flat near Walhampton and Portmore and 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.
How it runs
Insulating older homes and flats, survey first
Thomas carries out the survey himself, looking at the loft, walls, floors and ventilation together, because in older houses those decide what can safely be insulated. You get a written quote itemising the survey, clearing out, the material and depth, any ventilation work and removal of waste. Thomas stays on it from the survey to the finish.
The older solid-walled houses in Walhampton and Portmore need insulation that lets the structure breathe, such as mineral wool in the loft with the eaves left open, and never anything that seals damp in. In a top floor flat the hatch is often on a communal landing, so we agree access with the agent and protect the stairs. Old material is bagged and taken away, and each room is left clean. Should damp timbers or dubious wiring turn up, we photograph it and price the remedy separately, so you choose.
Loft work and internal linings need no planning permission. The outside is different, as this is National Park land: anything that changes the look of an elevation, external insulation included, is checked first, and Walhampton lies in the Forest South East Conservation Area. National Park heritage and conservation guidance sets out the approach, the National Park Authority’s interactive property map shows what applies to your address, and Planning Portal guidance on insulation covers the general position. Building control comes in if you renovate more than half of a thermal element (regulation 23) or turn the loft into a room.
Cost
Old walls, roofs and floors: what insulation costs
We do not price per square metre, because the house decides the work. Which part of the house. A loft is simplest. Solid walls cannot take cavity fill, so they are lined inside or wrapped outside, which costs more. Suspended timber floors in older houses can be insulated from beneath where there is a crawl space.
Getting to it. An estate cottage with a tiny hatch and a shallow loft, a converted outbuilding already lined, and a top floor flat reached from a shared landing are different jobs before any material is ordered.
What is already there. Old insulation to bag and take out, and belongings to shift and put back, all come before new material goes down.
Keeping the roof dry. Many older roofs in Walhampton and Portmore have no breathable membrane, so eaves vents or tile vents may be needed to stop condensation on cold timbers. Approved Document L sets the standard the work must meet.
Flats. In a block, walls and roofs usually belong to the freeholder, so anything beyond your own loft space may need their agreement.
Ask other quotes what U-value or depth they are working to, whether old material is removed or covered, how ventilation is kept and whether the hatch and pipework are included.
If it is urgent
Condensation, mould or a room that will not warm up
Please phone us for this. Water dripping in the loft, mould that returns however often you wipe it, or a room that loses its heat within the hour deserves a prompt look. Open a window and keep the heating steady in the meantime.
Insulating a space that cannot breathe makes matters worse, so the first visit establishes which problem you actually have. If the mould is on a bedroom ceiling under the slope, say so, because on the older roofs in Walhampton and Portmore that normally points to ventilation. Our insulation work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Scheduled work runs Mon to Fri, 8am to 6pm, and if we miss you we call back.
Worth knowing
Old walls here were built to dry outwards, and that decides the method
Some of the housing around Walhampton and Portmore is old, and the listed entries near here are concentrated on the Walhampton estate rather than in the ordinary housing. A wall of that age is solid, usually brick or brick with render, with no cavity in it at all. It was never meant to keep water out by being sealed.
It takes rain in on the outside face, holds it, and dries out again through both faces when the weather turns. That is the whole reason a modern approach can go badly wrong on these buildings: put a sealed, foil faced board hard against the inside of a wall like that and you stop it drying inwards, and the moisture goes into the plaster, the skirtings and the ends of the floor joists instead.
So on an old wall we do it differently. A breathable build-up, wood fibre or a lime based system, not a plastic faced board, lets the wall carry on doing what it has always done while still cutting the heat loss. The joist ends and the reveals get thought about before anything is fixed, because that is where trouble shows first.
And the order matters more than the product: get the loft to full depth, seal the hatch, deal with the draughts round doors, floors and the old chimney openings, and only then decide whether a wall is worth lining. That is not us talking you out of work. It is that on a house of this age, the loft is cheap and reversible and a wall is neither, and we would rather you spent the first money where it cannot do any harm.
Who you are dealing with
Insulation for Boldre, Pilley and the Lymington edge
We cover Walhampton, Portmore, Boldre, Pilley and the SO41 addresses around Lymington, and planning here is the New Forest National Park Authority's. From Boscombe it is 13.7 miles; send your postcode if you want to be sure we reach you.
The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, with company number 15471719. Its owner, Thomas Hannen, does the survey and the pricing himself. Checkatrade shows a 10 out of 10 from a verified customer. Neither the survey visit nor the written quote, which lists every item, is charged for. Before you book a visit in Walhampton and Portmore, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Walhampton and Portmore?
Most repairs in Walhampton and Portmore 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 Walhampton and Portmore |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Walhampton and Portmore. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Forest South East Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Walhampton and Portmore. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the New Forest National Park, where design is looked at more closely and permitted development rights are narrower. |
Questions
Questions about insulation in Walhampton and Portmore
We are in Forest South East. Does that block insulation work?
The loft is unaffected. Forest South East is about what the building looks like from outside, and material laid over a ceiling changes nothing anybody can see. The moment the work shows it is a different matter: cladding a wall, swapping the covering, cutting a rooflight into a slope facing the lane. Those go to the New Forest National Park Authority, not to a district council, and they get judged on appearance.
Our house here predates 1919. Does that limit the options?
It limits what goes on the walls more than what goes in the loft. A house built before 1919 is usually solid walled and has to be able to dry outwards, so foil faced board stuck on the inside face is the wrong answer. Breathable build ups and lime finishes suit that fabric. The roof space is the simpler and usually the better first move.
Would converting the roof space run into the Solent nutrient position?
Not normally: the nutrient neutrality position covering Solent Maritime and the Southampton Water designations is triggered by a new dwelling or separate overnight accommodation such as a holiday let, and a bedroom in the roof of your own house is not usually caught. Insulating the space you already have adds no accommodation and never engages it. The National Park will tell you where you stand at the enquiry stage, and it is worth asking that before anybody draws anything.
Does the sea being this close change what you use up there?
Not the quilt, which sits inside and stays dry. What the position changes is the metal and the edges. At 3.8km from the water, fixings, grilles and eaves trays on the exposed side give up long before anything on the sheltered side, and driven rain works at the openings and the verges rather than the middle of a slope. So that elevation is the one we look at first.
Nearby, and next door
Insulation near Walhampton and Portmore
Nearby places we also cover for insulation, with straight-line distances from Walhampton and Portmore, and the other trades we offer in Walhampton and Portmore itself.
Insulation nearby
Our other trades in Walhampton and Portmore
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 Lymington Insulation, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get someone in the loft before you decide
Free site visit around Walhampton, Portmore and Boldre, and a written itemised quote that separates the depth, the ventilation work and any wall lining.