Insulation in Westbourne
Roof spaces over top floor flats, rooms built into villa roofs and the cold outside walls, surveyed and quoted in writing.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Insulating a home in Westbourne usually means insulating a flat, so the useful work is the roof space or sloping ceilings over a top floor flat and the outside walls of the rooms you actually live in, surveyed first and quoted line by line.
Around nine homes in ten in Westbourne are flats, and that shapes every call. A top floor flat in a converted villa, with a bedroom squeezed under the slope of the roof that is freezing in January and stifling in August. A first floor flat with tall ceilings, one long outside wall and a bay window that the heating never catches up with. A flat in a newer block where black mould keeps coming back in the bathroom and behind the wardrobe.
We come out, work out which parts of the building are yours to change and which belong to the freeholder, and tell you honestly where the heat is going. The site visit and the itemised written quote are both free, and the quote is written so it can go to a managing agent.
The work
Insulating flats in villas and blocks
The roof space over a top floor flat. Where a converted villa has a loft void above the top flat, it is often reached through a hatch on the communal landing, and nothing may have been laid there for years.
The work is mineral wool roll between and over the joists to around 270mm, the eaves kept clear with vent trays, the tank and pipework lagged and the hatch insulated and draught sealed. A day or so, once the agent has agreed access. Our loft insulation in Westbourne page has more on the loft itself.
Rooms under the slope. Many Westbourne villa top floors were made by building into the roof, with dormers and sloping ceilings and no loft floor at all. Insulation then goes between and under the rafters: rigid PIR board, a vapour control layer, new plasterboard and a skim, with a ventilation gap kept under the slates. Where there is almost no depth to give, a multi-layer foil quilt such as TLX gets a real gain into very little space. Dormer cheeks and the small flat roofs over them lose a lot of heat and get done at the same time. Priced by the room, usually several days.
Outside walls of a middle floor flat. With a flat above and below, the heat goes out through the outside walls and the windows. The villas mostly have solid walls, so internal wall insulation on the coldest room, in a breathable build-up, is the usual answer. Newer blocks usually have a cavity wall, which may or may not have been filled; we check with a borescope before anyone recommends a fill. Our wall insulation in Westbourne page covers both.
Flats in blocks with a flat roof. A Westbourne block like this has no loft to fill. The sensible time to insulate is when the roof covering is renewed, as a warm roof with board laid over the deck. That is a freeholder decision, and we will quote it for them.
When would we talk you out of it? When the mould in a bathroom is a missing extractor, not missing insulation. Then we fix the ventilation first, because insulating round damp air only moves the mould somewhere else.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
One person to ring from the first visit to the last. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: the survey, clearing what is there, the material and its depth, ventilation works and disposal on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Work inside a loft or on an inside wall needs no planning permission, as the Planning Portal guidance on insulation sets out. Flats have no permitted development rights, so insulation on the outside of a building needs planning, and in the Westbourne conservation area the street appearance is controlled as well; the council keeps the list. Regulation 23 applies if you renovate more than half of a wall or roof, and BCP Council is the building control authority.
Cost
What decides the price of an insulation job
No rate per square metre, because the area is the easy part and the awkward part is everything around it.
Getting to it. A top floor flat reached up a shared staircase in a converted villa, a room built into the roof with dormers, and a flat in a newer block with a flat roof call for three different set-ups on the day. A loft hatch you can stand a ladder under is one job, a crawl space or a room in the roof is another. Where boarding has to come up and go back, that is time before any material is laid.
What is already up there. Old material that has to come out, and be bagged and taken away, is a cost before anything new goes down. So is anything stored in the loft that has to be moved and put back.
Ventilation and the awkward edges. Eaves that must stay clear, downlighters that need covers, a tank and pipework that still need lagging, and getting depth right into the corners rather than just across the middle. Approved Document L sets what the work is expected to reach.
Comparing quotes? Ask what depth is actually being laid, whether the old material is being removed or covered, whether the eaves are being kept clear, and whether the hatch and the pipework are included.
If it is urgent
Damp, condensation or a room you cannot heat
Ring rather than use the form. Insulation is rarely an emergency, but a loft dripping with condensation, black mould coming back faster than you can wash it off, or a room that will not hold heat before a cold snap are all worth a call.
The first visit is about finding out whether the problem is insulation, ventilation or both, because insulating a roof space that cannot breathe makes it worse. In a Westbourne flat, check first that the damp is not a leak from the flat above or the roof, which is a freeholder matter. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For anything urgent, ring rather than use the form, and if we cannot pick up we ring you back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
In the conservation area, you insulate from the inside
Westbourne has its own conservation area, covering the shopping streets and the villas around them, and in it the council controls what the street sees. Loft insulation, sloping ceilings and internal wall linings are invisible from outside, so they need no application.
External wall insulation is another matter: it thickens the wall, buries the window reveals and hides the kind of brick and stone detailing a conservation area exists to protect. On a flat in a conservation area that is a planning application, and it is a whole-building decision the freeholder would have to lead anyway.
So in practice a Westbourne flat is insulated from the inside out. The roof first, since it is the cheapest place to stop heat and nobody can object to it. Then draughts around sash windows and floorboards, which in a high-ceilinged villa flat are worth more than people expect. Then internal wall insulation on the one or two rooms that are always cold, in a breathable build-up that lets the old solid wall dry. Before you spend anything, check the lease: some leases treat the inside face of the outside wall as the freeholder's, and a short letter to the agent avoids a dispute later.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We insulate flats and houses across Westbourne, BH4, from Poole Road and Seamoor Road out to Alum Chine and the edge of Branksome, 2.9 miles from our Boscombe base, and BCP Council handles planning and building control.
You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of 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. Before you book a visit in Westbourne, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Westbourne?
Most repairs in Westbourne 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 Westbourne |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Westbourne. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Westbourne Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Westbourne. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Westbourne. |
Questions
Questions about insulation in Westbourne
I own a top floor flat. Can I insulate the roof space above it?
Usually only with the freeholder's agreement, because the roof void is normally kept by them under the lease. Ask the managing agent in writing, and we will give you a quote you can attach, with the roof space, the access and the making good on separate lines.
How long does it take?
A loft void over a flat is usually a day once access is agreed. A room under the slope, or internal wall insulation on a couple of rooms, runs to several days because of the plasterboard and skim. The time is on the quote.
Will insulation stop the flat overheating in summer?
It helps a lot on a top floor. The same layer that keeps warmth in during winter slows the sun on the roof heating your ceiling in summer. It works best with decent ventilation, so we look at both.
Will you make a mess of the communal stairs?
No, the stairs and landing are sheeted, material goes up in sealed bags, old insulation comes down bagged, and the common parts are cleared and cleaned before we leave each day.
Does insulation help with mould in a flat?
Only if the mould comes from a cold wall. If it comes from moist air with nowhere to go, you need ventilation first. The first visit is about working out which, before you spend anything.
Nearby, and next door
Insulation near Westbourne
Nearby places we also cover for insulation, with straight-line distances from Westbourne, and the other trades we offer in Westbourne itself.
Insulation nearby
Our other trades in Westbourne
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 Westbourne Insulation, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Find out where your flat is losing its heat
Thomas surveys the flat, works out what is yours to change, and writes an itemised quote you can pass to the freeholder. The visit and the quote are free.