Insulation in Winterborne Stickland
Full depth over the ceiling, and wall insulation specified to suit what the wall is actually made of.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On an older Winterborne Stickland house the question is not only how much insulation to put in, it is what the wall behind it is allowed to do. A building that was put up to dry outwards will not take a sealed foil board strapped against it. Get that wrong and you have moved the damp rather than removed it, which is why we look before we specify.
People ring us here for three reasons. A room on the weather side that stays cold whatever the radiator is doing. Mould coming back in the same corner every winter, usually low down and usually at the coldest point of an outside wall. And a loft that was insulated once, a long time ago, to a figure that has moved on twice since.
We work the village and the lanes down the Winterborne valley towards Whitechurch. The visit is free and the written itemised quote is free. If the sensible answer for your house is a proper depth over the ceiling this year and a conversation about the walls next year, that is what we will put in writing.
The work
The village stands open to the south west
The ceiling, first and without argument. It is the cheapest heat in the house to keep. Eco roll mineral wool between and over the joists, the second layer crossing the first so no joist is left conducting as a cold bridge, finished at around 270mm. Anything much under 250mm is worth topping up, and old material that has settled or been compressed under boarding gets made good rather than covered. Rigid vent trays go in at the eaves so the airway stays open behind the new depth, and if the loft is your storage the boards go back on legs above the quilt.
Solid walls, lined from the inside. Where there is no cavity, an internal lining is the realistic route in this village, and the material matters more than the thickness. On a modern wall a foil faced rigid board such as Celotex with a vapour control layer at the room face, is the efficient answer. On an old wall built to breathe, that same detail can trap moisture in the masonry, so we would use wood fibre board bedded and finished in lime, which lets the wall keep drying inwards as well as out. What you save in the field of the wall is undone at the edges if the reveals, the floor perimeter and the ceiling junction are not returned into, and that is where the mould turns up.
External wall insulation gives the better u-value, and on most street frontages here it is not going to happen, because the village has its own conservation area and EWI changes the appearance of a building. It is worth asking about on a rear elevation or an outbuilding. On the newer houses at the edge of the village the wall usually is a cavity, and it still gets checked rather than assumed: thickness at a reveal, then a camera through a mortar joint. The village stands open to the south west, and a wall taking driven rain on that side is one where a full fill is not automatically the right call.
Where a ceiling follows the roof line there is no loft floor to work on, so the insulation goes between and under the rafters as rigid board, with a vapour control layer behind the plasterboard and a clear ventilation gap left above. Built that way a warm roof gets a sloping ceiling near the 0.16 figure a renovated element is expected to reach, and a multi-layer foil quilt such as TLX where the head height will not take it.
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 from the inside needs no planning permission, and insulation is normally permitted development in any case, which Planning Portal guidance on insulation sets out. Building control is the one that surprises people: regulation 23 of the Building Regulations means renovating more than half of a thermal element brings the whole element up to current standard, so a re-render or a re-roof pulls the insulation with it. Consent for anything on the outside face is a separate question in a village with its own conservation area and twenty-five listed entries, and it is covered further down. Dorset Council handles both.
Cost
What decides the price of an insulation job
No rate per square metre. A cottage where the roof space is reached through a bedroom cupboard, a house with the hatch out over the stairwell, and a later extension with its own flat ceiling above it are three different jobs. 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. We are usually out this way within the week. If the reason for ringing is a bill rather than a damp corner, say so.
Worth knowing
The conservation area, and what it actually stops
Winterborne Stickland has its own conservation area over the older core, and there are around twenty-five listed entries in the parish. Both are worth understanding properly rather than being frightened of, because between them they control one thing: the appearance of the building. Conservation area status bites on the outside face.
It has nothing to say about a roll of mineral wool over your ceiling, an insulated lining on the inside of a bedroom wall, or a sealed loft hatch. Like for like repair is maintenance. A change of material on an elevation, or a render finish wrapped over the front of the house, is an alteration, and that is where external wall insulation runs into it.
Listing is stricter and works differently. A listed building is protected inside as well as out, so even internal work such as lining a wall or lifting a floor can need listed building consent, and consent is a separate process from building regulations rather than a substitute for it.
In practice we check which of the two applies to your address before anything is designed, then work with it: internal linings where the frontage is protected, a look at whether a rear elevation might be accepted where the front will not, and full depth in the roof either way, since that is the part nobody outside can see and nobody is going to argue about.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Winterborne Stickland, Winterborne Whitechurch, Stourpaine, Blandford Forum and the DT11 addresses along the valley, with Dorset Council for planning and building control. Send the postcode if you want to be certain. 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
Winterborne Stickland questions we get asked
Can we line the walls internally inside the Winterborne Stickland conservation area?
Internally the conservation area has no view, because it only governs what shows outside. The Winterborne Stickland Conservation Area would stop you cladding a front elevation, not lining a room behind it. What governs internal lining is the wall itself: if it is solid and dries inwards, a sealed board traps the moisture in the masonry and the damp turns up again lower down at skirting level.
Is foil backed board the wrong thing on an old cottage wall?
On a solid wall, usually. Foil backed board acts as a vapour barrier as well as an insulant, so on a wall that has always dried through its own face you are closing the way out. The moisture then sits in the masonry and shows as staining low down. The older fabric around Winterborne Stickland wants a breathable build up finished in lime rather than something sealed.
A third of the village burns oil. Where does the loft come in?
First, ahead of everything else. 33.9% of households in Winterborne Stickland are on oil and only a small share on electric, so heat comes out of a tank and the fabric decides how quickly you empty it. Depth over the ceiling is the change that reduces demand rather than moving it about. It is also the least intrusive: no room goes out of use and nothing outside alters.
Twenty five buildings here are listed. How do we check ours?
The national list is the place to look and Dorset will confirm it. Winterborne Stickland has 25 listed entries, Quarleston Farmhouse and the Church of St Mary among them, and a listing covers the covering, the windows and the walls, inside as well as out. Where a house is listed, material laid over a ceiling is normally accepted, while cutting into fabric or fitting vents in a slope is not.
Does the exposed side of the house need different treatment?
The exposed side in Winterborne Stickland faces south west, and it takes the wind and the driven rain. Weather like that works at the edges and the openings rather than in the middle of a wall, so the cold and the wet get in around frames, at the verge, and where a roof meets a wall. When we price a job that elevation gets looked at first and the sheltered faces after it.
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Tell us the address and which room is the cold one. We will come and look, and put a price in writing. Neither costs you anything.