Insulation in Woodlands
Post-war lofts brought up to depth, cavities checked before anything is drilled, and cold flat roofs sorted properly.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Most houses around Woodlands were built to the standard of their own decade and have never been touched since. That usually means a thin original layer over the ceiling and a cavity in the walls that nobody has ever looked inside. Both are cheap to check and neither can be judged from the pavement, which is what the free survey is for.
Detached houses, bungalows and flat roofed extensions in Woodlands are all hard to keep warm. A detached house that takes an age to warm up and cools off the moment the heating stops, because every wall in it is an outside wall. A bungalow where the whole roof sits directly over the living space and the loft has a token layer in it. And a flat roofed extension at the back that is freezing in winter and stifling in August.
We work across Woodlands, Netley Marsh and the lanes towards Ashurst. The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Where a cavity should not be filled, or a loft only needs topping up, not stripping out, the quote will say so plainly.
The work
Weather on all four sides, not two
Ceilings brought back up to depth. The largest single group of homes in Woodlands went up in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and a ceiling insulated to the expectations of that time is nowhere near where one is expected to be now.
Eco roll mineral wool goes between and over the joists, the second layer crossing the first so no joist is left as a cold bridge through the plasterboard, finishing at around 270mm. Old material that has settled or been compressed under a storage deck is made good, never buried, and anything wet or spoiled is bagged and taken away.
The cavity, checked before it is filled. Houses of that generation were built as two leaves with a gap that was never meant to hold anything. Whether it can now is a question for a camera through a mortar joint, not for the year on the deeds: we want to see the width, whether mortar has dropped onto the wall ties, whether the void is clear, and whether somebody has already filled it. An old fill that has slumped leaves a void at the top and a packed wet mass at the bottom, and that comes out before anything new goes in. Some walls should be left alone and we will say which.
Two in five homes in Woodlands are detached, which changes the arithmetic. A terrace loses heat through two walls and borrows warmth from the neighbours through the others; a detached house has weather on all four elevations and a gable or two on top of it, so the corner rooms and the room above the porch are the ones that never feel right. Where there is no cavity to fill, that is where an internal wall lining earns its place: insulated board on battens with a vapour control layer, returned into the reveals and down to the floor perimeter so the cold does not simply walk round the edge of it.
The back extension is often the coldest room in a house like this, because the roof over it was built thin and the deck has nothing in it. If the covering is being renewed anyway, that is the moment: rigid PIR board laid over the deck as a warm roof, which is the detail that gets a flat roof to the 0.18 U-value expected when one is renovated, and it avoids burying insulation in a cold void where condensation collects.
A third of the homes in Woodlands are bungalows, and on a bungalow the ceiling is the whole house, so depth up there matters more than anywhere else and a hatch with nothing on the back of it is a bigger hole than it looks. Where a dormer or a room in the roof has been added, the sloping ceiling takes rigid board between and under the rafters, or a multi-layer foil quilt such as TLX where the head height is tight. Vent trays keep the eaves open behind the new depth, the tank and pipework get lagging as the loft turns colder, downlighters get fire rated covers, and the storage boarding goes back on legs, not on the quilt.
How it runs
Insulating a Woodlands bungalow or cottage
Thomas comes out, goes into the loft, looks at the walls and any flat roof, and works out where the heat is going before he prices it. His written quote then covers the work.
The written quote sets out the survey, clearing the loft, the material and its depth, ventilation works, and disposal. In the sixties bungalows in Woodlands the loft is usually easy to reach and wide, with old thin mineral wool to lift. In a forest cottage it can be a crawl under a purlin. Anything stored is moved and put back, floors are protected, and waste leaves with us. If damp timbers or a blocked vent turn up, you are sent a photograph with a price attached before we deal with them.
Insulation is normally permitted development, and nothing you lay inside a loft needs planning permission, as Planning Portal guidance on insulation sets out. Anything applied to the outside face is different here in a National Park, and needs checking with the Authority first. The other rule is regulation 23 of the Building Regulations: renovate more than half of a thermal element and the whole element has to reach current standard, so a re-roof brings the insulation with it. New Forest District Council handles building control, separate from National Park planning.
Cost
Walls, flat roofs and roof spaces: what sets the cost
Insulation in Woodlands has no useful rate per square metre, because the space and what is in it vary so much. The roof space. A bungalow whose hatch opens off the hall, with a wide loft above, is quick to lay. A detached house with a flat roofed extension across the back needs that roof insulated from above or below. A forest cottage with a crawl under a purlin takes longer per metre.
What is up there already. Old mineral wool that has flattened, or loose fill, has to be bagged and removed first, and you pay for that labour before any new roll is laid. Boxes moved and put back add time too.
Ventilation. The eaves must stay clear so the roof timbers stay dry. Under trees, with shaded roofs that stay damp longer, that matters more.
The walls. The sixties houses usually have cavities. The pre-1919 cottages have solid walls, which need lining inside or insulating outside, and outside is a planning question here.
Approved Document L sets what the work has to reach.
Ask any competing quote: what depth is being laid, is the old material removed or covered, and are the hatch and pipework included?
If it is urgent
Mould, condensation or a room that stays cold
Condensation dripping in the loft, black mould that keeps coming back, or a room that never warms up should be looked at before more insulation goes in. Adding insulation to a roof space that cannot breathe makes it worse.
Ring 07435 839745 and tell us which room is the problem. If you cannot get through, we will return your call as soon as we can. That first look works out whether it is a ventilation, insulation or leak problem, and what fixes it. Booked work is Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
The National Park is your planning authority, not the district
The planning authority catches people out more than any other local point, so it is worth saying clearly. Planning here goes through the New Forest National Park Authority rather than the district council, and part of the area sits inside the Forest North East conservation area on top of that.
For an insulation job that only bites in one place: the outside face of the building. A roll over the ceiling, an insulated lining on the inside of a wall, a sealed hatch, vent trays at the eaves and a warm deck on a flat roof are all invisible from the lane and none of them engage it.
External wall insulation, a change of render, a new dormer or a flue coming through a roof slope all do. National Park heritage and conservation guidance sets out how the Authority approaches that sort of change, and you can look up what covers your own address on the National Park Authority's interactive property map.
The practical consequence is an order of work rather than a barrier. Do the things nobody needs to approve first, because on a house of this age they are also the things that return the most: full depth over the ceiling, the cavity checked and filled if it is suitable, the draughts and the hatch, and the flat roof done properly the next time it is recovered.
That is the bulk of the heat loss dealt with without a single form. Then, if the walls still need work and there is no cavity to fill, we look at whether a rear elevation or an outbuilding could take external insulation and what the Authority is likely to say, before anybody pays for a drawing.
Who you are dealing with
Who insulates homes on this side of the Forest
We insulate homes in Woodlands, Netley Marsh, Ashurst, Cadnam and the SO40 addresses on this side of the Forest, 17.8 miles from our Boscombe base. Send your postcode if you want to be sure. External work needs the Park Authority’s view, while building regulations sit with New Forest District Council.
You would be dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales with company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen is the owner and he goes into your loft himself before pricing. A verified Checkatrade customer gave us 10 out of 10. We do not charge for the visit or the written quote. Before you book a visit in Woodlands, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Woodlands?
Most repairs in Woodlands 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 Woodlands |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Woodlands. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Forest North 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 Woodlands. 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 Woodlands
Four in ten homes here are detached. Does that change the approach?
Yes, a detached house changes where the heat goes. At 41.5% detached and another 32.8% bungalows, most houses in Woodlands have all four walls exposed and a large roof sitting over them, with no party wall doing them any favours. The loss is spread, not shared. The upside is access all the way round, which makes the eaves easy to inspect from outside before anybody goes into the roof space.
Our house is in Forest North East. What can we not do outside?
Anything that changes the look of it without asking first. Forest North East is a conservation area sitting inside the New Forest National Park, so two layers of control apply to the outside of the building and the National Park Authority is the body you deal with. External wall insulation, a new covering and rooflights on a visible slope are the usual sticking points. The roof space itself is invisible.
The biggest single group of houses is late fifties and early sixties. Is that a problem?
It is a pattern rather than a problem. 46.5% of the stock here was built between 1945 and 1982, with the heaviest run in the late 1950s and early 1960s at 22.0%. Houses of that age got shallow material if they got any, and the ceilings have often had downlights and pipe runs added since. We find those before adding depth, because burying the wrong thing causes its own trouble.
The ground here does not drain. Does that affect anything we do?
It affects the floor, not the roof. Woodlands sits on impeded drainage with flood zone 2 reaching part of it and a tributary running close by, so the ground under the house stays wet for long spells after rain. Underfloor voids need moving air to cope with that, and whatever goes between floor joists has to leave the ventilation path alone. Over the ceiling none of this comes into it.
Would a loft conversion here need more than building control?
It would. Inside the National Park a conversion normally needs a planning application as well, because dormers and rooflights alter the outside. A bedroom for your own household does not normally bring in the Solent nutrient neutrality position, though an annexe or a holiday let would. Insulating the space you already have does neither. If the aim is a warmer house rather than another room, the simple version gets you there without the paperwork.
Nearby, and next door
Insulation near Woodlands
Nearby places we also cover for insulation, with straight-line distances from Woodlands, and the other trades we offer in Woodlands itself.
Insulation nearby
Our other trades in Woodlands
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
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Get a price for insulation in Woodlands
Tell us the address and which room never warms up. We will come and look, and put a price in writing. Neither costs you anything.