Loft insulation in Ashmore
Two layers laid properly, the eaves left to breathe, and a written price for the whole loft before anything goes in.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
In an Ashmore loft the work is two layers of mineral wool. The first goes between the joists, the second is cross laid over the top of them so the timber itself stops being a cold bridge, and the finished depth is 270mm with the eaves left open.
People ring us about a loft here for one of three reasons. A bedroom that never really warms up however long the heating runs. An old thin layer between the joists that has flattened over the years and does very little now. Or damp, which means mould on a ceiling, or droplets on the underside of the felt when somebody finally looks. The village sits high and open on the chalk, and the wind that crosses it finds every draught round a hatch and every place the wool stops short of the wall. We put our head through the hatch before saying anything. The site visit is free, so is the written itemised quote, and if the loft is sound and the money belongs on draughtproofing instead, you will be told that.
The work
Up in the roof of a downland cottage
What is already up there. Most lofts here have one old layer between the joists, compressed under boxes, settled, patchy, with gaps where somebody pulled it back to run a cable and whole runs missing at the edges. Anything contaminated with droppings or wet from an old leak comes out into bags and leaves with us.
The material, and how deep it goes. Most lofts get mineral wool, glass wool or rockwool in a roll. The first layer goes between the joists, cut to a friction fit rather than squashed in, and the second is laid across them at right angles, the two finishing at 270mm. Batts suit uneven joist spacing and loose fill suits a loft you cannot move about in. Where headroom is tight, rigid board, PIR such as Celotex, goes in instead. Sheep wool and multi-foil have a place only where there is no depth to give.
The eaves stay clear. Insulation stops at the wall plate and is never pushed out over it. Where the wool would choke that gap we fit vent trays to hold an air gap under the felt, because cross ventilation is what keeps the timbers dry. A breathable membrane is more forgiving than old bitumen felt, and a ridge vent helps where the eaves cannot be opened up. Cover the eaves and you have bought a wet roof.
The tank, the cables and the lights. Once the ceiling is insulated everything above it sits in the cold. A cold water tank and its pipework want lagging, the tank on its sides and top but never underneath. A cable must not be buried, because wiring that cannot lose heat carries less current, so we lift it and clip it over. Any recessed light or downlighter below gets a fire rated cover.
The hatch, and keeping the loft usable. The hatch is the biggest hole in your ceiling and the line most quotes leave out. It gets insulated on the back and draught sealed round the frame. Boarding straight onto the joists squashes the wool flat, so where you store things we raise the floor on loft legs and board over that, leaving the loft ladder and a platform by the hatch usable.
Where the ceiling slopes. A room in the roof, a dormer or a sloping ceiling on the landing follows the rafters rather than the floor: rigid board cut between them with a clear gap kept above to the underlay, a second layer under, and the joints taped. Where the covering is coming off anyway, a warm roof is cheaper again.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out to somebody you have never met. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: the survey, clearing and bagging whatever is up there now, the material and its depth, keeping the eaves clear, the hatch and any pipework, 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.
Insulating a loft is work inside the building, so it is not development and there is no planning application to make, which Planning Portal guidance on insulation confirms. What it has to reach is set by Approved Document L, with Dorset Council for building control, and HMRC VAT Notice 708/6 covers how insulation is treated for VAT.
Cost
What decides the price of a loft
No rate per square metre, because the floor area is the easy part and the awkward edges are where the time goes.
Getting to it. A cottage landing you can stand a ladder under, a converted attic with a fixed stair and a farm cottage with a small trap over a cupboard are three different mornings. A hatch on a landing you can stand a ladder under is one job. A hatch over a stairwell, a crawl space you can only move through on your knees, or a loft full of boarding that has to come up and go back, is time before any material is laid.
What is up there now, and what it is sitting on. Old material that has to come out, be bagged and taken away is a cost before anything new goes down, and so is a loft full of boxes that has to be emptied and put back. Joists at 400 centres with a flat run across them is a different afternoon from a trussed roof full of bracing.
Ventilation, and the edges nobody reaches. Insulation stops at the wall plate and the eaves have to stay clear, or you trade a warm bedroom for a wet roof. Getting depth right into the corners and around the hatch, boxing over downlighters and lagging anything that now sits in the cold, is most of the labour. Approved Document L sets what the work is expected to reach.
Comparing quotes? Ask what depth is actually being laid and in how many layers, whether the old material is coming out or being covered over, whether the eaves are being kept clear, what happens to anything you store up there, and whether the hatch and the pipework are included. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
If the loft is wet
Water running off the felt, or mould on the underside
Ring rather than use the form. Droplets on the underside of the felt, black mould spreading across the roof timbers, or insulation that is visibly damp are all telling you the same thing: warm wet air is getting into a space that cannot breathe. That does not wait, because it is the timbers that pay for it. We look before anything is added, because putting more insulation into a loft that cannot ventilate makes it worse. Ashmore sits high and open on the chalk and takes more cold nights than the valleys below, so condensation in a roof space shows itself here earlier in the year. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
In the conservation area, the loft is the one job nobody can object to
Ashmore has its own conservation area over the village, and what it controls is what the street can see. That is why external work changing the face of a building here turns into an application. The loft is the opposite. It is inside, invisible from the pond and the lane, and on most of these houses it is the biggest single heat loss you have, so it is the one energy job you can get on with while everything else waits.
There are twenty six listed entries in and around the village, and if yours is one of them the rule changes, because consent covers the inside of a listed building as well as the outside. Work in the roof space of a listed cottage is worth checking before anybody orders material. In practice a roll of mineral wool over a ceiling troubles nobody. Spray foam on the underside of the rafters is a different matter, it ruins any later roof repair, and we do not fit it.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Ashmore, Iwerne Minster, Sixpenny Handley, Tarrant Monkton and the chalk villages down towards Blandford Forum, with Dorset Council for planning. 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.
Questions
Ashmore questions we get asked
How long does a loft take?
Most are a day. Clearing the old material and bagging it is the morning, laying two fresh layers is the afternoon. A loft that has to be emptied first, or one where boarding comes up and a raised floor goes back, runs into a second day.
We had ours done years ago. Is it worth doing again?
Usually, and not because the old material failed. It settled. A layer laid at the depth people used then, compressed under years of boxes, leaves the U value of that ceiling nowhere near what Part L expects. Often we straighten what is between the joists and cross lay new over it.
Will insulating the loft make our condensation worse?
It can, if ventilation is ignored. Insulating the ceiling leaves the loft colder and moves the dew point, so warm wet air from the house finds a cold surface sooner. That is where black mould on the timbers and interstitial damp come from. Seal the vapour paths, starting at the hatch.
We keep things up there. Do we lose the loft?
No, but say so before the quote. Boarding straight onto the joists squashes the wool flat, and flattened wool is not insulation. We raise the floor on loft legs and board over that, leaving full depth underneath.
Does it show up on the heating bill or the EPC?
Both. Heat loss upwards is the largest single loss in a house of this age, so the thermal gain from a ceiling at full depth is the one people feel, and it lifts the fabric score on an EPC. Sealing the draught round the hatch is felt the same evening.
Nearby, and next door
Loft insulation near Ashmore
Loft insulation nearby
Our other trades in Ashmore
Everything we do in Blandford Forum Loft insulation, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get a straight price for the loft
Thomas comes out, gets into the loft and puts what it needs in writing, line by line. The visit and the quote are free.