Loft insulation in Bashley

Getting the depth right matters. Most lofts around Bashley have one layer laid between the joists and nothing over them, which leaves every joist bridging the cold through the ceiling.

The second layer is cross laid at right angles over the top, so the timber is covered and the two layers together come to about 270mm, the depth a renovated loft is expected to reach under Approved Document L. Mineral wool roll does most of it, rockwool or glass wool depending on the product, batts where bracing chops the space up, loose fill where a roll will not go, sheep wool if you would rather have a natural product. Depth is only the means: what it buys is a lower U value across the ceiling, which is the biggest single heat loss in a bungalow, and that is what shows up on the heating bill and the EPC.

Trussed roofs, which is most of them here. A lot of Bashley went up in the 1990s, and a modern trussed roof is a lattice of thin timbers with bracing running through it. You cannot walk about in one, so the material goes in from the hatch outwards and the far corners take the time. The older cut roofs, where you can stand between the rafters, are the easy ones. Either way the access is one hatch, and working out of it is still work at height.

What comes out first. On the edge of the forest, lofts pick things up. Old material that is compressed, settled, patchy or contaminated with droppings is bagged and taken away before anything new goes down, and if birds or squirrels have had a way in we tell you where it is rather than laying wool over the top of it.

The eaves and the air gap. Insulation finishes at the wall plate. Vent trays keep the gap open above it so cross ventilation can carry moist air out under the ridge, and where a roof has no breathable membrane and only old felt underlay, that airflow and the ridge vents are the only things keeping condensation off the underside. Push the wool into the eaves and you have a wet roof by February.

The services. Recessed lights and downlighters get fire rated covers rather than wool over them, cables and wiring are lifted onto the insulation instead of buried in it, and the cold water tank and its pipework get lagged, because once the loft is insulated properly it is a genuinely cold space. In a bungalow that pipework often runs a long way, so it is worth doing all of it.

Chalet bungalows and rooms in the roof. Plenty of houses in Bashley have rooms built into the roof, which means sloping ceilings, dormer cheeks and little triangular voids behind the knee walls. That is rafter level work: rigid board such as PIR or Celotex cut tight between the rafters with a clear air gap above it, a layer under the rafters, and a taped vapour control layer. The voids behind the knee walls get insulated and the small doors into them draught sealed.

We do not price a Bashley loft per square metre. Laying the open floor is quick; the edges are where the hours go. Your hatch and roof. A bungalow with a landing hatch you can put a ladder under, a nineties detached with trusses and bracing everywhere, and a chalet bungalow with rooms already in the roof are three very different jobs. A hatch above the stairs, a crawl space, or boarding to lift and relay all adds time.

Old material. Flattened wool that has to be bagged and carried out, and boxes that need moving, both cost time. Open joists at standard centres are quicker than working round a trussed roof.

Airflow at the edges. Ventilation matters most. Stop the insulation at the wall plate and keep the eaves open, or the warmth you save turns to damp on the felt. Most of the labour is filling the corners, round the hatch, over downlighters, and lagging pipework and tanks left in the cold, to the depth Approved Document L asks for.

Storage. If you keep things up there, lifting the boards on legs lets the insulation sit at full depth underneath.

Ask other quotes how deep, how many layers, whether old material comes out, and what happens to your stored things.

From our Boscombe base to Bashley it is roughly eight and a half miles. We insulate lofts in bungalows and houses across Bashley, Wootton, Tiptoe and on towards New Milton, with the New Forest National Park Authority for planning and New Forest District Council for building control.

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, carries number 15471719. Thomas Hannen owns it and goes up into the loft himself before he prices it. We have a verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The survey and the written, itemised quote are both free. Before you book a visit in Bashley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Bashley 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.