Loft insulation in Bearwood

Two layers, and the second one crossways. A ceiling joist in a Bearwood loft is not deep enough to hold what a ceiling needs, so a single layer laid flush between the joists leaves you a third of the way there with every timber acting as a cold bridge.

The first layer goes between the joists. The second is laid across and over the joists at right angles, bringing the total to around 270mm, which is the depth behind the U-value Part L expects. When it is right there are no joist tops visible anywhere in the loft.

What goes down. Mineral wool for most Bearwood lofts, as a glass wool roll or a firmer rockwool batt. Loose fill where the joists are at odd centres or a trussed roof is too tight to work a roll into. PIR rigid board where headroom is short, cut tight and taped, and a multi-foil quilt where even board will not fit. Sheep wool if you would rather. What is already there stays if it is dry and even, and comes out bagged if it is damp, patchy, missing at the edges, settled and compressed to nothing, or contaminated with droppings.

The eaves, which is where lofts are ruined. Insulation goes out to the wall plate and no further and the air path past it stays open. Vent trays hold a clear air gap under the felt so cross ventilation carries on from one side to the other, and where a roof cannot breathe at the edge a ridge vent is sometimes the answer instead. A breathable membrane changes the detail but not the principle. Push wool hard into the eaves and the vapour that used to leave the roof space condenses on the underlay instead. You get wet insulation, black mould on the rafters and, in time, soft timber. Insulating moves the dew point, and interstitial condensation inside the layer is the failure nobody sees until the ceiling stains.

Electrics, pipes and the hatch. Recessed lights get proper covers, not wool piled over them. Cables come up above the new layer rather than under it, because wiring buried in insulation runs hot and has to be de-rated. Any cold water tank and its pipework now sit in a colder space and want lagging, with the area under the tank deliberately left thinner. The hatch gets a board of insulation on its back and a compression seal, because an unsealed hatch is a hole in the ceiling and a draught you can feel on the landing.

We will not give you a per square metre figure for a loft. Unrolling insulation across the open middle is quick; the edges and whatever is in the way take the time.

The climb. In an eighties semi in Bearwood the hatch is often a small square on the landing. A detached house may have half the loft boarded and stacked with boxes, and a terrace can have a loft ladder landing in a narrow hall. Each changes how the work starts.

Trussed rafters. Roofs of this age are almost all trussed, with diagonal webs running across the loft. Every roll is cut to fit round them, which is slower than a clear bay between joists.

The original layer. What went in when the house was built is thin by today's standard. If it is clean and dry the new layer is laid over it crossways; if it is damp or dirty, it comes out in bags first.

Keeping storage. Boards screwed straight onto the joists squash the insulation. Raised loft legs lift a storage deck clear of it, and that is priced as its own line.

The eaves and hatch. Air has to reach the eaves, the hatch needs insulating and a seal, and the full depth has to reach the wall plate. Approved Document L sets the target.

When you compare, find out the depth being laid and whether it goes in two layers, whether the old material is being removed, whether the eaves are kept open, and whether the hatch and pipes are part of the price.

Getting on for three in ten homes in Bearwood are terraced, with plenty of semis besides, and that puts a separating wall somewhere above your ceiling. In most of them it carries on up through the roof space to the underside of the tiles, so your loft genuinely ends there and your neighbour's begins on the far side.

We insulate to that line and no further, and nothing we lay is allowed to sit against it in a way that interferes with the separation.

The practical points are small and they matter. The corner where that wall meets the eaves is the tightest spot in the whole roof and the one most often left bare, so it gets filled by hand rather than by pushing a roll at it. If there is an open cavity at the top of the wall, that is a route for cold air to arrive above your bedroom ceiling and it wants closing. And if the row went up as one job, whatever is wrong in your loft is usually wrong next door, which is worth a word with a neighbour. On an EPC the loft is the one item an assessor measures rather than assumes, and on the heating bill it is the first thing that moves.

Bearwood is 5 miles from our Boscombe base. We insulate lofts here and in Kinson, Longham, Merley, West Parley and Broadstone, with BCP Council for planning and building control. The business is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Bearwood, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

The person who goes up into your loft and prices the work is Thomas Hannen, who owns it. Checkatrade records a verified customer's 10 out of 10. The visit is on us, and so is the itemised written quote.

Most repairs in Bearwood 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.