Loft insulation in Bournemouth
Topped up to full depth, cross laid over the joists, with the eaves left open and the hatch sealed.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Most lofts we open in Bournemouth already have something in them, and it is usually half the depth it ought to be and stops short of the edges. A second layer laid across the joists fixes that in a morning, once we know whose loft it is.
People ring us here for one of three reasons. The top bedroom is freezing in January and stifling by July. Somebody has put their head through the hatch and found a thin grey layer flattened between the joists with bare timber showing either side of it. Or there is black mould creeping along the roof timbers and nobody can say why.
We go up and look first, because none of that shows from the landing. How deep what is up there really is, whether it reaches the wall plate, whether the eaves are still open, and what has been run through the joists over the years. You get photographs of it and a written itemised quote with the material, the depth, the ventilation and the hatch on separate lines. The site visit and the quote are both free.
The work
What we do once we are through the hatch
Topping up what is already there. This is most of the diary. The original layer sits between the joists and finishes flush with the timber, so the joists carry the cold straight through your ceiling. The answer is a second layer cross laid over them at right angles, so the joists disappear underneath. Mineral wool roll for most houses, glass wool or rockwool as suits, batts where bracing breaks the space up, loose fill where nothing else will reach, sheep wool if you would rather have a natural product. About 270mm all in is what a renovated loft is expected to reach under Approved Document L. What is already up there comes out and gets bagged if it is compressed, settled, patchy, contaminated or simply missing along the edges. Depth is only the means. What it buys is a lower U value across the ceiling, which is the biggest single heat loss in most houses, and that is what you feel in the rooms and see on the heating bill and the EPC.
The roof you have decides how the day goes. A good share of the housing here went up in the 1980s, and those are trussed roofs: thin timbers in a lattice with bracing through them, no room to move about, everything fed in from the hatch outwards. The inter-war streets around Winton and Charminster have cut roofs with purlins, where you can stand between the rafters and work properly. Either way the access is through one hatch, and working out of a loft hatch is still work at height, so the ladder and the boards are ours.
The eaves stay open. Insulation stops at the wall plate and does not get pushed on into the eaves, because that is where the air comes in. Vent trays hold the air gap open above the wool so cross ventilation carries damp air out under the ridge, through ridge vents where the roof has them, rather than leaving it as condensation on the underside of the felt underlay. Cover the eaves and you have bought a wet roof.
The services up there. Recessed lights and downlighters get fire rated covers rather than wool heaped over them. Cables stay on top of the insulation rather than buried in it, because buried wiring runs hot. The cold water tank and its pipework now sit in a colder space, so they get lagged, and the tank is insulated to the sides and the lid but not underneath.
Storage, the hatch and the ladder. Boarding screwed straight onto the joists presses the wool flat and throws away what you paid for. Loft legs lift the deck clear, so a raised floor sits over full depth and you keep the platform you use. The hatch gets rigid board on the back and a draught seal round it, and the loft ladder still has to swing clear.
Where the roof is already a room. Plenty of the bigger houses here are converted, so there is no loft floor to lay anything on. That work goes in at rafter level: rigid board such as PIR or Celotex cut tight between the rafters with a clear air gap above, a layer under the rafters, and a taped vapour control layer behind the plasterboard. Sloping ceilings and dormer cheeks are where most of the heat leaves a room in the roof.
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 inside a loft is not development, so there is nothing to apply for, and Planning Portal guidance on insulation says so plainly. No conservation area covers this part of Bournemouth, and the council keeps the list if you want to check an address. Building control is the part that does bite: regulation 23 means renovating more than half of a thermal element brings the whole of it up to the Part L standard, and BCP Council handle that. A rooflight, if you ever wanted one, is usually permitted development on a house here. Insulation fitted in a home is also treated differently for VAT from ordinary building work, under HMRC VAT Notice 708/6, and the quote says how it has been treated.
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 top floor flat with the hatch out on a shared landing, an inter-war semi with the hatch over the stairwell, and a 1980s detached with a boarded loft full of boxes are three different mornings before a roll is opened. 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. We are a couple of miles from most of these streets, so a wet loft gets looked at quickly, and if you are in a flat it helps to have the managing agent's details to hand when you ring. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Your ceiling, somebody else's loft
Half the homes in this part of Bournemouth are flats and maisonettes, and that changes the first question. It is not what depth to lay. It is who is allowed to say yes. The roof void over a top floor flat is usually common parts, owned by the freeholder, so the person who is cold is not the person who can order the work.
The hatch normally tells you which you are in. In a purpose built block it is out on the landing and the void runs over every flat on that floor. In a house that has been divided up, the top flat often has its own hatch inside the front door and the lease may have handed the roof space over with it, so read it before you assume.
There is plenty you can get on with either way. Anything inside your own front door is yours: insulating and draught sealing your hatch, lagging pipework in the flat, and the sloping ceilings of a top floor conversion. Where the void is common parts we write the quote so it can be forwarded, because no managing agent approves a bare figure.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Winton, Charminster, Queen's Park, Springbourne, Littledown and Throop, and the BH8 addresses around them, with BCP Council for building control. 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
Bournemouth questions we get asked
How deep should loft insulation actually be?
About 270mm of mineral wool, in two layers. The first sits between the joists, the second is cross laid over the top of them, and it is that second layer that stops the timber bridging the cold. If a quote says one layer and calls it a full job, ask what happens at the joists.
How long does a loft take, and will you make a mess?
An ordinary house is usually a day. Clearing old material, lifting boarding, or working a trussed roof from the hatch outwards all add time. What comes out is bagged at the hatch and leaves with us.
Will I lose the loft as storage?
Not if it is done properly. Boarding laid straight onto the joists presses the wool flat, so the deck goes up on loft legs and the raised floor sits clear above full depth.
I am in a top floor flat. Can I just book it?
Often not on your own. In most blocks here the roof void above you is common parts, so the managing agent has to agree first. Your hatch, your pipework and any sloping ceiling inside the flat are a different matter.
There is black mould on the roof timbers. Will more insulation fix it?
No, and on its own it would make it worse. Mould on the timbers or droplets on the underside of the felt mean warm wet air is getting into a space that cannot clear it. Ventilation first, eaves opened back up and vent trays in, then depth.
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Find out what is actually in your loft
We come out, get through the hatch, photograph what is up there and put the depth, the ventilation and the hatch in writing. Both free.