Loft insulation in Bransgore

The first hour is preparation. Floors and stairs in your Bransgore house get sheeted from the door to the hatch, and crawl boards go up before anybody else does, because the ceiling below is plasterboard or lath and will not carry a knee. Anything you store up there comes down, the ladder is set properly and the loft is looked over once more in daylight so there are no surprises priced halfway through.

Late morning. The clear out. Old material in a Bransgore loft has settled, gone patchy, been compressed flat under boxes and stopped short of the wall on at least one side. What is dry and sound stays and gets teased apart and levelled. What is damp, dusty or contaminated with droppings is bagged where it lies and carried down rather than dropped loose through the hatch.

Middle of the day. The first layer goes in between the joists, friction fitted so nothing is open at the timber. Mineral wool roll if there is a clear run, rockwool batts if the bays are all different, glass wool, sheep wool, loose fill poured into corners a roll will never sit flat in, PIR rigid board where headroom has run out. Then the second layer, cross laid across the joists at right angles so the timber is buried and stops carrying heat down into the plaster. About 270mm finished is the depth Approved Document L expects of a renovated ceiling under Part L, and the second layer is where most of the change in the U value comes from.

Afternoon. The edges of a Bransgore loft, which is the slow part and the part that matters most. Material is carried out over the wall plate and stopped there, with a vent tray at each rafter keeping an air gap open above it so cross ventilation still runs from one eaves to the other. Pack that corner solid and the roof stops drying itself: water forms on the underside of the felt, the dew point moves into the layer, interstitial condensation collects unseen and black mould spreads along the rafters. BS 5250 is the code for managing moisture in a roof, and where the eaves are boxed in and cannot be reopened, a ridge vent or tile vents do the job instead. A breathable membrane alters the detailing rather than the requirement.

Before we leave. Fire rated covers over every recessed light and downlighter. Cable and wiring lifted and clipped above the new layer so nothing runs hot underneath it. Lagging on the cold water tank and its pipework, now that the space around them is properly cold. A rigid board fixed to the back of the hatch and a draught seal round the lining, which is the bit you feel on the landing that evening. Loft legs and a raised floor if you want storage, so the boarding and the platform clear full depth and the loft ladder still lands where it should. And where the roof is already a room in roof, the sloping ceiling and dormer cheeks are a separate warm roof job at rafter level, taped and sealed, which we would price as its own thing rather than fold into a day's work.

How big the loft is. A bungalow has a loft the size of the whole house. A two storey house of the same floor area has half the loft. That surprises people.

What is up there now. Thin, flattened mineral wool can often stay as the first layer, with a second layer laid across the joists. Wet, dirty or crushed material has to come out and be bagged first. A loft full of boxes has to be cleared and put back.

Trussed rafters. Most roofs from that era have trusses, with diagonal braces crossing the loft. Laying rolls around every brace is slower than an open loft with plain rafters.

Boarding. If you store things up there, the boards have to be raised on loft legs so the full depth fits underneath. Boarding straight onto squashed insulation takes away most of what you paid for.

The eaves and the details. Insulation stops short of the eaves so air can move, or you trade a warm bedroom for condensation on the felt. Tanks and pipes are lagged, the hatch is insulated and sealed, and downlighters get covers. Approved Document L gives the standard to aim for.

Ask any other quote what depth is going down and in how many layers, whether the eaves stay clear, and whether the tank, pipes and hatch are included.

The person who climbs into your loft to survey it is Thomas Hannen, who owns the business and prices the job himself. He is based in Boscombe, 5.6 miles from the village, and takes on lofts in Bransgore and at Burley, Sopley, Thorney Hill and Hinton.

Planning and building control questions go to New Forest District Council. The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, number 15471719 on the register for England and Wales. A verified customer left a 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The survey is free, and the written quote setting out every line costs nothing. Before you book a visit in Bransgore, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Bransgore 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.