Loft insulation in Bransgore

First hour. Floors and stairs 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 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, 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.

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 bungalow with the hatch in the hall, a detached house set back down a lane, and a cottage with a loft you can only crawl through are three different jobs. 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.

We cover Bransgore, Burley, Sopley, Thorney Hill, Hinton and the BH23 lanes around them, with New Forest District Council for planning and 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.