Loft insulation in Crossways

Loft condensation is the part worth understanding before anybody quotes you. A loft is warm because your house leaks heat into it, and that warmth is what has been keeping the roof timbers dry.

Insulate a Crossways ceiling properly and the space above goes cold, the dew point comes up with it, and the underside of the roof becomes the coldest surface in the building. Household moisture that used to drift away now finds it. That is where condensation, wet material and black mould on the timbers come from, and it is why depth on its own is only half a job.

So in a Crossways loft the air path is dealt with first. Insulation stops on the wall plate and never goes past it, and the air gap above is held open with vent trays clipped between the rafters so nothing pushed into the eaves later can close it. Cross ventilation is the name for what happens next: in at the bottom, up the slope, out under the ridge, with a ridge vent widening the exit where one is fitted. A modern breathable membrane gives a roof a second way out. Bitumen felt underlay gives it none, which is why on an older roof the eaves are the whole system rather than part of it. Any bathroom fan discharging into the loft gets ducted out where it belongs, because nothing wets a roof space faster.

Then the depth. Wool goes down between the joists to start with. Then a second thickness is turned across them, so the timbers end up under the insulation instead of poking through it, and the two layers finish at about 270mm. the Approved Document is where that figure comes from. Rolls of mineral wool, glass wool or rockwool, do the open runs. Batts go into the bays truss bracing creates, loose fill reaches a shallow pitch where a roll will not follow, and sheep wool is there if you would rather. What you are buying is a lower U value over the ceiling, which is one of the main routes for heat out of a house and shows on the heating bill before it shows on an EPC.

Whatever is already in the Crossways loft is dealt with before any of that. Patchy wool round the wiring, wool contaminated where birds have been in and left droppings, wool compressed under a floor, wool settled to nothing, or wool missing altogether for the last foot before the wall: all of it goes into bags at the hatch and out to the van. Covering it over hides interstitial damp in the middle of the build up where nobody will see it. Access is that one hatch, crawl boards go down before anyone puts weight on a ceiling, and it is work at height from the first rung of the ladder.

The last of it is what you use the loft for and how you get in. The cold water tank and the pipework running to it are lagged, since the space is colder now than it has ever been. Wiring and cables sit on top of the wool. Fire rated covers go over recessed lights and downlighters. Storage stays: loft legs lift the boarding above the finished depth, the deck is refitted, the loft ladder is reset onto the platform, and the hatch gets rigid board and a seal. Where the roof is already a room, the work moves to rafter level. Board goes between the rafters, PIR or Celotex, with the air path above it left open. A second layer runs under the rafters, the room side is taped to control vapour, and multi-foil is kept back for a sloping ceiling or a dormer cheek with nothing left to give.

We do not charge a rate per square metre. The open middle of a loft goes quickly, and the edges and the clearing out are where the hours are.

The hatch and the floor. A bungalow hatch in a wide hallway is easy. A small hatch over the stairs in a terrace means a platform on the stairwell and everything passed up by hand. Boarding or storage decking that has to come up and go back down adds time before a roll is opened.

Clearing out. Thin, squashed insulation from when the house was built usually has to be bagged and removed, not buried under new. Christmas boxes, suitcases and old chairs all get moved out of the way and put back after. Trussed roofs have diagonal bracing across the joists, so every layer is cut and fitted round it.

The eaves and the awkward bits. The insulation must stop at the wall plate with the eaves clear for ventilation, or the roof gets wet. Most of the labour is in the corners and round the hatch, fitting covers over downlighters, and lagging pipes and the tank.

The target. The depth you end up with should meet Approved Document L.

Compare quotes on three points: the depth and number of layers, whether old material is taken out, and whether the hatch and pipework are covered.

We come out 21.8 miles from Boscombe to insulate lofts in Crossways, and we also cover Woodsford, Moreton and the DT2 addresses out towards Warmwell. Dorset Council deals with building control. Your dealings are with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Crossways, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

The person who goes up the ladder, looks at the loft and prices it is Thomas Hannen, the owner. One customer, verified by Checkatrade, rated us 10 out of 10. Visiting is free, and the written quote listing each item costs nothing either.

Most repairs in Crossways 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.