Loft insulation in Ferndown
Full depth over the whole ceiling, the low eaves kept open, and an itemised written price first.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a Ferndown bungalow the loft is the biggest heat loss in the building, because the whole house sits under one ceiling. Two layers of mineral wool, the second cross laid over the joists to a finished 270mm, is the job.
The calls come in three shapes. A bungalow that is cold in every room rather than one. A loft that was topped up years ago and has flattened since. And condensation, noticed as damp patches on a ceiling or droplets under the felt. Ferndown is bungalow country, and that changes the arithmetic. In a two storey house the top ceiling covers half the floor area. In a bungalow it covers all of it, so every millimetre of depth up there is worth roughly twice what it is worth next door. We come and look first. The site visit is free, and so is the written itemised quote.
The work
One ceiling over the whole house
What is over the ceiling now. Nearly every loft here has something. It has settled, gone patchy, been pulled back around cables and stops short of the wall plate, and there is often a bare ring right round the outside where the roof gets low. Anything wet, crushed or contaminated with droppings comes out in bags and leaves with us. What is dry and sound gets straightened and kept.
Two layers, and the depth that counts. Mineral wool, glass wool or rockwool in a roll, friction fitted between the joists first, then a second layer laid across them at right angles to a finished 270mm. The cross laid layer is the one that does the real work, because it covers the joists and stops the timber carrying heat through the ceiling. Batts suit uneven spacings, loose fill suits a loft nobody can crawl in, and rigid board such as PIR or Celotex goes where headroom will not take a roll.
The low edges are the whole game on a bungalow. A single storey roof has a long eaves run relative to its floor area, and the last metre before the wall plate is where depth gets given up. It is also where the ventilation lives. We hold the air gap with vent trays so cross ventilation still works, get depth right into the corner behind them, and never push wool out over the plate. Cover the eaves and you have swapped a warm bedroom for a wet roof.
The hatch, the tank and the boarding. The hatch is the biggest hole in a bungalow ceiling and it is usually straight above the hall, so it gets insulated on the back and draught sealed. A cold water tank and its pipework need lagging once the loft is cold. Cables are clipped over the top rather than buried and recessed lights get fire rated covers. Where you store things, a raised floor on loft legs keeps full depth under the boards and the loft ladder usable.
Chalets and rooms in the roof. Plenty of bungalows here have had the roof space partly taken in, so half the job is a flat ceiling and half is a sloping one. On the slopes the work follows the rafters: rigid board cut between them with a clear gap kept to the underlay, a second layer under, joints taped. A dormer cheek is small and loses a lot, so it is worth doing at the same time.
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.
There is no conservation area over Ferndown and nothing listed, so nothing here is controlled for appearance and there is no application to make. Insulation inside a loft is not development in any case, which Planning Portal guidance on insulation confirms. Approved Document L sets the standard the work reaches, building control is Dorset Council, and HMRC VAT Notice 708/6 covers how insulation is treated for VAT.
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 bungalow with a landing hatch, a chalet bungalow with rooms already in the roof, and a top floor flat reached from a shared landing 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.
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. A bungalow loft is shallow and cold, so damp shows on the timbers here faster than it would in a big two storey roof, and it is worth a look sooner rather than later. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
On a bungalow the loft is the whole roof over your head
More than four in ten homes in Ferndown are bungalows, and on a bungalow the loft is not one surface among several. It is the roof over everything you own. The same floor area that a two storey house spreads across two levels sits under a single ceiling here, so heat loss upwards is a far bigger share of the total, and getting that ceiling to full depth changes how the whole place feels rather than one cold bedroom.
The good news is that it is the easiest loft in the world to work in. The hatch is a step up rather than a climb over a stairwell, material goes in and rubbish comes out quickly, and no scaffold or platform is involved. That keeps the access line on the quote small, which is the opposite of most work at height. The catch is the long low eaves run: a bungalow has a lot of edge for its size, and edges are where depth quietly disappears. That is where we spend the time.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Ferndown, Longham, West Moors, West Parley, Bearwood and Merley in the BH22 postcodes, with Dorset 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.
Questions
Ferndown questions we get asked
How long does a bungalow loft take?
Usually a day. Access is easy, so clearing the old material and bagging it goes quickly, and the two new layers go down the same afternoon. A chalet with sloping ceilings, or a loft full of storage, takes longer.
Ours was topped up about ten years ago. Is that enough?
Probably not now. Material settles, and depth expectations moved, so the U value of that ceiling is likely short of what Part L asks. We normally straighten and keep what is between the joists and cross lay new over the top rather than clear it out.
Will we still be able to store things up there?
Yes, if you say so before the quote. Boards laid flat on the joists crush the wool and waste the job, so we build a raised floor on loft legs over the area you use and board that, leaving full depth underneath.
Will insulating make the loft damp?
Only where the eaves get packed out. A shallow bungalow roof holds very little air to start with, so it matters more here than most. Keep the air crossing under the felt, seal the hatch, and make sure the bathroom fan discharges through the roof rather than into it.
Does it show on the heating bill?
On a bungalow, more than on anything else. All of your floor area is under that one ceiling, so the thermal gain is felt across the whole house, and it lifts the fabric score on an EPC. Sealing the hatch draught is the cheapest part of it and among the most noticeable.
Nearby, and next door
Loft insulation near Ferndown
Loft insulation nearby
Our other trades in Ferndown
Everything we do in Ferndown Loft insulation, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get the bungalow ceiling sorted
Thomas gets into the loft, measures what is really up there and prices it line by line. The visit and the quote are free.