Loft insulation in Fordingbridge

Fordingbridge lofts usually give themselves away upstairs, on a first look or on a ceiling. The upstairs is cold and stays cold. The loft has been looked at for the first time in years and there is barely anything in it. Or damp has shown up on a bedroom ceiling and nobody can say whether it is the roof, the ventilation or the insulation.

We go up into the Fordingbridge loft before we quote. That means seeing what is there, pushing a rule into it rather than guessing, checking which way the joists run, looking at the wall plate and the eaves, and finding out whether the roof is felted at all. The site visit and the written itemised quote are both free, and if the answer is that your ceiling is fine we will say so.

Clearing out comes first. Old material in a Fordingbridge loft has usually settled, been compressed under boards, gone patchy round cables and stopped a good way short of the edges. In an older roof it is often contaminated as well, with droppings and years of grit blown in under the tiles. That comes out in bags and leaves with us the same day. Anything sound and dry is straightened, its gaps closed, and kept underneath the new work.

Depth in two layers. About 270mm finished, and the way it is laid decides whether you get it. First layer of mineral wool roll between the joists, pushed to a friction fit so nothing is missing at the sides. Second layer cross laid over the joists at right angles, so the timber stops being a cold bridge running through your ceiling. Glass wool roll for the long runs, rockwool batts where an old cut roof has bays of every width, and loose fill for the corners. Approved Document L sets the U value the finished ceiling is meant to reach under Part L.

Ventilation, which is not optional. Insulate a Fordingbridge ceiling and the roof above it gets colder. The dew point moves up into the timbers, and vapour leaking out of the house condenses on whatever cold surface it finds. So the insulation stops on the wall plate, vent trays hold it off so the air gap at the eaves stays open, and cross ventilation runs from one side to the other. Where the eaves are boxed in, a ridge vent or vent tiles do the same work at the top. Approved Document F is the standard, and blocking the eaves is the quickest way to turn a warm bedroom into a wet roof.

Services and the hatch. Recessed lights get proper covers. Cables are lifted out of the wool and clipped to the joists rather than buried, because buried wiring runs hot. In an older Fordingbridge house the cold water tank and its pipework are suddenly on the cold side of the insulation, so lagging and a jacket go on at the same time. The hatch is insulated on its back and draught sealed, and the loft ladder reset if it fouls the new depth.

Storage and roof slopes. Boards laid on the joists crush the insulation flat, so where you want the loft usable we build a raised floor on loft legs and board the platform you actually walk on. Where there is a room in roof, a dormer or a sloping ceiling over the stairs, the job moves to rafter level. Rigid PIR board cut tight between the rafters, a clear gap kept above it under the underlay, another layer under the rafters and the joints taped, so the warm roof build up keeps interstitial condensation out of the timber.

Thomas climbs into your Fordingbridge loft with a torch and a tape. He measures how deep the existing layer is, looks at the joists and the eaves, and notes any cables, downlighters or a cold water tank. The quote he writes prices the survey, bagging and removing the old fibre, the new mineral wool and the depth it will reach, eaves vents, insulating the hatch, lagging any pipework, and disposal.

In a typical seventies or eighties estate house there is a landing hatch and a trussed roof, so we lay crawl boards, put the first layer of mineral wool between the joists and the second at right angles over them. In a bungalow the low eaves take longest. The route from your front door to the hatch is sheeted, and the old material is bagged in the loft before it is carried down. A leak, a stained ceiling board or a cable buried in the old fibre gets photographed, with a price for putting it right, before any new roll goes down near it.

Loft insulation is not development, so it uses none of your permitted development rights and needs no application; the Planning Portal's insulation page confirms it. Regulation 23 of the Building Regulations can still involve building control where a large part of a roof element is renovated. The town centre conservation area has no bearing on a loft, but a listed building's consent reaches internal work too. Before buying materials, read HMRC's notice on VAT for energy saving materials.

If droplets hang on the underside of the roof felt, the insulation feels damp or black mould is spreading along the rafters, damp air from your rooms is reaching a roof space with no way out, and the timbers will suffer if it is left.

Resist the urge to lay more insulation, and leave the vents open. Ring rather than filling in the form. At the first visit we find out whether it is condensation, a roof leak or eaves blocked with old fibre, and whether the insulation has to come out before anything goes back. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. When nobody picks up, we phone back at the first chance we get.

Call now: 07435 839745

About a fifth of the houses in Fordingbridge went up before 1919, and a roof of that age was built without any underlay. Tiles or slates were hung straight on the battens, and if you stand in one of those lofts on a bright day you can see daylight through the joints. That roof has always ventilated itself, which is why it has stayed dry for a century with almost nothing in the ceiling below it.

Insulate it properly and the roof space behaves differently. Wind now blows across the top of the insulation instead of through a loft that was warm anyway, so the edges need holding down and the roll needs to sit tight rather than loose. And fine grit and dust drive in through the same joints and settle on the new material. Neither is a reason not to do it. It is a reason not to treat the roof like a modern one: we would rather add a breathable membrane or sarking when the covering is next off than seal an old roof up from underneath with something that traps vapour in the timbers. If a quote for an old Fordingbridge roof says nothing about how air moves through it, it was written from the doorway.

Nearby places we also cover for loft insulation, with straight-line distances from Fordingbridge, and the other trades we offer in Fordingbridge itself.

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