Loft insulation in Furzehill

The tank, which is easy to forget. A cold water tank in a Furzehill loft has spent its whole life sitting in a mildly warm loft. Put full depth underneath it and it is suddenly outdoors, which is how a tank that has never frozen freezes.

So it gets a jacket, the lid gets one, the overflow and every run of pipework get lagging, and the ceiling directly beneath the tank is left thin on purpose so a little warmth still reaches it. The platform it stands on gets looked at while we are there. All of that is part of the job rather than an extra at the end of it.

Depth, and why the second run matters. Trussed roofs dominate around Furzehill and their joists are shallow, so one layer laid flush is barely half a system. So a second run of mineral wool is rolled out over the top of the timber, at right angles to the first, which is the part that stops a ceiling giving its heat away along every joist. Take the pair to roughly 270mm and you are at the u value Approved Document L wants from a renovated ceiling under Part L. Rockwool batts where a roll will not sit, glass wool on the roll everywhere else, loose fill where bracing makes a roll impossible, sheep wool if you want it, and rigid PIR board where the headroom simply is not there.

The eaves, which you cannot judge from the hatch. Material goes to the wall plate and no further. Vent trays sit in the rafter bays to hold the path above it open, so the material can still be taken right to the edge without shutting off the cross ventilation that runs soffit to soffit. Where old bitumen underlay meets soffits boxed in solid, the roof is choked before we arrive, and a ridge vent goes in ahead of any new depth at all. Get that wrong and you get condensation on the felt, wet material and black mould over the timbers, none of which announces itself until it has been going on a while. BS 5250 is the standard on damp in buildings, and it is worth knowing that interstitial condensation forms inside the layer where you will never see it.

Everything else that lives up there. Every recessed light gets a fire rated cover dropped over it. Wiring is lifted and clipped on top of the new depth instead of being left down inside it, since cable sitting in insulation runs warm. Storage is planned instead of lost: loft legs, a raised floor clear of the wool, and boarding only where you actually stand. The hatch is insulated and sealed, and the loft ladder tried against the raised floor before we go. Getting up and down gets priced at the survey too, because a roof over your head does not stop it being work at height. And in a roof converted years ago none of that applies. A room in roof, with its sloping ceilings and dormer cheeks, is insulated up at the rafters instead: rigid board cut into each bay, a second layer fixed beneath, every joint of the vapour control layer taped, and multi-foil quilt where the depth has gone altogether.

We do not price a loft per square metre. Laying across open joists is quick; the edges and the obstacles take the time.

Getting to it. A bungalow with its hatch in the hall, a detached house whose trussed roof is full of bracing, and an old farmhouse with no clear void over half of it are very different days' work. A hatch above the stairs, or a low crawl space out at the eaves, adds hours before any roll is laid.

What is there already. Flattened old wool has to be bagged and brought down, and stored boxes have to be moved out and back. A plain run of joists goes faster than a truss roof criss-crossed with bracing.

Storage. If you want to keep boarding, it has to sit on raised legs above the new depth, or the insulation is squashed and stops working.

The edges. The eaves stay clear, downlighters are boxed over, and pipes and tanks that now sit in the cold are lagged. The finished depth should meet the U-value in Approved Document L.

Ask anyone else quoting how deep the finished insulation will be and in how many layers, whether the old wool comes out, and whether the hatch and pipes are covered.

We insulate lofts in Furzehill, Colehill, Holt, Wimborne Minster, Three Legged Cross and the BH21 lanes around them. Furzehill is a drive of about eight miles from Boscombe, and planning and building control are Dorset Council's.

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. The owner is Thomas Hannen, and it is Thomas who climbs into your loft and prices the work. We have a 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade from a customer whose review is verified. Coming out costs you nothing, and the written quote, with every line itemised, is free too. Before you book a visit in Furzehill, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Furzehill 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.