Loft insulation in Hangersley

What is already down. Almost every loft in Hangersley has something in it. Forty odd years of settling has taken the depth out of it, it is compressed flat along the routes people walk, patchy in the open middle and missing altogether where the roof gets low.

Where it is dry and in one piece it stays and we lay over it. Where it is damp, black on the underside or contaminated with droppings it comes out, is bagged and leaves with us on its own line.

Material, chosen for the space. Mineral wool does most of it, as glass wool on the roll or as rockwool in batt form. Loose fill, blown or poured, works where the joists are at odd centres or the triangle is too tight to open a roll out in. Sheep wool is there if you want it. Where there is no headroom to give away, PIR rigid board goes in cut tight and taped, and a multi-foil quilt handles the shallowest last stretch.

Two layers, the second one crossways. One layer laid flush between the joists is where most Hangersley lofts stop, and it leaves the timber conducting heat straight through the ceiling. So the first goes between the joists and the second is cross laid over the joists and turned through ninety degrees. Around 270mm all in, which is the thickness a Part L U value amounts to in practice and one of the cheapest cuts in heat loss these houses have left to make.

The eaves, and what happens when they are blocked. In a Hangersley loft the layer is carried to the wall plate and stops. Vent trays hold a clear air gap above it so cross ventilation passes right through the roof space, and where the eaves genuinely cannot be opened up a ridge vent is sometimes the answer. Seal them and the vapour that used to drift out sits under cold felt instead. Insulating moves the dew point, interstitial condensation forms inside the layer, and by February there is a wet layer and black mould over every rafter. A breathable membrane is detailed differently and works the same way.

Everything else in the roof. Recessed lights are hooded rather than smothered. Cables sit above the insulation rather than inside it, because buried wiring runs hot. A cold water tank and its pipework are left in the cold and have to be lagged, with the patch under the tank left thinner on purpose. The hatch gets insulated and sealed. Where a roof has already been converted, a room in roof is a rafter level job, built as a warm roof, sloping ceiling and dormer cheeks included.

We will not price your loft by the square metre. Open joists are quick; corners, eaves and obstacles take the time.

Getting in. A big detached house with a pull-down loft ladder, a bungalow with a landing hatch and a cottage with a small trapdoor over the stairwell are three very different starts, and all of them mean work at height. Tight crawl spaces under a low roof, and boarded floors that must be lifted and relaid, eat time before any wool goes down.

What we clear first. Old wool is bagged and carried down the ladder, and anything you keep up there has to come out and go back. A plain joist layout is faster than trusses crowded with bracing.

The awkward edges. Wool stops short where the roof meets the walls so air can still move through the eaves. Filling the corners to full depth, boxing over downlighters and wrapping tanks take longer than the open floor. Approved Document L sets the target.

Several voids. A house with extensions may have two or three separate lofts, each with its own way in.

When comparing, ask for the depth and number of layers, whether the old wool is removed, how the eaves stay ventilated, and whether the hatch and pipework are in the price.

The biggest slice of housing around Hangersley went up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which is exactly when the trussed rafter took over from the roof cut on site. It is a good roof and a cheap one, and it is a nuisance to work in.

Instead of a clear space with a purlin down the middle you get a triangle criss-crossed with webs and diagonal bracing, all of it doing structural work. None of it can be cut, notched or moved to make room for a roll, so the material gets fed through and trimmed to each bay by hand, on your front, which is time before anything is insulated.

Storage is where it bites. A trussed roof was never designed as a floor, so boarding straight across the ties is a bad idea twice over: it loads timber that was not meant to carry it, and it squashes the insulation flat to the depth of the joist. Loft legs solve the second half by standing a raised floor clear above the full depth, and we will tell you honestly how much of the roof will take a platform and how much of it should be left as insulation and nothing else.

Our lofts run across Hangersley, Hightown, Ringwood, Poulner, Burley Street and Ashley Heath, and the BH24 addresses around them. From Boscombe that is a drive of about nine and a half miles. The New Forest National Park Authority handles planning and New Forest District Council building control.

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales as company 15471719, is the firm you deal with. Its owner, Thomas Hannen, goes up into your loft and prices the job himself. Checkatrade lists a verified customer's 10 out of 10. We charge nothing to come out, or for the itemised written quote. Before you book a visit in Hangersley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Hangersley 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.