Loft insulation in Lover
Depth over the ceiling, air still moving through the roof, and an itemised written price before anything starts.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Over an old ceiling the job is two layers of mineral wool, the second cross laid over the joists to a finished 270mm, laid so the roof above it can still breathe. On an old building the ventilation matters as much as the depth.
People here ring about three things. A cottage that swallows heat however hard the boiler works. An old loft with a thin, wind blown layer that stops well short of the walls. And damp timbers, which in a period roof is the one that will not wait. A good share of the housing around Lover and Redlynch predates the last century, and those roofs were built to move air rather than to hold heat. Insulating one is straightforward, but it has to be done with that in mind. The site visit and the written itemised quote are both free.
The work
Insulating a roof that was built to breathe
An old roof is not a sealed box. Most period roofs here have no underlay under the tiles or slates. Air moves through the covering itself, which is why the timbers have survived, and it is why loose material laid up there drifts, thins at the edges and ends up in ridges. We hold the wool down and keep the depth even rather than trusting it to sit where it was left, and we do nothing that turns a ventilated roof into a sealed one.
What comes out first. Old lofts often carry two or three generations of material laid on top of each other, the bottom one compressed to nothing, patchy where it has been disturbed and contaminated where birds or rodents have been in. Anything wet or fouled is bagged and taken away. What is sound is straightened, the gaps closed, and it stays as the first layer.
Depth, over an uneven ceiling. Old ceiling joists sit at irregular centres and are often shallower than modern ones, so the first layer of mineral wool, glass wool or rockwool, is cut to fit rather than forced, and batts are frequently easier than a roll. The second layer is cross laid over the joists to bring the finished depth to 270mm, which is the layer that takes the timber out of the heat path. Loose fill suits a roof you cannot move about in. Rigid board such as PIR or Celotex, and occasionally sheep wool or a multi-foil quilt, earn their place only where headroom is genuinely short.
Vapour, and where it is going. An old house makes a lot of moisture and an old ceiling leaks air. Insulate above it without dealing with that and you push warm wet air into a colder space, which is how condensation, black mould on the rafters and interstitial damp start. So the hatch gets sealed, the obvious vapour paths round pipes and cables get closed, the eaves are held open with vent trays, and a ridge vent goes in where cross ventilation is genuinely poor.
Sloping ceilings, tanks and storage. Many of these houses have a room in the roof or a low sloping ceiling on the landing. There the work follows the rafters, with rigid board cut between them, a clear air gap kept above to the covering, a layer under and joints taped. A cold water tank and its pipework want lagging, cables are clipped over rather than buried, recessed lights get fire rated covers. Storage sits on a raised floor of loft legs and boarding rather than straight on the joists, with a boarded platform by the hatch so the loft ladder stays usable.
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.
Insulation inside a loft is not development and needs no planning application, which Planning Portal guidance on insulation confirms. The planning authority here is the New Forest National Park Authority, and its National Park heritage and conservation guidance is where to start if the building is listed, because consent reaches internal work too. Building control rather than a planning officer sets what the work must reach, through Approved Document L, and where more than half a roof element is being renovated regulation 23 brings the whole of it up to current standard. HMRC VAT Notice 708/6 covers VAT on insulation.
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 period cottage with a trap over a cupboard, a farmhouse roof you can walk about in, and a modern bungalow with a landing hatch are three different mornings. 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. In an old roof the timbers are the thing worth protecting, so damp up there gets looked at before anybody talks about depth. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
On a period roof, ventilation comes before depth
Around a quarter of the housing here was built before the last century, and an old roof asks a different question from a modern one. It was put together to let air through: no underlay, gaps at the verge and the eaves, a covering that breathes. The reason the rafters are still sound after all that time is that anything damp got carried away. Insulating the ceiling underneath makes that roof space colder, and if you also seal it up you have taken away the very thing that kept it dry.
So on a period roof the order of work matters. Ventilation first: check the eaves are open, hold them open with trays, and add a vent at the ridge where the air genuinely is not moving. Then the vapour paths from the house, starting with the hatch and the gaps round pipes and old wiring. Then the depth. Done that way round an old roof gets warmer and stays dry. Done the other way round you get a warm bedroom and mould on the timbers by February.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Lover, Redlynch, Downton, Breamore and the villages towards Fordingbridge in the SP5 postcodes, with the New Forest National Park Authority for planning. 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
Lover questions we get asked
How long does an old loft take?
A day for most, two where several old layers have to come out and be bagged, or where storage has to be cleared first. Access through a small trap slows everything down, so it is priced as its own line rather than hidden in a rate.
Will insulating an old roof cause damp?
It can, if ventilation is an afterthought. A colder loft moves the dew point, so warm wet air from the house condenses sooner and you see black mould on the rafters. We open the eaves, seal the hatch and the vapour paths, and only then talk about depth.
Is spray foam an option under the tiles?
Not from us, on any roof. It sticks to the underside of the covering, it makes a later repair or re-cover far harder, and on an old unfelted roof it removes the ventilation that has kept the timbers sound. Board between the rafters with a clear air gap does the same job reversibly.
Our joists are shallow and uneven. Does that matter?
Only for method. The first layer is cut to fit rather than forced, and batts are often easier than a roll. The cross laid second layer over the top is what brings the ceiling up to depth and takes the timber out of the heat path, and it does not care what is underneath.
Will we notice it on the heating bill?
You should. Heat loss upwards is the biggest single loss in a house like this, so a ceiling at full depth is the thermal improvement people actually feel, and it lifts the fabric score on an EPC. A settled old layer leaves the U value of that ceiling well short of what Part L expects, and sealing the draught round the hatch is noticed the same evening.
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Get an old roof looked at first
Thomas gets into the roof space, checks the ventilation before the depth, and prices it in writing. Both are free.