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.
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Over an old Lover ceiling the job is a top-up to 270mm, the second layer of mineral wool cross laid over the joists, laid so the roof can still breathe at the eaves. On an old building the ventilation matters as much as the depth. Any boarding is lifted clear of the wool, and the cold water tank and its pipes are wrapped. The walls and floors are on our Lover insulation page.
A loft here tends to go wrong through heat loss, a thin wind-blown layer or damp timbers. 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. The older roofs around Lover and Redlynch were built to move air, not 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. If yours is a period roof with 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. An old loft can 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. Where the ceiling joists in an old house sit at irregular centres and are shallower than modern ones, 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. If your house has a room in the roof or a low sloping ceiling on the landing, the work there 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
Insulating an old roof space without trapping damp
Thomas goes up into your Lover loft, looks at the timbers, the underside of the roof and what insulation there is, and prices it himself. In an old roof with no membrane under the tiles, air moves through freely, and that is what keeps the timbers dry. The insulation has to go in without stopping it.
The written quote gives the survey, lifting and bagging the old quilt, the new material and its depth, eaves trays, the hatch, pipe lagging and disposal a line each. We lay crawl boards, lift cables clear, run quilt in two layers across the joists, fit eaves trays, lag pipes and the tank, and insulate the hatch. At 18.1 miles out, everything needed comes on the first trip. The landing is cleaned before we leave. Damp timber, beetle or a leak spotted up there comes to you as a photo and a price first.
Insulation in a loft is not development, which Planning Portal guidance on insulation confirms. Lover's planners, the New Forest National Park Authority, publish National Park heritage and conservation guidance which explain how consent on a listed building reaches internal work too. Building control, which is Wiltshire Council here, sets the standard through Approved Document L, and regulation 23 applies where most of a roof element is renovated. HMRC VAT Notice 708/6 covers VAT on insulation.
Cost
Hatches, eaves and old quilt: pricing a loft
The floor area is the easy part. The awkward edges are where the time goes. Getting in. A hatch over a cupboard, a trap above the stairs or a loft you can only cross on your knees slows every roll. A landing hatch with a ladder is quick, and a big farmhouse roof you can walk about in is quicker still per metre.
What is up there. Old material that has to come out, be bagged and taken away is a cost before anything new goes down. Quilt with droppings in it is bagged with care. Stored boxes, or boarding that must come up and go back, add time.
The joists. Old roofs often have joists at uneven spacing and of different depths, so the first layer is cut to fit between them. A trussed roof full of bracing is slow in a different way.
Ventilation and the eaves. Insulation stops at the wall plate and the eaves stay clear, or you trade a warm bedroom for a wet roof. Getting depth into the corners, boxing over downlighters and lagging pipes is most of the labour. Approved Document L sets what the work should reach.
Before choosing, ask the other quotes: what depth and how many layers? Is old material coming out? Are the eaves kept clear, and is the hatch included?
If the loft is wet
Mould on the rafters or damp insulation
Ring instead of using the form if drops of water hang under the felt, black mould is on the rafters, or the insulation is damp to the touch. Warm, wet air is getting into a roof space that cannot breathe, and in an old roof the timbers are what matter most.
Hold off adding insulation until the cause is found. Keep the bathroom door closed when showering, and see whether the bathroom fan's duct stops short in the loft. On the first visit we find the cause, whether blocked eaves, a missing vent or a slipped tile, and deal with that before anyone talks about depth. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Leave a message if it rings out, and we will call as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
On a period roof, ventilation comes before depth
If your cottage in Lover is an old one, its 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
Who does the loft work, and who checks it
Your loft would be priced by Thomas Hannen, who owns the business and goes up the ladder himself. The business is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, based in Boscombe, 18.1 miles from Lover. Before you book a visit in Lover, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
We cover the village with Redlynch, Downton, Breamore and the villages towards Fordingbridge. Wiltshire Council runs building control for Lover, with the National Park Authority as planners. One verified customer scored us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. His visit and the itemised quote on paper are free.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Lover?
Most repairs in Lover 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.
| Question | In Lover |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Lover. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Lover, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Lover. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the New Forest National Park, where design is looked at more closely and permitted development rights are narrower. |
Questions
Questions about loft insulation in Lover
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, not 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. A thin ceiling is one of the larger heat losses 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.
Nearby, and next door
Loft insulation near Lover
Nearby places we also cover for loft insulation, with straight-line distances from Lover, and the other trades we offer in Lover itself.
Loft insulation nearby
Our other trades in Lover
Loft insulation guides
Part L: do you have to insulate when you re-roof? Loft condensation or a roof leak: how to tell PIR board vs mineral wool: which insulation?Everything we do in Ringwood Loft insulation, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
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.