Loft insulation in Merritown
Full depth over the ceiling, a proper edge at the eaves, and an itemised written price before anything is ordered.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Two layers of mineral wool, one between the joists and one cross laid over them to a finished 270mm, with the perimeter held down properly. On an open site the edges matter as much as the depth in the middle.
Three situations bring people to the phone here. A room that never warms through. A loft where the insulation is thin, uneven and clearly has not been touched in years. And damp, spotted as mould on the roof timbers or a musty smell when the hatch comes down. Merritown sits on open ground with very little in the way of shelter, and wind does things in a roof space that people do not expect. It moves loose material, it strips heat off the edges of a ceiling, and it drives rain at the verges. We look before quoting. The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote.
The work
Depth in the middle, and a proper edge all round
Why the edges come first here. On an exposed roof, air blowing in at the eaves passes through the outer face of loose material and takes heat with it. The middle of the loft can be at full depth while the last metre before the wall plate is doing almost nothing. So we work the perimeter deliberately: depth carried right into the corner, the outer edge held down rather than left fluffed up, and vent trays used so the air runs over the insulation instead of through it.
What is up there already. Most lofts have one settled layer, thinner than it started, patchy, pulled back around cables and missing altogether at the edges. Wind blown material ends up in ridges and bare patches. If it is dry we straighten it, close the gaps and keep it as the first layer. Anything wet or contaminated with droppings goes into bags and leaves with us.
Material and depth. Mineral wool in a roll does most of it, glass wool or rockwool, friction fitted between the joists, then a second layer laid across them at right angles to 270mm finished. The cross laid layer is what takes the joist itself out of the heat path. Batts suit uneven centres, loose fill goes where nobody can crawl, and rigid board such as PIR or Celotex is for tight headroom. Sheep wool and multi-foil are exceptions rather than the rule.
Ventilation without wind wash. The eaves have to stay open, because cross ventilation is what keeps the timbers dry, but open eaves on an exposed site also mean a lot of air arriving. Vent trays do both jobs: they hold the air gap under the felt and they stop the draught ploughing into the insulation behind. Where a roof is on breathable membrane the detail is slightly different, and a ridge vent helps where the eaves cannot be opened up.
The hatch, the tank and the storage. The hatch gets insulated on the back and draught sealed, which on a windy site is felt immediately on the landing. A tank and its pipework now sit in an unheated space, so both get lagged. Cabling comes up on top of the wool and is clipped there, since wiring that cannot shed heat carries less current, and any recessed light below takes a fire rated cover. Where the loft is used for storage, loft legs lift the boarding clear of the second layer so the depth survives and the loft ladder still reaches a solid platform. Sloping ceilings and dormers follow the rafters, with a clear gap kept to the underlay.
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, so there is no planning application and it is not even a permitted development question, which Planning Portal guidance on insulation sets out. Building control here is BCP Council and the standard comes from Approved Document L. There is no conservation area over these addresses, though the council keeps the list if you want to check, and HMRC VAT Notice 708/6 covers the VAT position 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 detached house with a trussed roof, an older cottage with a small trap, and a bungalow with a wide 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. After a hard blow it is worth looking in the loft as well as at the tiles, because driven rain gets in at a lifted verge and lands on the insulation rather than the ceiling. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
On open ground the wind gets into the insulation itself
There is almost no shelter out here. The most exposed face of a roof in this spot looks south west, straight into the weather, and that changes one specific thing about a loft. Wind entering at the eaves does not stop politely at the wall plate. It runs into the outer face of the insulation and carries heat away, and it lifts and shuffles loose material until the depth you paid for is in the middle of the loft rather than at the edge where the wall meets the ceiling.
What we do about it is not more material. It is a proper edge. Depth carried fully into the corner, the outer face of the perimeter held down instead of left loose, and vent trays set so the incoming air runs above the insulation rather than through it. The eaves still ventilate, the timbers still dry out, and the last metre of your ceiling actually works. It costs almost nothing extra at the time and it is close to impossible to add later without lifting everything.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Merritown, Hurn, Matchams, West Parley, Ferndown and the BH23 addresses around them, with BCP Council for planning and building control. 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
Merritown questions we get asked
How quickly can somebody come out?
Usually within a day or two. The yard is only a few miles away, so a look at a loft here does not need planning around. There is nothing to pay for the visit or for the written quote.
How long does the work take?
A day for most houses. Clearing and bagging the old material is the morning and the two new layers go down in the afternoon. Storage to move, or boarding to lift and reset, adds a day.
We already have insulation. Is more worth it?
Usually. It settles rather than fails, and out here the edges get thinned by wind as well, so the U value of that ceiling ends up well short of what Part L expects. Cross laying over what is there costs less than clearing it out.
Will insulating cause condensation in the roof?
Only where the air has stopped moving. Out here the wind normally does the ventilating for you, so when a loft goes damp it is usually a blocked eaves run or a fan discharging into the roof space. Both are quick to put right and both matter more than depth.
Does it help with the heating bill?
Yes, and on an exposed site the draught side of it matters as much as the depth. Heat loss upwards is the largest single loss in most houses, so a full depth ceiling is the thermal gain people notice, and it lifts the fabric score on an EPC.
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Get the loft measured and priced
Thomas comes out, gets into the roof space and puts what it needs in writing, line by line. Both are free.