Loft insulation in Oakdale

Topping up a thirties loft. What went down years ago is usually a thin layer, compressed where boxes sat on it. If it is dry and clean it stays, fluffed back up. Glass wool or rockwool roll fills between the joists to their top edge and a second layer is cross laid over them, so the timber no longer bleeds heat. About 270mm in all meets the ceiling U-value of 0.16 Approved Document L asks of a renovated loft.

Bungalows. An Oakdale bungalow has every room under the loft, so it gains more from this job than any other house. The time goes on the edges. Headroom is low near the eaves, the work is often a crawl, and full depth has to stop short of the rafters so air can move, with rigid board used where quilt will not fit.

The party wall and the chimney breast. On many Oakdale semis the party wall in the loft stops short of the tiles, and the shared chimney breast rises through the middle of it. Warm air and fire can pass over the gap, so if it is open we point it out and price building it up before the new layers go down. Where you store things, a boarded platform on loft legs keeps the full depth running underneath instead of squashing it, and a loft ladder makes it usable.

Wiring, lights and water. Cables are lifted to sit on top of the insulation rather than buried under it, recessed downlighters get fire-rated covers so they are not smothered, and the tank and pipework are lagged, with the insulation left off the ceiling directly under the tank so a little warmth stops it freezing.

Chalet bungalows. Plenty of bungalows in Oakdale were built or later converted as chalets, with bedrooms in the roof and a flat-topped dormer. With little or no loft floor, the sloping ceilings become warm roof work. Celotex or similar PIR board is fitted in and below the rafters, an air gap is left under the felt, and a vapour check goes on before the plasterboard, aiming at 0.18 through the slope. The small voids behind the knee walls get their own insulation. It means replastering, so it suits a room due decorating anyway.

The flat top of the dormer. The dormer roof on a chalet bungalow cannot be reached from any loft. Most were built as cold roofs with a thin quilt between the joists, and that is where the black mould in the corner of a dormer bedroom comes from each winter. Stuffing more quilt in from below rarely cures it. The lasting fix is re-covering it as a warm roof, with the insulation board above the deck, which our flat roofing in Oakdale page covers, and we price the two together when both are due.

When the old layer has to come out. Now and then the old insulation in an Oakdale loft is not worth keeping: soaked from a past leak, contaminated with mouse or bird droppings, or missing in whole bays where someone crawled through for a satellite cable. That comes out and is bagged before the new layer goes in, and we photograph it for you first.

The hatch and the bay. A bare hatch lets the landing heat straight up, and on a thermal image it glows, so it gets a board on the back and a draught seal round the frame. The little roof over a two storey bay is a separate void that the main loft never reaches, and where we can get into it, it is insulated too.

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 low hipped bungalow roof worked on a crawl, a thirties semi loft with a boarded middle, and a converted bungalow with sloping ceilings each set the day up differently. 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.

We insulate lofts across Oakdale and Stanley Green, from Wimborne Road and Darby's Lane to the Canford Heath side, in BH15, from our base in Boscombe, about six miles east.

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. Before you book a visit in Oakdale, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Oakdale 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.