Loft insulation in Sandleheath

Whatever is up there now. Most lofts in Sandleheath have had something laid in them already, and the state of it decides the first hour. Settled to half the thickness it started at. Compressed flat under a boarded floor. Patchy where somebody has been at the wiring.

Contaminated where birds have got in and left droppings, or simply missing for the last foot before the wall. None of that is worth keeping, so it is rolled, bagged at the hatch and carried out before a new roll is opened, and it leaves in the van. Covering a poor old layer with a good new one buries the trouble in the middle of the build up, where interstitial damp can sit for years without anybody seeing it.

What you are standing on. The ceiling under your feet is plasterboard at best, and on the older houses in Sandleheath it is lath and plaster, which will take no weight whatever. Crawl boards go down and move along with us, and nobody trusts a joist they have not looked at. Access is a single hatch from beginning to end, which makes the whole thing work at height, so the ladder is set and footed properly.

Depth, and the layer that runs the other way. With the deck clear, wool goes in between the joists and a second thickness is cross laid over the joists at ninety degrees to the first, so no timber is left proud to carry cold into the bedroom. Two layers, about 270mm all told, which is the figure Approved Document L sets for a loft being renovated. Nearly all of it is mineral wool, sold as glass wool or as rockwool, and both behave much the same once they are down. Rolls do the long clear runs, batts suit a roof chopped up by bracing, loose fill gets into places a roll cannot follow, and sheep wool is there if you would rather not have mineral fibre over your head. Depth is only the means. What you are buying is a lower U value across the ceiling, which carries a big share of a house's heat loss, and you notice it on the heating bill well before it shows on an EPC.

The one gap that stays empty. At the outside wall the insulation stops on the wall plate and goes no further. The air gap above it is the inlet for the whole roof, and once it is stuffed the roof has no way of clearing the moisture rising out of the house. Vent trays clip in to hold that channel open. From there cross ventilation moves the air over the top of the wool and out under the ridge, quicker where somebody has fitted a ridge vent. A breathable membrane will let a little moisture through as well. Old bitumen felt underlay lets none. A loft that stayed dry for thirty years can show condensation, wet material and black mould on the timbers inside one winter if the edges get packed, because the space you have just made colder is where the dew point now sits.

Tank, cables, lights and the way in. Everything that used to live in a mild loft now lives in a cold one, so the cold water tank and its pipework get lagging the same day. Cables come up on top of the wool rather than sitting buried in it, and any wiring stapled down out of sight gets looked at while it can be seen. Recessed lights and downlighters set into the ceiling below take fire rated covers, so no fitting ends up with wool heaped over it. Where the space earns its keep, loft legs raise the boarding above the finished work and nothing underneath gets squashed, with the loft ladder reset to meet the new platform height. The hatch is the last thing done: rigid board on the top face, a seal round the rebate, and the draught that has been running up your stairs all winter stops.

Where there is no loft floor. A room in a Sandleheath roof has sloping ceilings and dormer cheeks instead of a floor, so the work moves up to rafter level. The air path comes first, held clear above the board so the timbers can still dry. Then rigid board, PIR or Celotex, cut tight between the rafters, a further layer under them, and the room side closed with a taped vapour control layer. Multi-foil quilt is the answer where a ceiling can give up almost no depth.

No Sandleheath loft is priced per square metre. The floor is quick; the awkward edges take the time. Getting up there. A generous hatch on a landing is quick. The small trapdoor over the stairs found in many older cottages, or a low roof where you can only crawl, slows everything before a roll is opened.

What is already there. Thin, flattened or damp old wool has to be bagged and carried out through the house. Stored boxes are moved and put back, and any boards are lifted and refixed.

The roof structure. A post-war roof with trussed rafters and bracing is slower to lay across than an open older roof. Joist depth and spacing decide whether the first layer goes between and the rest over the top.

Eaves and pipes. Insulation stops short of the wall plate and the vents stay clear, or you get a wet roof. Pipes and the tank are lagged, and downlighters are boxed over. Approved Document L sets the depth the work should reach.

When quotes come in, check the finished depth, whether the old wool is removed first, and whether trays at the eaves, the hatch and pipe lagging are included.

We lay loft insulation in Sandleheath, Alderholt, Fordingbridge and the SP6 addresses round them. Planning and building control sit with New Forest District Council for Sandleheath and Fordingbridge, and with Dorset Council for Alderholt. Sandleheath is 14 miles north of our Boscombe base at 80a Wolverton Road.

The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen owns the business and goes up your loft ladder himself to price it. A Checkatrade customer, verified, rated us 10 out of 10. We do not charge for the visit or the itemised quote. Before you book a visit in Sandleheath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Sandleheath 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.