Loft insulation in Stone
The layer your builder never laid, the eaves kept clear, 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.
A house that came with insulation still needs a second layer. The job here is normally to straighten what is between the joists, close the edges and cross lay fresh material over the top to a finished 270mm.
Three things bring the call. A cold room that the heating never really fixes. A trip up the ladder that shows thin material lying flat between the joists with the timber standing proud of it. And condensation, seen as damp patches on a ceiling or droplets under the felt. A lot of the housing around here is recent enough to have been built with insulation already in the roof, which is exactly why so many of these lofts have never been looked at since. We look at yours before quoting. The site visit is free, and so is the written itemised quote.
The work
Adding the layer the builder never laid
The layer that came with the house. A newer roof usually has one layer laid between the joists and finishing flush with them. That was the standard of its day, and it leaves every joist in the ceiling acting as a cold bridge straight through to the loft. It has also settled since, so it now sits below the top of the timber rather than level with it. Straightening that and closing the gaps is the first hour of the job.
The cross laid layer is the actual work. The second layer goes across the joists at right angles, not between them, which is what covers the timber and brings the finished depth to 270mm. Mineral wool in a roll, glass wool or rockwool, does most of it. Batts suit uneven or trussed centres, loose fill goes where nobody can crawl, and rigid board such as PIR or Celotex is for the places headroom will not take a roll. Sheep wool and multi-foil are for exceptions.
What comes out. Not everything is worth keeping. Material that is wet from an old leak, crushed flat under boarding or contaminated with droppings is bagged and leaves with us. Patchy runs where a cable or an aerial lead was pulled through get made good. Nothing new goes down over something that should have come out, because you cannot inspect it afterwards.
The eaves, and the ventilation. Insulation stops at the wall plate. Trussed roofs are shallow at the edge and that is precisely where somebody is tempted to pack it in. Vent trays hold the air gap open under the felt so cross ventilation still works, and where a roof runs on breathable membrane the detail differs slightly. A ridge vent covers the case where the eaves cannot be opened. Blocking them buys a warm bedroom and a wet roof.
Services, storage and slopes. A cold water tank and its pipework want lagging once the loft is a cold space. Cables are lifted and clipped over rather than buried, because wiring that cannot lose heat carries less current, and recessed lights and downlighters get fire rated covers. The hatch is insulated on the back and draught sealed. Storage sits on a raised floor of loft legs and boarding above full depth, with a platform by the hatch and the loft ladder left usable. Sloping ceilings and dormers follow the rafters instead.
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 sets out. The standard it has to reach comes from Approved Document L, with Dorset Council for building control, and where more than half a roof element is 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 house with a trussed roof and a landing hatch, a bungalow you can step straight up into, and a top floor flat reached from a shared landing are three different jobs. 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. A shallow modern roof space goes damp faster than a big old one, so droplets under the felt here are worth acting on rather than watching. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
A house built with insulation is why nobody has checked it
The oddity of newer housing is that it makes people stop looking. A house built with insulation in the roof feels like a house where the loft is dealt with, so the hatch stays shut for thirty years. Meanwhile two things happen. The material settles, so it is thinner than the day it went in. And the depth expected has moved a long way since, so even at its original thickness it would be well short now.
What that means in practice is cheerful enough. You almost never need to strip a loft like this out. There is a sound first layer already sitting between the joists, so the work is to straighten it, fill in where cables and hatch trimmers have left gaps, and then cross lay a fresh layer over the joists to bring the whole ceiling up together. It is usually a single day, it uses less material than starting from bare plasterboard, and the difference upstairs is felt the first cold evening after.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Stone, Wimborne Minster, Furzehill, Merley, Corfe Mullen and Broadstone in the BH21 postcodes, with Dorset 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
Stone questions we get asked
Is this a quick job?
Usually one day, and often less material than people expect, because the layer between the joists is generally worth keeping. Straightening it and closing the gaps comes first, then the cross laid layer goes over the lot. Clearing storage or lifting boards adds a day.
Our house came with insulation. Do we really need more?
Almost certainly. One layer flush with the joists leaves every joist bridging heat out of the ceiling, and it has settled since. The U value of that ceiling will be well short of what Part L expects, and a cross laid second layer fixes both problems at once.
Does the old material have to come out?
Not if it is dry and sound. We straighten it, close the gaps and keep it as the first layer, which costs you less. It only comes out where it is wet, crushed flat under boards or contaminated.
Will more insulation cause condensation?
Not while the eaves stay open. Adding depth lowers the temperature of everything above your ceiling, and moisture from the house then finds those colder timbers. A shallow modern roof holds less air to carry it away, which is why the vent trays are not optional.
Will we see it on the heating bill?
Yes. Heat loss upwards is the largest single loss in most houses, so getting the ceiling to full depth is the thermal gain people actually feel, and it lifts the fabric score on an EPC. The draught seal round the hatch is noticed the same evening.
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Find out what is actually up there
Thomas gets into the loft, measures the depth you really have and prices the rest in writing. Both are free.