Loft insulation in Walhampton and Portmore
Older houses with more than one roof void, each of them found, measured and brought up to depth without closing the eaves, around Walhampton, Portmore and SO41.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
In an older house there is rarely one loft. There is the main one, then a lower void over a back addition, sometimes a third over a bay, each with its own hatch or none at all. Missing one is the commonest reason a house stays cold after the loft has been done.
Why people ring
The loft was done, and the house is still cold
The call we get most often from here is not from somebody with a bare loft. It is from somebody whose loft was insulated at some point, who has spent a winter finding out that one or two rooms never got the benefit, and who wants to know why. Usually the answer is that the room in question is not under the loft that was done.
So we come and look at all of it. Every void found and opened, the depth measured where it genuinely is, the eaves checked in each space rather than one, and photographs of the lot. Then an itemised written quote with each space priced on its own line, so you can see what the awkward one costs and decide about it. The site visit and the quote are both free.
The work
Finding every void before laying anything in one
The survey starts outside. We count the roof planes from the garden, then work out from inside which of them has a void behind it, which has a hatch and which needs one formed. In a house that has grown over a century that is rarely obvious from the landing. Some voids are reached through a cupboard, some through a panel nobody has opened, some only on your knees from the main loft. Access is settled here rather than later, because it is still work at height even indoors.
The main loft, done properly. Whatever is between the joists gets teased apart, straightened and topped with a second layer of roll, cross laid across the joists so the timber stops working as a cold bridge. Two layers, around 270mm finished, is the U value a renovated ceiling is expected to reach under Part L. Mineral wool roll for most of it, glass wool or rockwool depending, batts where hand cut joists wander, loose fill only where a roll cannot reach, sheep wool if you want it. Anything compressed, damp, contaminated with droppings or drifted into a corner comes out and is bagged at the hatch first.
The lower voids, which is where the cold rooms are. A back addition or an outshot usually has its own shallow space at its own level, often with no ventilation of its own and no material in it at all. That is a crawl and it is slow, but it is why the bedroom over the back of the house has never been warm. Where a void genuinely cannot be reached, the honest answer is rafter level from below when that ceiling is next opened up, with PIR rigid board such as Celotex between and under the rafters, a taped vapour control layer and a multi-foil quilt where the depth is short.
Air, then everything else. Insulation stops at the wall plate, a vent tray at each rafter keeps the gap open above it, and the cross ventilation runs soffit to soffit in every void, not just the big one. Old bitumen felt over boxed in soffits, or a breathable membrane fitted when the roof was last done, both change what is possible, and condensation on the felt with black mould on the timbers is what a choked void looks like. Then fire rated covers over downlighters and any other recessed light, wiring clipped above the new layer rather than buried, lagging on the cold water tank and its pipework, loft legs and a raised floor where you want storage, a platform boarded where you use one, and the hatch insulated and draught sealed with the loft ladder checked against the new floor.
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 roof space is not development and needs no application, which Planning Portal guidance on insulation confirms, so permitted development does not arise. Building control appears only where the roof itself is renovated, and regulation 23 then brings that whole element up to current standard. The New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority here, there is a conservation area over this part of the parish and a great many listed entries around it, and National Park heritage and conservation guidance covers how that side is handled.
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 main loft you can stand up in, a shallow void over a back addition, and a top floor flat where the hatch sits on 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. Walhampton and Portmore are a run down the coast road for us, so say when you ring if a loft is genuinely wet and somebody comes ahead of the survey list. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
An older house has more than one roof, and they do not talk to each other
A good share of the housing around Walhampton and Portmore went up before the First World War, and older houses grow. A back addition here, a bay there, a rear extension a generation later, each with its own roof at its own level. From inside it reads as one house. From the loft hatch it is nothing of the sort, and that is worth knowing before anybody quotes you for a loft.
The consequences are all practical. Ventilation does not carry from one void to another, so a main loft with a clear eaves path can sit alongside a lower space with no ventilation at all, quietly sweating away behind a wall. Depth does not carry either, so a bedroom under the back addition can be freezing while the main loft measures beautifully on a tape. And where two roofs meet there is almost always a gap at the wall plate that nobody has reached in a hundred years. Half an hour spent working out how many roof spaces you actually have is the difference between a house that feels different afterwards and one that does not.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Walhampton, Portmore, Boldre, Pilley, Lymington and the SO41 addresses around them, with the New Forest National Park Authority for planning. 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
Walhampton and Portmore questions we get asked
Our loft was done years ago. Is there anything left to do?
Two things, usually. The depth has settled and the standard has moved, so what was generous then is thin now. And the work almost certainly covered the main loft only. If part of your house is under a lower roof, that space is probably untouched, and it is where the cold room is. Worth half an hour to find out.
How do you get into a void with no hatch?
Carefully, and only with your agreement. Sometimes there is a route through from the main loft at the junction of the two roofs. Where there is not, a small hatch can usually be formed in a sensible place, cut between joists and finished with an insulated and draught sealed cover. We will show you where it would go before anything is cut.
Does each roof space need its own ventilation?
Yes, and this is the part that gets missed. Air does not travel between separate voids, so each one needs its own clear path at the eaves. A lower void with no ventilation and fresh insulation in it will condense on the underside of the felt within a winter, which is a problem you did not have before the work.
How long does it take, and does it show on the bill?
A main loft is half a day to a day. Awkward lower voids add to that and are priced separately so you can see what they cost. Heat loss through the roof is the biggest single loss in a house, so it shows on the heating bill and on an EPC, and VAT on energy saving materials follows HMRC VAT Notice 708/6.
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Get a price for your loft at Walhampton or Portmore
Tell us the address and which room is the cold one. We will find every roof space you have, measure them, and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, no obligation.