Loft insulation in West Lulworth

What is there, and what goes over it. The usual find is one layer of mineral wool between the joists, settled, thin at the edges and missing altogether in the corners. Sound material is straightened and kept, gaps are filled, and a new unbacked roll is cross laid over the joists at right angles. Two layers laid across each other reach about 270mm, which covers the timber instead of leaving each joist carrying heat straight through the ceiling.

Clearing. Wet wool, anything compressed flat under old boarding, patchy stretches, material contaminated by droppings and loose fill that has drifted into the eaves all come out. It is bagged in the roof space and carried down rather than covered over, and it leaves with us rather than going in your bin.

Getting about in an old roof. Small trap hatches, low collars and a cut roof with purlins across it are normal in the village, and the ceiling below is often lath and plaster that will not take weight. Nothing is stood on a ceiling. We move on boards laid across the joists and work outwards, and batts cut to fit go in tighter than roll wherever a chimney breast or a strut breaks the run up.

Ventilation, and the coast. Insulation stops over the wall plate with a vent tray in each bay holding the air gap open, so cross ventilation still runs from one side to the other. Less than a mile from the sea, the air pulled through a roof space is damp for a good part of the year, and a colder loft sits nearer dew point than it used to. Keeping the eaves open is what lets it dry. An unfelted roof breathes through the covering, a felted one relies entirely on those edges, and blocking them gives you condensation on the underside and mould along the timbers.

Services, storage and roof rooms. The tank and its pipework are lagged and given a lid once the loft goes cold, with nothing laid beneath the tank. Recessed lights take fire rated covers and cable and wiring are lifted clear rather than buried. Storage goes on loft legs as a raised floor above the full depth, with a platform at the loft ladder and an insulated, draught sealed hatch. A room in the roof, a dormer or a sloping ceiling is rafter level work: rigid board between the rafters, the air gap kept open above, PIR beneath, taped so the vapour control is continuous.

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 stone cottage with a trap cut into a bedroom ceiling, a house where the roof space is reached through a landing cupboard, and a bungalow with a fitted ladder are three quite different mornings before any material is laid. 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.

Every loft job comes down to one decision: does the insulation go over the ceiling, leaving the roof space cold and ventilated, or up against the rafters, making the roof itself warm. In most villages that is a question of what you want the space for. Inside West Lulworth Conservation Area it is also a question of what the council will accept, and it is worth answering before anything is ordered.

Ceiling level work is entirely yours. Depth, material, trays at the eaves, a sealed hatch, boarding on legs, none of it shows and none of it is controlled. Rafter level work often does show, because a warm roof usually needs its ventilation dealt with at the top and the bottom, and because a room in the roof needs light from somewhere. Tile vents, a ridge vent or a new rooflight all change the face of the roof, and in a conservation area that is an application rather than a decision on the day. So our advice here is to do the invisible work first and get real value out of it, then take on the visible part with the council's answer already in hand rather than halfway through the job.

We cover West Lulworth, East Lulworth, Winfrith Newburgh, Wool, Wareham and the BH20 addresses around them, with Dorset Council for planning, listed building consent 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.