Loft insulation in West Moors
Full depth right into the corners, your storage kept, 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.
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On a West Moors bungalow the loft is the whole roof over the house, and a hipped roof has edge on all four sides. Two layers of mineral wool, usually a top-up to 270mm, with the corners done by hand, the eaves open, any boarding raised and the tank wrapped. Walls and floors are on insulation in West Moors.
A West Moors loft usually shows its problem across the whole bungalow, under the boards or on the roof timbers. The whole bungalow is cold instead of one room. The loft is boarded and nobody has seen what is under the boards for years. Or damp, spotted as mould on the underside of the roof when something is fetched down. Around half the homes in West Moors are bungalows and a great many went up within a few years of each other, so the roofs are much of a type and the same faults come up again and again. We still open the hatch on yours before quoting. The site visit and the written itemised quote are both free.
The work
Getting into the corners of a hipped roof
The corners of a hipped roof. A hipped bungalow roof in West Moors drops to the wall plate on all four sides, and the four corners are the worst place in the building to work. The roof is inches deep, the trusses are braced across it and you cannot get a knee in.
That is exactly where depth is quietly given up, so we lay those corners by hand and from the right direction, working outward from the middle rather than trying to reach in from the hatch.
What the boards are hiding. Most of these West Moors lofts have been boarded for storage, and the boards sit straight on the ceiling joists. The wool underneath is compressed to a fraction of its depth, which is not insulation any more, just a filled gap. Elsewhere it has settled, gone patchy, been pulled back to leave a gap round a cable, or is missing altogether at the edges. Anything wet or contaminated with droppings is bagged and taken away. We lift the boards, see what is actually there, and get full depth back before anything is put down again.
Two layers, and the material. Mineral wool in a roll, glass wool or rockwool, goes between the joists first, cut to a friction fit. The second layer is cross laid across them to a finished 270mm, which is the layer that takes the timber out of the heat path. Batts suit trussed centres, loose fill goes where nobody can crawl, and rigid board such as PIR or Celotex earns its place at a low eaves run where a roll simply will not fit.
The eaves have to stay open. Insulation stops at the wall plate. On a shallow bungalow roof that plate is close and the temptation to pack the last bit in is strong. Vent trays hold the air gap under the felt so cross ventilation still works all the way round, and a ridge vent helps where the eaves cannot be opened up. Block them and you have bought condensation, black mould on the timbers and a wet roof.
Chalets and rooms in the roof. Plenty of bungalows in West Moors have had part of the roof space taken in, so half the ceiling is flat and half of it slopes. On the sloping part the work follows the rafters instead: rigid board cut between them with a clear air gap kept above to the underlay, a second layer under, and the joints taped. A dormer cheek is small and loses a lot, and where the covering is coming off anyway a warm roof build up over the top costs less again.
Storage put back properly. The boards go back on loft legs as a raised floor, above the second layer rather than on it, with a platform by the hatch so the loft ladder stays usable. The hatch itself gets insulated on the back and draught sealed. A cold water tank and its pipework want lagging once the loft is cold, cables are lifted and clipped over rather than buried, and recessed lights and downlighters get fire rated covers.
How it runs
Insulating a hipped bungalow loft in West Moors
Thomas comes out, gets into your West Moors loft and checks what is there: the depth of the old quilt, whether the eaves are open, the joists, the felt, and any tank or pipes. He works the price out himself. On the written quote: the survey, clearing and bagging the old material, the new mineral wool and its depth, keeping the eaves clear, the hatch and any pipework, and disposal.
A bungalow hatch is usually in the hall, so a sheet runs from the front door along the hall floor. Old quilt comes down in bags. New wool goes in two layers, the first between the joists and the second across them, and we work right into the low corners at each hip, where it is easy to leave gaps. Stored boxes are moved and put back. If there is a wet patch, a leaking tank or a bathroom fan blowing into the loft, you see a picture and a price before we deal with it.
Nothing in West Moors is in a conservation area, and the only listed entry is the war memorial, so an ordinary house is not controlled for appearance, and loft insulation is not development in any case, as Planning Portal guidance on insulation confirms. Approved Document L sets the standard, building control is Dorset Council, and HMRC VAT Notice 708/6 covers the VAT on insulation.
Cost
Low hips and wide lofts: pricing bungalow insulation
The floor area is quick to measure. On a bungalow, it is the edges and corners that take the time.
A big, shallow loft. A bungalow loft covers the whole house, so there is more area per home than in a two storey house, and more to gain. The middle is quick. The hips bring the roof down to the joists at each end, and working quilt into those low corners on your knees is slow.
What is there already. Most lofts in West Moors had a thin layer put in when the houses were new, around the turn of the seventies, and many were topped up later. Squashed, dusty quilt is lifted and bagged, or topped up if it is still sound. Boarding put down for storage has to come up and go back, or be raised on legs so the new depth fits under it.
The eaves. On a shallow roof the insulation runs close to the eaves, and it must stop at the wall plate with a gap for air, or the felt sweats. Fitting eaves trays round the whole perimeter of a hipped bungalow is a real piece of work.
Extras. Covers over downlighters, lagging on pipes and the tank, and an insulated hatch are small items that add up. Approved Document L sets the target depth.
Ask others how they will reach the hip corners, whether boarding is being raised, and how the eaves will be kept open.
If the loft is wet
Damp felt, mould or wet insulation in the loft
Beads of water under the felt, black spots of mould along the rafters or quilt that feels damp all point the same way: moist air from the house is getting into a loft with no way out.
On a shallow bungalow roof it builds up faster than under a tall two storey one. Phone instead of using the form, because the roof timbers take the damage. Nothing more goes in until we know why, since extra insulation in a loft that cannot breathe only traps more wet. The first visit looks for blocked eaves, a bathroom fan blowing into the loft or a leak, and deals with it. Scheduled work is Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and if we miss you, we call back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
A hipped roof has four times the edge and four awkward corners
About half the homes in West Moors are bungalows, and a bungalow roof is usually hipped rather than gabled. That single fact changes where the work is. A gabled roof has two long eaves runs and two solid brick ends. A hipped roof has eaves the whole way round, so the perimeter, the shallowest and most awkward part of any loft, is far longer for the same floor area, and it meets in four corners where nobody can comfortably reach.
That is where a cheap job shows itself. Material is thrown in from the hatch, the middle of the loft is at full depth and the last stretch to the wall plate, right round the building, is thin or bare. You feel it as cold running down the outside walls of every room, because on a bungalow every room has an outside wall meeting that ceiling. So we work the perimeter deliberately, corner by corner, and it is the reason a bungalow loft can take longer than a bigger house.
Who you are dealing with
Loft insulation in West Moors and Ashley Heath
Lofts in West Moors, Ferndown, Three Legged Cross, Ashley Heath, West Parley and Longham are all ones we cover, with Dorset Council for planning and building control. West Moors sits 7.1 miles from where we are based in Boscombe.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and Thomas Hannen, who owns it, goes up into your loft to price the work himself. Checkatrade shows a 10 out of 10 from a verified customer. The visit costs you nothing, nor does the written quote that lists each item. Before you book a visit in West Moors, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in West Moors?
Most repairs in West Moors 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.
| Question | In West Moors |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for West Moors. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers West Moors, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, West Moors has listed buildings. If yours is one, or stands in the grounds of one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers West Moors. |
Questions
Questions about loft insulation in West Moors
How long does a bungalow loft take?
A day where the loft is clear. Where it is boarded and full, allow two: the storage comes down, the boards come up, the depth goes in and the raised floor goes back. You are told which at the visit.
We have boards down. Is the insulation under them ruined?
Usually it is crushed, not ruined. Compressed wool does a fraction of what it should, so we lift the boards, straighten or replace what is underneath, get full depth in and put the boards back on loft legs above it.
Why do the corners matter so much?
Because on a hipped roof there are four of them and the roof is only inches deep there. It is the hardest place to reach and the easiest to skip, and it runs along the outside wall of every room. Thin corners are felt as cold walls, not as a cold loft.
Will insulating cause damp up there?
Only where the eaves get packed out. A hipped bungalow roof is shallow the whole way round, so there is little air up there to carry moisture off. The trays go in, the hatch gets sealed, and the bathroom fan wants to discharge through the roof rather than into it.
Is it worth it on the heating bill?
On a bungalow more than anywhere. All of your floor area sits under one ceiling, so heat loss upwards is a bigger share of the total than in a two storey house, and the thermal gain is felt in every room. It lifts the fabric score on an EPC as well.
Nearby, and next door
Loft insulation near West Moors
Nearby places we also cover for loft insulation, with straight-line distances from West Moors, and the other trades we offer in West Moors itself.
Loft insulation nearby
Our other trades in West Moors
Loft insulation guides
Part L: do you have to insulate when you re-roof? Loft condensation or a roof leak: how to tell PIR board vs mineral wool: which insulation?Everything we do in West Moors Loft insulation, all areas Every area we cover
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See what is under your loft boards
Thomas lifts a board, measures the real depth and prices the loft line by line. The visit and the quote are free.