Loft insulation in Wool

The problems in Wool divide fairly neatly. Bedrooms that lose their warmth within the hour of the heating going off. A loft cleared out for the first time in years, where the layer turns out to be flat, uneven and stopping a foot short of every wall. Or a wet roof, with the felt running and the rafters going dark.

None of the three is answerable from the doorstep.

So we come out, get through the hatch and read the roof. What is up there, the depth once a rule has gone into it, the run and the centres of the joists, whether the wall plate is still clear, and what has been stacked on top. It gets photographed. The site visit costs nothing and the written quote is itemised line by line. If the ceiling is already sound you will be told where your heat is actually going instead.

The first job is to look rather than to lay. Droppings along the joists, staining under a gap at the ridge, feathers worked into the eaves: any of those and the wool stays in the van until you have had proper advice.

Where the roof is clear, out comes whatever is finished. Material that has been wet under a slipped tile, or is contaminated, gets bagged where it sits and leaves with us. A layer that is only compressed and patchy is worth keeping, so it is teased back open, straightened and its gaps closed rather than binned.

Then the edges, before any depth arrives. The new layer runs right out to the wall plate and stops, and a vent tray goes up in each rafter bay to hold an air gap above it. That is what keeps ventilation crossing the roof soffit to soffit and the felt dry. Boxed soffits make it harder, and where the eaves genuinely cannot be opened, a ridge vent or a few vent tiles take the work on. Approved Document F sits behind all of it, and getting it wrong is how you buy condensation, damp material and black mould instead of a warm bedroom.

Then the depth, in two goes. The first run of mineral wool sits between the joists, friction fitted so nothing is missing down the sides. The second is turned square and laid across the joists, which is the run that covers the timber and stops a ceiling losing heat in lines. Around 270mm together is the u value a renovated ceiling is expected to make, and Approved Document L is where that comes from. It is also the run that most of the old installations here never had. Glass wool roll for the clear stretches, rockwool batts for a cut roof with bays of every width, loose fill for the corners, sheep wool if you ask.

Everything that lives up there gets dealt with on the same visit. Recessed lights take a rated cover apiece. Cables are lifted and clipped to the timber rather than left buried, because buried wiring runs warm. A cold water tank and its pipework have just been put outside the warm envelope of the house, so a jacket and lagging go on and nothing is laid underneath the tank.

Last, the loft you still have to use. Boards screwed straight onto the joists press the wool flat and waste what you have paid for, so a raised floor goes up on loft legs over full depth and only the platform you actually walk on is boarded. The hatch is insulated on its back and draught sealed, and the loft ladder reset if the new floor fouls it. Where the roof is already a room, with a dormer and sloping ceilings, the whole thing moves up to rafter level: rigid PIR board cut between the rafters with a clear gap under the underlay, another layer beneath it, joints taped, and a warm roof built to keep interstitial condensation away from the timbers. Multi-foil quilt goes where nothing thicker will fit.

Most lofts in Wool sit over a trussed roof from the seventies or eighties, with a thin blanket of wool laid between the ceiling ties when the house was new. Thomas climbs up, checks the depth, the eaves and the underside of the felt for damp, and prices it himself.

On the quote you will find the survey, clearing out what is up there, the new material and its depth, eave vents or trays, the hatch, and pipework, with disposal on its own line. The new layer goes across the ties so there is no cold line along each timber. Air paths at the eaves stay open, the hatch gets insulated and a draught seal, and the tank and pipes now above the insulation are wrapped. Whatever you store up there is moved and put back, and the landing is hoovered before we go. Damp timber or a bathroom fan blowing into the roof gets photographed and priced on its own.

This is not development, so there is nothing to apply for, as Planning Portal guidance on insulation explains. Regulation 23 brings building control in only when more than half an element is renovated. On a listed building, listed building consent is the first thing to check, because it can reach inside. The old core of Wool is also a conservation area, so if a rooflight or vent tiles are part of the answer there, ask Dorset Council before anything is ordered. Read the VAT rules for energy saving materials before you buy anything yourself.

Droplets on the underside of the felt, black mould on the timbers, or insulation that feels wet all mean warm, moist air is reaching a space that cannot breathe. The roof timbers pay for it, so it should not wait.

Use the phone, 07435 839745, not the form. Should nobody pick up, expect our call back as soon as we can. Before anything is added, we look at the ventilation, any fan outlets and the felt, because more insulation in a loft that cannot breathe makes it worse. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Call now: 07435 839745

Wool sits on the edge of the heath and the water meadows, and that shows up in the roofs. Bats roost in lofts here, particularly in the older buildings with gaps at the verge and around the ridge, and swifts, swallows and house sparrows use the eaves.

All British bats and their roosts are protected in law, whether or not a bat is there on the day, and it is an offence to damage a roost or disturb one. Active birds nests are protected too while they are in use.

What this means in practice is simple enough. We look for the signs before anything is laid: droppings on the joists or on the floor below the hatch, staining at a gap in the ridge, feathers and nest material in the eaves. If there is nothing, the job goes ahead as normal. If there is, we stop and you take proper advice before insulation goes down over the top of it, because rolling wool across a roost is both illegal and a very expensive thing to have to undo. It usually delays a job rather than stopping it, and out of the nesting season the answer is often to work round it. Anyone who quotes an old Wool roof without going up has not looked for any of this.

Nearby places we also cover for loft insulation, with straight-line distances from Wool, and the other trades we offer in Wool itself.

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