Wall insulation in Ashley Heath

The borescope, and what we look for. Cavity width, mortar snots bridging the ties, whether existing fill has slumped, and whether the material in there is wet. On the south west elevation we check at more than one height, because a bridge low down and a slump high up produce completely different symptoms inside.

Bead, not wool, on the exposed side. In Ashley Heath, bonded polystyrene bead is loose beads stuck to each other with adhesive. Water cannot travel through it the way it travels through a wet mat of mineral wool, and it stays where it is put instead of settling. Blown mineral wool is the older method and it is still fine on a sheltered elevation. How exposed a wall is to wind driven rain is a measured thing, assessed against BS 8104 rather than guessed.

Filling a suitable wall. Where the cavity is clear, dry and wide enough, the wall is drilled on a pattern, filled and made good in a day on a normal Ashley Heath bungalow. The holes are made good in mortar matched to the wall, and on a single storey the whole run is worked off a tower rather than a scaffold.

When the answer is no. A cavity in Ashley Heath that is bridged, already wet or too narrow does not get filled, and you will hear that on the visit, before anything is drilled. On solid brick and block the route is internal wall insulation, IWI, with insulated plasterboard or a batten and stud frame filled with mineral wool, PIR laminate such as Celotex or Kingspan where depth is tight, and the vapour control layer taped per BS 8000-8.

External wall insulation, EWI. Boards, a render carrier and a render finish. On an exposed Ashley Heath elevation it does something a cavity fill cannot: it puts a weatherproof coat over the masonry, so the driving rain never reaches the brick at all. It keeps the room size too. What it changes is the appearance of the house and the eaves detail.

Fill that has failed. Wool that has slumped in an Ashley Heath wall leaves a cold band under the eaves and black mould inside along that line. A wet cavity gives penetrating damp that follows the weather. Both begin with extraction, drilling out and vacuuming the old material, and on the weather side the refill is normally bead.

Junctions, ventilation and draughts. Reveals, the threshold, the floor junction, the eaves and the joist ends carry the heat loss, and a thermal bridge left at any of them collects condensation whatever the u value beside it. Reveals take a thin board or aerogel. Then trickle vents, a working extract fan and clear air bricks, because airtightness without ventilation is how a warm house turns damp, and Approved Document F sets what is expected.

Wall area is simple to measure. The edges around it are not, so there is no square metre rate. What the borescope finds. An empty, dry cavity is quick to fill. Old fill that has slumped or taken on water may have to be drawn out before new goes in, which is a much bigger job. Where there is no cavity, a solid wall is lined inside or clad outside instead. We look before we price.

Rain on the south west side. South west is the side that takes the weather at Ashley Heath. The wrong fill on that wall can wick rain across to the inner leaf, so the fill type, and the state of the brick and pointing outside, matter most there.

Reach. A bungalow is drilled from a ladder or tower, while a chalet or a two storey gable goes on scaffold, with the platform set by the work at height rules. An internal lining disturbs rooms rather than the garden.

The details. Window and door reveals, where the floor meets the wall, the eaves, and a party wall or a wall shared with the garage are where warmth leaks out and mould appears if the detail is poor. It is fiddly work and the first corner a cheap price cuts.

When comparing, find out whether the other firm actually looked inside the wall, which product and thickness they intend to use, how they will treat the reveals, whether ventilation is dealt with, and who puts the plaster and decoration right afterwards.

Wall insulation in Ashley Heath, along Horton Road and across St Leonards, St Ives and Ringwood comes from our Boscombe base, a drive of 7.1 miles, and Dorset Council is the building control authority. The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Ashley Heath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Its owner, Thomas Hannen, does the borescope check and the pricing himself. A verified Checkatrade customer rated us 10 out of 10. The visit costs nothing, and nor does the written quote, which is itemised line by line.

Most repairs in Ashley Heath 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.