Wall insulation in Branksome
Borescope checks, internal lining for the older solid brick houses, and plain advice on cavities and flats.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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In Branksome the older houses, built around 1900, are mostly solid brick and are insulated from the inside or the outside, while the inter-war and later houses usually have a cavity. A borescope through one small hole in a mortar joint tells you which you have and whether a cavity is worth filling, and that check comes before any quote.
Wall insulation in Branksome usually starts from a familiar complaint. A north facing bedroom in an Edwardian house that never warms up, with black mould behind the furniture by January. A semi where nobody knows if the cavity was ever filled. Or a flat in a block or a converted house, where the owner wants warmer walls and is not sure whether they are allowed to touch them.
We come out, check the wall, take moisture readings, walk round the outside to look at the brick, pointing and render, and photograph what matters. The quote is written and itemised. For lofts and floors, see insulation in Branksome.
The work
Solid walls, cavities, and knowing which
Which Branksome you live in matters. Age is only a clue here. The houses near County Gates are mostly solid brick, the semis on the side streets usually have a narrow cavity, and a 1960s block behind Poole Road has a wider one, but render or tile hanging hides all of it.
A borescope through one hole drilled in a Branksome mortar joint answers the questions that matter: is there a gap, how wide, is it clean and dry, and has someone already filled it. The hole is made good in matching mortar before we leave.
Cavity walls. A clear, dry Branksome cavity can be filled with blown bead or mineral wool. That work is done by a specialist cavity installer who registers the fill and issues the paperwork. Our part is the honest survey first, and the repairs a fill depends on, because a cavity should never be filled behind cracked render, open joints or a leaking gutter.
An old fill in a semi. Where a side-street semi was filled decades ago, the fill can slump and leave a cold band under the eaves, or get wet and carry penetrating damp across to the bedroom plaster. The borescope tells those apart. Failed fill is extracted by a specialist, and the cause, usually an overflowing gutter or blown pointing on the weather side, is put right first.
Lining the older houses near County Gates. IWI is our preferred route on solid brick. Insulated plasterboard bonded to the wall, or battens or a stud frame with PIR board or mineral wool between, then boarded and skimmed. Celotex and Kingspan type boards give most for the thickness, and a thin aerogel lining suits a narrow hall or a bay. Reveals, the floor junction, the joist ends and the return at the party wall are wrapped, because that is where a thermal bridge forms and mould appears. A bedroom takes two or three days plus drying.
External wall insulation. EWI is board fixed to the outside, then a render carrier and a thin coat finish. It wraps a whole Branksome house, keeps every room its size and deals with the cold bridge at the corners and eaves. Sills, pipes and the eaves are extended to suit, and it needs a scaffold, so it is a big job and usually priced with a re-render.
Ventilation and moisture. Insulating a Branksome wall stops it losing heat and moves the dew point, so the air in the room has to go somewhere. Trickle vents, an extract fan that actually clears the kitchen or bathroom, and open air bricks are part of the job, and a taped vapour layer keeps interstitial condensation out of an internal lining. You feel the lower heat loss in the room long before the payback shows on an EPC.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
One person to ring from the first visit to the last. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: the survey and any borescope check, the system and its thickness, making good around windows and doors, ventilation works, 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.
Lining a wall inside needs no planning permission, as the Planning Portal guidance on insulation explains. Cladding the outside is different: it is not permitted development in a conservation area such as Brunstead Road, and flats have no householder permitted development rights at all, so check the council keeps the list. Either way, renovating a wall is building control work under regulation 23, and it has to meet Part L, Approved Document L.
Cost
What decides the price of a wall insulation job
No rate per square metre, because the wall area is the easy part; what happens at every window, door and floor junction is not.
Getting to it. An Edwardian house with a solid back wall above a flat roofed kitchen, a rendered 1930s semi with a narrow side path that needs a tower, and a flat in a three storey block where the outside wall belongs to the freeholder each start from a different set-up. Cavity fill is drilled from outside and a bungalow comes off a tower where a three storey gable wants a scaffold. Internal lining is worked room by room from inside, so it is your rooms rather than a platform that gets disrupted. The work at height rules still set the platform.
Which wall you actually have. A cavity that is clear and dry can be filled in a day. A solid wall cannot be filled at all, and has to be lined inside or insulated outside, which is a different job at a different price. A borescope through one drilled hole settles it, and no honest quote is written before that.
The junctions, not the field of the wall. Reveals at windows and doors, the floor junction, the eaves and any party wall are where heat escapes and where condensation shows up if the detailing is wrong. That work is slow, it is most of the labour, and it is the first thing a cheap quote leaves out.
Comparing quotes? Ask whether the wall has actually been checked with a borescope or just assumed, what system and what thickness is specified, how the reveals and floor junction are being detailed, whether ventilation is being addressed, and who makes good the plaster and decoration afterwards.
If damp has appeared
Damp or mould after a wall was insulated
Ring rather than use the form. Damp patches or black mould appearing on an outside wall after cavity fill or internal lining usually means water is tracking across the cavity, or warm air is reaching a cold surface at a junction.
We look before we take anything out, because the fix depends on which of those it is. Before we open up a lining, we check the gutter, downpipe and pointing outside the patch, because in these older walls water from outside is the usual cause. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For anything urgent, ring rather than use the form, and if we cannot pick up we ring you back as soon as we can.
The one local thing
Flats, and who owns the wall
A lot of Branksome's homes are flats, in purpose built blocks and in older houses divided up. In almost every lease the outside walls belong to the freeholder, and the leaseholder owns the plaster on the inside face. That decides what you can do. Internal wall insulation on your side of the wall is usually yours to arrange, though many leases still ask for the freeholder's written consent to any alteration, so read yours before booking anything.
External insulation or cavity fill is a job for the whole building. It has to be ordered by the freeholder or managing agent, it needs planning because flats have no permitted development rights, and if it comes out of the service charge the leaseholders must be consulted first under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. That takes months, not weeks. So if you own a cold flat now, lining the worst room from inside is usually the realistic route, and we can quote that alone. If you manage a block, we can survey the walls and give you a written report and quote you can put to the leaseholders.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Branksome, BH12, from Poole Road and the station up to Alder Road and the Bourne Valley, and into Parkstone, Westbourne and Branksome Park. BCP Council handles planning 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. Before you book a visit in Branksome, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Branksome?
Most repairs in Branksome 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 Branksome |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Branksome. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Brunstead Road Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Branksome. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Branksome. |
Questions
Questions about wall insulation in Branksome
How do I know whether my walls have a cavity?
Not from the street, not in Branksome, where render and tile hanging cover both kinds. One small hole in a mortar joint and a borescope show whether there is a gap, whether it is clear and dry, and what is already in it.
Do you fill cavities yourselves?
No, cavity fill is done by a specialist installer who registers the work. We survey the wall first, tell you honestly whether it suits a fill, and do the repairs it depends on.
I own a flat. Can I insulate my walls?
Usually from the inside, with the freeholder's consent if your lease asks for it. Anything on the outside of the building has to be ordered by the freeholder.
Can wall insulation cause damp?
It can if a wet wall is covered over or ventilation is ignored. That is why the outside is checked first and trickle vents and extract fans are part of the quote.
Nearby, and next door
Wall insulation near Branksome
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Damp at the bottom of a wall: what it is PIR board vs mineral wool: which insulation? Hollow-sounding wall: blown plaster or dot and dabEverything we do in Branksome Wall insulation, all areas Every area we cover
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Find out what your walls are made of
A free visit, a borescope check, and a written quote with the survey, the system and the making good each on its own line.