Wall insulation in Bryanston

Settling what the wall is. Wall thickness at a window reveal and the bond in the brickwork usually tell you whether you have a nine inch solid wall or a brick and block cavity. Where they do not, one hole in a mortar joint and a borescope does. That gives the cavity width, whether it is clear and dry, whether the wall ties are bridged, and whether a failed fill is already sitting in there.

Cavity fill. A clear, dry cavity is filled from outside through a drilled pattern with bonded bead or blown mineral wool and made good in matched mortar. On a house with clear access it is usually a day. The fill itself is done by a registered installer, not by us, and normally carries a CIGA certificate; ask to see it and keep the paperwork with the deeds.

A fill that has slumped. In a Bryanston cavity, settled material leaves the head of the wall empty and a wet mass at the bottom, and that is worse than an empty cavity because it hands water to the inner leaf. Black mould inside after a wet, windy spell is the usual sign. Extraction comes out through the lowest course and the cavity is cleaned before a new fill goes in.

Internal wall insulation. Insulated plasterboard on a continuous adhesive bed, or PIR such as Celotex or Kingspan between battens or a stud, taped and skimmed to BS 8000-8, with a vapour control layer where the wall is solid. Coldest rooms first. It takes width off the room and the sockets, radiators, skirtings and window boards move with it.

External wall insulation. Boards fixed and rendered over a render carrier. EWI gives the better U value because it wraps a Bryanston house and cures the cold bridge at every floor junction, but on one half of a matched pair it looks exactly like what it is, so it is a conversation with the neighbour and the planners before it is a specification.

The party wall between you. Cutting battens, a stud or heavy fixings into the Bryanston wall you share brings the Party Wall etc. Act into it, and a party structure notice is the usual route. It has to be served at least two months before work starts, and the neighbour has 14 days to agree or appoint a surveyor. The other thing about a party wall is that it is a thermal bridge in its own right: it runs from the warm side to the cold outer leaf, and lining up to it and stopping is what leaves a damp stripe on the return.

Reveals, eaves and ventilation. Reveals in a Bryanston house take a thin board, or aerogel where there is no room. The threshold and floor junction are returned rather than stopped short, and joist ends keep air around them. Then trickle vents, a working extract fan and clear air bricks, because Approved Document F sets the ventilation a tighter house still needs and BS 5250 covers the interstitial moisture that sealing a wall can trap.

We do not price wall insulation by area. Most of the wall is quick; the edges round it are not.

What the wall is. A cavity that turns out clean and dry through the borescope can be filled in a short visit. A solid brick or flint wall has no cavity to fill, so the choice is lining it inside or insulating it outside, both far bigger jobs. We check before quoting.

How exposed it is. A gable that takes the prevailing wind and rain can push water across a filled cavity if the outer brick is porous. That wall may need repointing first, or may be better left unfilled.

The edges. Window and door reveals, where the wall meets the floor and the roof, and any party wall are where cold bridges and condensation appear if the detail is poor. They take most of the time.

Getting at it. Filling a tall gable from outside needs a tower or scaffold under the work at height rules. Lining from inside means emptying one room after another.

From any other installer, find out whether they looked in with a borescope, what system and thickness they propose, and who makes good the plaster and decorating.

Our base in Boscombe is 17.3 miles from Bryanston. We also insulate walls in Durweston, in Blandford St Mary and along the Stour, broadly DT11, with Dorset Council as planning and building control authority. The business trades as Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Bryanston, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Thomas Hannen, who owns it, does the borescope check and prices your walls in person. A verified customer of ours gave a 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. Our visit is free, and the written quote, broken down line by line, is too.

Most repairs in Bryanston 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.