Wall insulation in Burley
Cavities checked for damp before anything goes into them, shaded elevations dried out first, and solid walls lined from inside, across Burley and BH24.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A cavity has to be dry before it can be filled, and in Burley that is not a formality. A great many houses here sit under mature trees on plots that hold shade all day, and a north or east wall that never gets sun stays damp for weeks at a time. Fill a wall in that condition and you give the water a path to the inside.
The calls we get are usually a green, permanently damp looking elevation with a cold room behind it, black mould on the inside face of a shaded wall, or somebody who has been quoted for a fill and wants a second look before anyone drills.
We come out, put a borescope through one hole and check the outer leaf as well as the cavity. Then you get a free written itemised quote for the work that actually suits the wall, which is sometimes not a fill at all.
The work
Shaded walls, damp masonry and what suits them
The survey. The camera settles the cavity width, whether anything is already in it and whether the inner face of the outer leaf is running wet. We also look at what is growing on the outside, because a face covered in algae and moss is a face that never dries, and at the gutters, because a leaking joint over a shaded wall keeps a strip of masonry wet all winter.
When a fill is the right answer. Clear cavity, sound pointing, dry outer leaf and a wall that gets some sun and wind, and it takes bonded polystyrene bead or blown mineral wool in a day, with a sharp drop in heat loss and a short payback. Drilled on a pattern, injected under control, eaves and every reveal closed off first and the holes made good in matching mortar. A fill is normally covered by an independent scheme run separately from the installer, so ask what paperwork comes with it.
When it is not. Cracked or blown render, open joints, a face green with growth or a wet reading on the outer leaf, and we do not fill it. Put the money into the outside first: cut back what is overhanging, clear the gutter, repoint what has washed out. A wall that has dried out can be filled next year. A wall filled while wet is a problem you have bought.
Failed and slumped fill. Where an older wall was filled the camera often finds an empty band at the top and a compacted mass below, or fibre that has simply gone wet on the shaded side. Extraction with a vacuum through a drilled pattern, bagged and taken away, then either a refill in bead or an empty cavity left empty on purpose.
Solid walls. The older cottages in and around the village are nine inch solid brick, or rendered rubble, with no cavity. Internal wall insulation is the route: insulated plasterboard fixed back, or a stud and batten frame with mineral wool or PIR board such as Celotex or Kingspan between it. On old masonry in a damp position we favour a breathable build up rather than a foil faced board, so the wall can still dry inwards.
Junctions and vapour. Reveals returned, the floor junction carried down, joist ends thought about, the threshold detailed and a vapour control layer taped continuously so the dew point cannot end up inside the build up as interstitial condensation. A lining that stops at the plaster line leaves a thermal bridge at every edge, which is where the mould comes back.
Ventilation. Extract in the kitchen and bathroom, trickle vents in the windows and air bricks kept clear. In a shaded house people close everything up in winter, which is exactly when the moisture needs somewhere to go. Approved Document F sets what the ventilation has to do.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out to somebody you have never met. 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.
The New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Burley and the village has its own conservation area, which the the National Park heritage pages explain, so appearance is controlled and external wall insulation is a planning application rather than a free choice, as the Planning Portal guidance on external walls sets out. Internal lining is invisible from the road and needs no permission at all, per the Planning Portal page on insulation. There are seven listed entries in the parish, and on those internal work needs consent too. Building control still applies under regulation 23.
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. A rendered cottage under trees, a 1970s detached on an open plot and a bungalow with a shaded north elevation are three different surveys. 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. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
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. Burley is around eleven miles from us and we are across the Forest most weeks. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
A wall in permanent shade never gets the chance to dry
Burley sits in the middle of the Forest, and a lot of its houses sit under mature oak and holly on plots where the sun barely reaches one or two elevations. That is pleasant in August and it is the reason we say no to more cavity fills here than anywhere else we work.
Masonry gets wet and then dries. Sun and wind do the drying, and a wall that gets neither stays damp for weeks after rain that would have gone off an open elevation in a day. Wet brick conducts heat far better than dry brick, which is part of why a shaded room feels cold, and a wet outer leaf is the one condition under which filling a cavity genuinely causes damage. The fill bridges the gap, water tracks across it on the wall ties, and a patch appears on the inside some months later.
So on a shaded plot the order changes. Cut back the overhanging branches so air and light get at the wall. Clear the gutter and fix the joint dribbling down it. Repoint what has washed out and deal with any cracking render. Then have the cavity looked at again in summer, when the wall has had a season to dry. Most walls we turn down in February we would fill in August.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Burley, Bransgore, Ringwood, Sopley and the BH24 addresses around them, with the New Forest National Park Authority for planning. 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.
Questions
Burley questions we get asked
Can a damp cavity wall be insulated?
Not until it has dried. Filling a wet cavity gives water a route from the outer leaf to the inner one, and the damp patch that follows is usually blamed on something else entirely.
Why is our shaded wall so much colder than the others?
Partly because it gets no sun, and partly because damp masonry conducts heat away faster than dry masonry. Getting the wall dry improves it before any insulation is added.
What should we do before having the cavity filled?
Cut back anything overhanging, clear the gutters and downpipes, and repoint or repair whatever is letting water in. Then have the wall checked again after a dry spell.
Is the village designation a problem for this work?
It only controls the outside. External wall insulation needs an application here and often will not get through. Anything you do on the inside of the wall is unaffected by the designation.
Would you refuse to fill our cavity?
If the camera shows the outer leaf wet, yes, and we will explain why in writing. A poor U value is easier to live with than a wall that has been filled while damp, and an EPC gain is not worth that.
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Have a shaded wall checked before it is filled
Thomas comes out, looks at the outside as well as the cavity, and tells you whether the wall is dry enough to fill or what needs doing first. Visit and quote both free.