Wall insulation in Freshwater and Totland
Weather off the Channel decides whether a cavity here should be filled at all, so we look at the exposed elevation before we look at any product.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Out on the west end of the Island the weather arrives off the Channel with nothing in front of it, and that changes one decision more than any other: whether a cavity wall here should be filled right across or not at all. On a badly exposed elevation a full fill can carry rain to the inner leaf, and the honest answer is sometimes to leave that wall empty.
The calls come from a few places. A gable facing the sea that shows damp inside after a south westerly. A solid walled cottage that has never held heat. A house filled under some scheme years back, where the fill has dropped and the top of the wall is empty.
We check exposure before quoting anything: which way the wall faces, what shelters it, what the pointing and render are doing, and what a borescope shows inside. The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote, and if the answer is that your seaward wall should not be filled, we will say so.
The work
Wet walls, dry walls and what belongs in each
Exposure first, product second. BS 8104 is the code for assessing how much wind driven rain a wall takes, and the seaward elevations here sit at the severe end of it. A cavity full of insulation gives water a path across, so on a badly exposed wall we either leave it clear, use a water repellent bonded bead rather than a wool, or deal with the outer leaf first. That is decided per elevation, not per house.
What the borescope shows. One small hole in a mortar joint gives the cavity width, whether it is clear, whether the wall ties carry mortar droppings and whether there is a failed fill in there already. It also shows a wet cavity, which is the thing that rules a fill out.
Cavity fill where it suits. Sheltered elevations, brick and block walls of decent cavity width, drilled in a pattern from outside and made good in matched mortar. Bonded bead or blown mineral wool. We do not offer a guarantee scheme ourselves; a fill is normally installed under an independent one, so ask whoever drills the wall which scheme covers it.
Solid walls, which a lot of the older stock has. A nine inch brick wall or a stone wall has nothing to fill. Internal wall insulation means insulated plasterboard or PIR such as Celotex on battens or a stud; external wall insulation means boards and a fresh render over a render carrier. IWI is quicker and costs you room width, EWI gives the better U value and changes how the house looks.
Reveals, eaves and the floor junction. On an exposed elevation the junctions are where both the heat and the water go. Reveals take a thin board or aerogel, the threshold and floor junction get returned properly, and joist ends built into a solid wall are left with air around them. A thermal bridge left at a reveal is where the black mould appears, and it undoes most of the heat loss you paid to stop.
When the outer leaf is the real problem. Open joints, cracked render and a blown patch of pebbledash let penetrating damp through before insulation is even in the argument. Repointing or re-rendering the exposed elevation often does more for a cold, damp room than anything fitted behind it, and it is cheaper.
Ventilation goes with it. A warmer, tighter wall changes where the dew point sits, so trickle vents, a working extract fan and clear air bricks are part of the same job. Approved Document F sets the ventilation and BS 5250 covers managing moisture in the fabric. Draughtproofing first is the cheapest heat you will buy, and it has the shortest payback of anything on this list.
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.
Isle of Wight Council is the planning authority. Insulating on the inside is not development, and the guidance on insulation sets out where it is and is not needed, while cladding or rendering the outside is covered by Planning Portal guidance on external walls. There are listed buildings on this end of the Island, and on those consent is needed for internal work as well as external. No conservation area covers the main streets here, so on most addresses it is building control rather than planning that has an interest. regulation 23 is the one people miss: renovate more than half of a wall and the whole of it has to reach the Part L standard in 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. A Victorian cottage on the front, a post-war bungalow set back off the road and a flat in a converted house are three different jobs before anything is drilled. 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. We work the west of the Island regularly, and a wall that has gone damp gets photographed and reported back to you the same day we see it. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Why a seaward wall may be better left empty
Wind driven rain does not fall on a wall, it is thrown at it, and the west end of the Island takes it straight off the Channel. On a severely exposed elevation the outer leaf of a cavity wall gets properly wet through a long south westerly, and the cavity is what stops that water reaching the room. Fill the cavity with something that will wick, and you have built a bridge.
That is why a survey here has to be elevation by elevation. The sheltered back of a house can be a straightforward fill while the seaward gable should stay clear, or take a bonded bead that sheds water rather than holding it. It is also why the state of the pointing and the render on that one elevation matters more than anything else on the property.
Where a wall genuinely cannot be filled, the honest routes are lining it inside or insulating it outside behind a new render, and both are worth doing. What is not worth doing is filling an exposed wall and finding out in February.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Freshwater, Totland, Colwell and the roads out towards Alum Bay, broadly PO40 and PO39, under Isle of Wight Council. 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
Freshwater and Totland questions we get asked
Is cavity fill a bad idea this close to the sea?
Not everywhere, but it is a per elevation decision. A sheltered wall is usually fine. A gable that takes the south westerlies may be better left clear, or filled with a water repellent bead rather than a wool.
How do you decide whether my wall is too exposed?
By where it faces, what stands in front of it and what the outer leaf is doing. The published driving rain assessment gives the background; your pointing and render decide the rest.
Our fill has dropped down the wall. Can it be topped up?
Topping up rarely works, because what you would be adding to is the material that slumped. Extraction and a fresh fill is the honest answer, once we know why it slumped.
Does insulating the wall stop the damp we already have?
No. If water is coming through the outer leaf, insulation traps it and the EPC goes up while the room stays wet. Repointing and render repairs come first, then the wall once it is dry.
Can I insulate a solid stone cottage on the Island?
Yes, but inside and with a build up that lets the wall breathe rather than sealing it. A foil faced board on a wet stone wall moves the problem instead of curing it.
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Have the exposed elevation looked at first
Thomas comes out, checks which walls take the weather and puts a borescope through the cavity before pricing anything. The visit and the quote are free.