Wall insulation in Highcliffe, and who owns the wall
In a flat the outside wall belongs to the freeholder, so who has to agree comes before which system suits the elevation.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Getting on for four in ten homes in Highcliffe are flats, and in a flat the outside wall is almost never yours. It belongs to the freeholder, and the lease usually says so in plain terms. So here the first question is not which system suits the wall. It is who has to agree before anybody drills it.
The calls come from both sides of that. An owner in a block who has a cold sea facing bedroom and wants the gable lined. And a house owner a few streets back with a filled cavity that has started showing damp patches on the seaward elevation after a run of southwesterlies.
Either way we start with the wall. One small hole and a borescope shows whether there is a cavity, how wide it is, whether it is dry and whether anything is in it already. Then we look at the reveals, the threshold and the eaves, because that is where the work actually is. The site visit and the written itemised quote are both free.
The work
Flats, sea facing gables and what each of them takes
Reading the wall first. A borescope through one drilled hole shows four things: the cavity width, mortar snots bridging the ties, whether existing fill has slumped, and whether anything in there is wet. Half a mile from the water that last one matters more than it does inland, and no specification gets written before it.
Cavity fill on the seaward side. Where the cavity is clear, dry and wide enough the wall is drilled on a pattern and filled in a day. On an elevation that takes driven rain off the sea we specify bonded polystyrene bead rather than blown mineral wool, because bead does not wick water across the gap. Exposure to wind driven rain is a measured thing, and BS 8104 is what it is assessed against.
Internal wall insulation, IWI, in a flat. Where the wall is solid, or the lease rules out touching the outside, the lining goes on inside: insulated plasterboard bonded to the masonry, or a batten and stud frame filled with mineral wool. PIR laminate such as Celotex or Kingspan reaches the target in the least depth, with the vapour control layer taped so warm damp air cannot get behind the board.
External wall insulation, EWI, on a block. Boards, a render carrier and a render finish over the whole elevation. It works well on a 1960s block because it warms the concrete and the joist ends together, but it is a whole building decision, it needs a scaffold, and it is never one flat owner's to make.
Fill that has failed. Wool blown in decades ago settles and leaves a cold band under the eaves, which reads inside as black mould along the top of a bedroom wall. A wet cavity where water is bridging shows as damp patches that come and go with the weather. Both begin with extraction, drilling out and vacuuming the old material, before anything new goes in.
The junctions. Reveals, the threshold, the floor junction, the eaves and the joist ends decide whether the room feels different. A cold bridge, or thermal bridge, left at a reveal collects condensation whatever the u value of the wall beside it. Reveals get a thin high performance board, aerogel where a frame leaves barely 40mm, and a party wall between flats gets a cavity barrier.
Ventilation and draughts. Flats go tight quickly, and a sealed room with a family in it makes a lot of moisture. Trickle vents, a working extract fan in the kitchen and bathroom and air bricks left clear are part of the work, and Approved Document F sets what is expected. Airtightness without ventilation is exactly how a warm flat turns into a mouldy one.
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.
Highcliffe is under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. Internal lining and cavity fill are building control matters rather than planning ones, but external work changes the outside of the building and there are eighteen listed entries here, Highcliffe Castle among them, so BCP Council keeps the listed entries. Where an existing wall is upgraded, regulation 23 sets what it has to reach under Part 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 top floor flat in a block off Lymington Road, a 1960s semi a few streets back and a bungalow on the cliff side 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. Highcliffe is under eight miles from us, so an address here is normally looked at within a couple of days. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
In a flat, the wall is not yours to insulate
Almost every lease on a flat in Highcliffe keeps the structure, and that means the outside walls, with the freeholder. You own the inside surfaces and the space. So an owner can normally line the inside face of a wall with the freeholder's written consent, and cannot have the outside of the building rendered or the cavity drilled on their own decision at all. Ask before you plan, not after, because a drilled hole through somebody else's wall is a breach of covenant.
Where the whole block wants the work, it goes the other way round. The freeholder or the management company commissions it, and once the cost passed on to each leaseholder crosses the statutory threshold they have to run a formal consultation first, under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. That takes months rather than weeks. It is worth knowing early, because it is the difference between lining your own bedroom wall this winter and joining a building wide project that starts next year.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Highcliffe, Walkford, Chewton Common and the cliff side, broadly BH23, under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 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
Highcliffe questions we get asked
I own a flat. Can I insulate the outside wall myself?
Not the outside of it. The structure almost always stays with the freeholder, so lining the inside face with written consent is the realistic route and drilling the cavity is not yours to authorise.
Does living this close to the sea change what goes in the cavity?
Yes. On an elevation taking driven rain we specify bonded bead rather than blown wool, because bead does not carry water across the gap to the inner leaf.
What sets the timetable on a flat rather than a house?
How long it takes is often about the route in. A house cavity fill is a day from outside, while internal lining in a flat is room by room and the communal stair sets the pace.
Our block is talking about rendering the whole building. What happens next?
The freeholder or managing agent runs it, and where the cost per leaseholder passes the statutory threshold there is a formal consultation to go through before anything starts.
Why is my sea facing bedroom the only mouldy one?
It is usually the coldest surface in the flat, so condensation lands there first. That points at the wall, the reveals and the ventilation together rather than at any one of them.
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Get the wall and the consent looked at together
Thomas comes out, reads the cavity, tells you what needs agreeing first and prices the work in writing. The visit and the quote are free.