Wall insulation in Kinson

What is down the hole. Post-war council building in Kinson was fast and uniform, so the borescope usually finds the same thing along a road: a brick and block cavity, sometimes clean, sometimes half full of mortar droppings, often already filled once. An old fill that has slumped leaves a cold band under the eaves, and a wet one shows as dark, heavy material. Every price after that depends on what it finds.

Filling one half of a pair. A clear, dry Kinson cavity on a sheltered wall is usually worth filling with bonded bead or mineral wool. That is a job for a separate cavity wall installer, and their paperwork goes with the deeds. On a semi the installer seals the cavity at the party line so the fill stays on your side. If you rent from the council, the walls are BCP Council's to deal with. For owners, we say honestly whether the wall suits a fill, then put the inside right: ventilation, reveals and making good.

Internal wall insulation. Where a wall cannot be filled, or a single room needs more than a fill can give, we line it. On a dry wall insulated plasterboard with a PIR backing, such as Celotex or Kingspan board, gives the most for the depth; on a wall that needs to breathe, wood fibre or mineral wool between battens or a stud does better. A vapour control layer goes in only where the calculation says it should. It is boarded, skimmed and done a room at a time, usually a few days per room.

The junctions. Window reveals, the floor junction, the threshold and the ceiling line are where a cold bridge forms if they are skipped, and that cold strip is where condensation and black mould settle. A narrow window reveal with no room to spare takes a thin aerogel board. They are slow to do properly and they are most of the labour.

Cladding a rendered or plain post-war house. EWI fixes board to the outside, then a render carrier with mesh and a thin coat finish. It suits a plain post-war block, or a pebbledashed semi that needs its dash renewed anyway, and deals with the cold bridges at every floor and corner at once. On a pair, both halves done together look right; one half clad on its own leaves a step at the join on the front.

Houses that are not what they look like. Some council estates built in Kinson after the war used system-built houses, with a steel or concrete frame behind the outer skin. If the borescope finds concrete panels or steel rather than a brick and block cavity, we stop, because those walls should not be filled at all.

Keeping the air moving. Many of these houses lost their chimneys' draw when the fires were blocked up, and a bungalow bathroom often has nothing but a window. Lining or filling a wall cuts the draughts that were left, so trickle vents, a working extract fan and any air brick buried by a later path are checked. Get that wrong and interstitial condensation shows behind the new board. Done right, the wall's U value improves, the heat loss falls and the EPC moves with it.

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 bungalow with every wall reachable from the ground, a semi with a two storey gable over a neighbour's path, and a flat in a council-built block where the outside belongs to the freeholder differ more in access than in the work itself. 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.

We cover wall insulation across Kinson in BH10 and BH11, from Wimborne Road and the old village out to Bear Cross, West Howe and Northbourne, 3.7 miles from our base in Boscombe, with BCP Council for 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 Kinson, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Kinson 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.