Wall insulation in Mudeford

Which wall faces the water. On a seventies Mudeford bungalow the first thing Thomas notes is the compass. The south and south west walls catch rain driven in off the bay, while the sheltered side often stays dry. He drills one small hole in a mortar joint on each face that matters and looks through with a borescope, to see whether the brick and block cavity is empty, bridged with mortar, or holding an earlier fill.

A moisture meter on the plaster behind a Mudeford weather wall, a look at the render and its beads, and the state of the sills and the gutter above complete the survey. Salt air rusts old galvanised beads and lets the render crack along them, and a crack on that side is exactly where rain gets into a cavity. We photograph what the borescope shows so you see it too.

Filling a cavity this close to the coast. A clear, dry Mudeford cavity on a sheltered wall can take a blown fill of bonded bead or mineral wool through a drilled pattern of holes. On the walls facing the sea the installer has to rate the exposure first and pick a material suited to it, and some of those walls are better not filled at all. The fill goes to a registered installer, who issues CIGA paperwork. Cracked render, open pointing and a dripping gutter are put right before anyone drills.

Lining the cold side of a bungalow. Where a sea-facing wall should not be filled, internal wall insulation keeps the room warm without asking the cavity to do anything. Insulated plasterboard with a PIR backing, Kingspan or Celotex, is thin. A stud or batten frame with mineral wool gives more depth where the room can spare it. The gable of a bedroom in the roof gets the same treatment. Reveals, the floor junction and the joist ends are sealed so no cold bridge is left for condensation and black mould. Allow a few days a room.

The older cottages by the quay. Near Mudeford Quay the walls are older solid brick in lime mortar, some listed and many inside the conservation area. There is no cavity to fill, and a PIR board inside would trap moisture in a wall that has to breathe. A breathable lining of wood fibre or mineral wool, finished in lime, is the right internal wall insulation there. On the seventies houses, EWI with a render carrier, mesh and a thin coat finish is worth pricing when the render is due anyway, with the sills and eaves extended from a scaffold.

An old fill on a weather wall. Where a Mudeford cavity was filled years ago and the inside of a sea-facing wall now shows penetrating damp after a storm, the fill may be carrying water across. An older fill that has slumped leaves a cold band at the top of the wall instead. A failed fill is extracted by a specialist, the wall dried, and the render or pointing that let the rain in repaired.

Air in a single-storey house. With every room on one floor and the bathroom among them, a bungalow made warmer and tighter needs its ventilation looked at: trickle vents, kitchen and bathroom extract fans, and air bricks kept clear of the path. The payback you notice first is the bedroom on the sea side holding its heat without a draught.

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 three storey town house needing a scaffold on the gable, and a flat in a block where the walls are shared with the freeholder are each priced on their own terms. 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 work on walls across Mudeford, Stanpit and Friars Cliff, from the quay and Avon Beach back towards Christchurch, in BH23, from our base in Boscombe, about four miles west.

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 Mudeford, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Mudeford 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.