Wall insulation in Ridge
Cavities checked before they are filled and internal linings carried properly past the floor junction, on the low ground between Ridge and the harbour, BH20.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Ridge sits low on the edge of the harbour, and the ground here holds water. That matters for wall insulation more than people expect, because the bottom 600mm of a wall in low ground behaves differently from the rest of it, and a lining that ignores the floor junction just moves the cold spot down to the skirting board.
The calls we get from here are usually a wall that feels cold and slightly damp near the floor, mould appearing behind furniture on an outside wall, or a request to have a cavity checked before somebody commits to filling it.
What we do first is find out what the wall is and where the damp is coming from. A borescope through one drilled hole, a look at the ground levels and the air bricks outside, and then a free written itemised quote for whatever the wall actually needs.
The work
Warming a wall without trapping water in it
The survey and the borescope. Wall thickness at a reveal tells us solid or cavity. Where there is a cavity, one small hole and a camera settle its width, whether anything is already in it and whether the outer leaf is wet with penetrating damp. On a brick and block wall of the usual age around here the cavity runs to a nominal 50mm.
Cavity fill. Clear and dry, a cavity takes bonded polystyrene bead or blown mineral wool, drilled on a pattern and injected under control, with the eaves and every reveal closed off first and the holes made good in matching mortar. Bead is what we favour on anything in a damp position, because it sheds water and does not slump. A fill is normally covered by an independent scheme run separately from the installer, so ask what paperwork comes with it.
Failed fill and wet cavities. Where a wall was filled years ago the camera often shows an empty band at the top and a compacted mass below, or fibre that is simply wet. That comes out through a drilled pattern with a vacuum, gets bagged and leaves with us, and the wall dries before anything is decided about refilling.
Solid walls. The older cottages here are nine inch solid brick or rubble with no cavity at all. Internal wall insulation is the route: insulated plasterboard fixed back, or a stud and batten frame with mineral wool or PIR board, Celotex or Kingspan, between it. Where a reveal or a threshold has nothing to give, an aerogel backed board gets a useful U value into 20 or 30mm. External wall insulation with boards, a render carrier and a thin coat finish is the other option and it is the bigger job.
The floor junction, which is the one that gets skipped. A lining has to be carried down past the top of the floor and detailed, not stopped at the skirting. On a suspended timber floor the joist ends sit in the wall and need thinking about before anything is sealed. On a solid floor the slab edge is a cold bridge and the insulation has to turn down or the thermal bridge simply relocates.
Damp that is not condensation. Ground damp, a raised path or a blocked air brick will all put moisture into the bottom of a wall, and no amount of insulation cures that. We look at external levels against the damp proof course as part of the survey, because lining over a wall that is wet from below traps the water and rots the batten.
Ventilation. Extract in the kitchen and bathroom, trickle vents in the windows, air bricks kept clear under a suspended floor. Approved Document F sets what it has to achieve, and it matters more once airtightness improves.
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.
Internal work needs no planning permission, which the Planning Portal page on insulation makes plain, while insulation added to the outside changes the appearance and can need an application under the Planning Portal guidance on external walls. Dorset Council is the planning authority, there is no conservation area here, and the listed entries nearby are concentrated around the church and the older Wareham fringe rather than in the modern housing, so listed building consent affects very few addresses. Building control still applies through regulation 23, and the work is zero rated for VAT.
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 cottage on low ground, a post war semi and a bungalow with a rendered outer leaf 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. Ridge is under ten miles from us and we are around Wareham most weeks. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
The bottom 600mm of the wall is a different problem
On low ground beside the harbour the water table sits close to the surface and stays there through the winter. Walls in that position take moisture from the ground as well as from the weather, and the effect is concentrated in the lowest metre. You can feel it: the wall is cold and slightly clammy near the skirting and normal at shoulder height.
That single fact changes how an internal lining is detailed. The tempting thing is to run the boards from just above the skirting to the ceiling, because it is quick and it looks finished. What it does is leave the coldest, wettest part of the wall uninsulated and put a sealed layer immediately above it, so the moisture that used to evaporate off the whole wall now concentrates in a strip, and the first thing to suffer is the timber at the bottom of the frame.
So we take the lining down past the floor junction and detail it, keep the batten off the masonry where the wall is damp, and use a build up that stays vapour open at the bottom rather than a foil faced board sealed against wet brick. Before any of that we check the outside: ground levels against the damp proof course, air bricks clear, and rainwater going where it should. Cheap work outside saves expensive work inside, every time.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Ridge, Stoborough, Arne, Wareham and the BH20 addresses around them, with Dorset Council for planning and 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.
Questions
Ridge questions we get asked
Why does our wall feel cold only near the floor?
Because the bottom of a wall on low ground carries more moisture than the rest of it, and damp masonry conducts heat away faster than dry masonry. Insulating the middle and ignoring the bottom leaves that exactly as it was.
Can you insulate a wall that is damp at the base?
Not until you know why it is damp. A raised path, a blocked air brick or a bridged damp proof course all have to be dealt with first, or the lining seals the water in and the timber behind it suffers.
Is it worth filling the cavity on a house this low?
It can be, if the camera shows the cavity clear and the outer leaf dry. If the wall is taking water, filling the gap gives that water a path across and we would say no.
Does insulating make a suspended timber floor colder?
Not if the air bricks stay clear and the joist ends are considered before anything is sealed. Blocking the underfloor ventilation to stop a draught is the common mistake and it causes rot.
How long will the room be out of use?
Usually two to four days depending on the size, the number of reveals and whether radiators and sockets have to come off and go back. The plastering and drying time comes after that.
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Have the wall looked at from the ground up
Thomas comes out, checks the levels outside and what is inside the wall, then prices the work that suits it. The visit and the written quote are both free.