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.
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A Ridge house with a cavity can take a fill only if a borescope shows it clear and dry at the base; a solid wall is lined instead. 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.
On the low, damp ground around Ridge, the things that bring wall insulation into question are a wall that feels cold and slightly damp near the floor, mould appearing behind furniture on an outside wall, or a cavity nobody has 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. Insulation in Ridge covers the loft and floors.
The work
Warming a wall without trapping water in it
The survey and the borescope come first. 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 Ridge 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 the better choice on anything in a damp position, because it sheds water and does not slump. A fill by a registered installer normally carries a CIGA certificate, so ask for it before the drilling starts.
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, is bagged and taken off site, and the wall dries before anything is decided about refilling.
Solid walls. The older cottages in Ridge 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
Insulating walls at Ridge, starting with which wall you have
Thomas works out what your walls are before he prices anything. A borescope through one small drilled hole shows whether there is a cavity, whether it is clear, and whether anything is already in it. The written quote lists that survey, the system and its thickness, making good around windows and doors, ventilation work and disposal on separate lines. The quote names who installs any fill.
Cavity fill is drilled from outside, so a tower or scaffold goes up where needed and the holes are made good to match the mortar. Internal lining is done a room at a time, with the room cleared, floors covered and dust kept in. Nothing is left open overnight. If opening a wall turns up damp, rot or old wiring, you are sent a picture and a cost for it first.
Internal work needs no planning permission, which the Planning Portal page on insulation makes plain, while insulation on the outside changes the look and can need an application under the guidance on external walls. Dorset Council is the authority, there is no conservation area here, and listed building consent affects few addresses. Building control applies through regulation 23.
Cost
What drives the price of wall insulation on an exposed site
Wall insulation is not priced per square metre, and the field of the wall is easy. What happens at every window, door and floor junction is not.
What the wall is made of. Blowing fibre or beads into an empty, dry cavity is a quick job from outside. Solid brick has nothing to fill, so it takes insulated plasterboard or mineral wool behind a vapour control layer inside, or an insulated render outside, and both take far more labour.
Exposure. The south west elevations in Ridge take driven rain. Filling a cavity on a wall that gets soaked can carry water across to the inner leaf, so those walls are checked for pointing, render and cavity condition before anything is recommended. Sometimes the honest answer is to fix the outside first.
Where the heat really leaks. Window and door reveals, the line where floor meets wall, the eaves and any party wall are where a cold bridge forms and condensation appears if the detail is skimped. Getting those right is slow, careful work, and it is usually missing from the cheapest quote.
Access and standard. A bungalow is drilled from a tower; a two storey gable may need a scaffold under the work at height rules. The finished U-value is set by Approved Document L.
When comparing, ask whether a borescope was used, what thickness is specified and how the reveals are detailed.
If damp has appeared
Damp or mould appearing after a wall was insulated
Ring rather than use the form if damp patches or black mould have appeared on an outside wall after cavity fill or internal lining. It usually means water is tracking across the cavity, or warm air is reaching a cold surface at a junction.
Keep the room aired, pull furniture off the wall, and note which walls it is on, because a south west wall points one way and a north wall another. We look before we take anything out, because the fix depends on which it is. Ridge is 11.9 miles from our base, past Wareham. Booked jobs are Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For anything urgent, phone, and if nobody can answer at that moment, a return call follows as soon as possible.
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
The company behind wall insulation in Ridge
We insulate walls in Ridge, Stoborough, Arne, Wareham and the BH20 addresses around them, from our base at 80a Wolverton Road, Boscombe, 11.9 miles away. Dorset Council is the planning and building control authority.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is the company, registered in England and Wales under number 15471719, and Thomas Hannen owns it. He drills the test hole, looks down the borescope and prices your walls in person. On Checkatrade, a verified customer gave us 10 out of 10. There is no charge for the survey or for the written quote with each item listed. Before you book a visit in Ridge, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Ridge?
Most repairs in Ridge 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.
| Question | In Ridge |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Ridge. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Ridge, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Ridge. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the Dorset National Landscape (formerly AONB), so anything visible from outside gets more attention. |
Questions
Questions about wall insulation in Ridge
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.