Wall insulation in Rockbourne
With the stream down the street and flood zones either side, the bottom metre of a wall here needs a different specification from the rest of it.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
The stream runs down the length of Rockbourne and a good part of the village sits in flood zones 2 and 3, so the bottom metre of a wall here is not the same as the rest of it. Anything fitted low down has to survive getting wet and has to be able to dry afterwards, and that rules out most of what gets fitted low down as standard.
People ring about a cold, damp inside face on a ground floor wall, black mould along a skirting on an outside wall, or a cottage that has been lined at some point and is now worse than it was.
We look at the wall from the ground up: external ground level against the damp course, what the base of the wall is made of, what the plaster is doing inside, and a borescope through one small hole where there is a cavity. The site visit and the written itemised quote are both free.
The work
Walls that get wet from the bottom
The floor junction, which decides it here. Where an insulated lining meets the floor is the detail that fails on a wall that takes ground moisture. Timber battens or a stud set on a wet solid floor rot. Insulated plasterboard bedded onto a damp base wicks. So the bottom of a lining gets a closed cell board, a removable skirting and a proper stop, and the whole thing is designed to be lifted rather than demolished if it is ever flooded.
Dry it before you line it. A solid wall that is wet at the base has to be diagnosed before anything covers it. High ground level against the brickwork, a blocked air brick, a bridged damp course, a gutter running down the wall and plain penetrating damp all look the same from inside. Approved Document C is the standard the base of a wall works to.
Cavity walls, where the village has them. One hole in a mortar joint and a borescope gives the cavity width, whether it is clear and dry, whether the ties are bridged and whether a failed fill is in there already. A wet cavity rules a fill out. Where the wall is sound, bonded bead or blown mineral wool goes in from outside. We do not offer a guarantee scheme of our own; a cavity fill is normally installed under an independent one, so ask whoever drills the wall which scheme covers it.
Solid walls, which most of the older village has. Brick, flint and cob with nothing to fill. Internal wall insulation means insulated plasterboard or PIR such as Celotex or Kingspan on battens or a stud, taped and skimmed to BS 8000-8. On an old wall that has to breathe, a vapour open build up goes on instead of a foil faced board. External wall insulation behind a render carrier gives a better U value but is a planning question in the conservation area.
Reveals, thresholds and the eaves. Reveals take a thin board or aerogel, and the threshold at a door is the second wettest detail here after the floor junction. Joist ends in a solid wall keep air around them, and a lining that stops short at a party wall leaves a cold strip.
Ventilation and moisture. Insulation raises the surface above the dew point and stops condensation forming, but the water still has to leave the house. Trickle vents, a working extract fan and air bricks kept clear rather than boarded over. Approved Document F sets the ventilation and BS 5250 covers interstitial moisture in the fabric.
What we would talk you out of. Sealing the inside face of a wall that is taking water from the ground. It looks better for a winter, the EPC improves, and then the damp comes out somewhere else. Fix the ground, the gutters and the damp course first; the insulation is worth doing afterwards and not before.
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.
New Forest District Council is the planning authority and building control. Lining a wall on the inside is not development, which the guidance on insulation confirms, while cladding or rendering the outside falls under what the rules say about cladding a wall. The village has its own conservation area, so external wall insulation here is an application rather than an assumption, and there are around fifty listed entries in the parish, on which internal lining needs consent as well. regulation 23 brings a whole wall up to the Part L standard once more than half of it is renovated, and the Environment Agency flood map is worth checking before you specify anything at low level.
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 thatched cottage on the street, a farmhouse set back behind a wall and a post-war house on the edge of the village are three different jobs. 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. If a wall has been wet, tell us before we come, because it changes what we look at and what we would put back. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
The bottom metre of the wall is its own problem
A stream running the length of a village and mapped flood zones either side of it mean the ground here holds water for months rather than days. Walls take that up at the base, and old walls take it up further because they were built without a damp course or with one that has been bridged since. None of that stops a wall being insulated. It changes what goes on the bottom of it.
The practical rules are short. Nothing organic at low level, so no timber battens sitting on a damp floor. A closed cell board rather than a mineral wool for the first course or two. A skirting that unscrews, and a plaster that can be replaced without taking the insulation with it. And a build up that lets the wall dry inwards, because a wall that cannot dry pushes the moisture up instead.
Get that right and a lined room in a flood zone is perfectly sensible. Get it wrong and the first wet winter takes out the lining, the plaster and the decoration together, which is the expensive way to learn it.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Rockbourne, Whitsbury, Sandleheath and the lanes towards Fordingbridge, broadly SP6, under New Forest District 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
Rockbourne questions we get asked
Can a wall in a flood zone be insulated at all?
Yes, but the bottom of it is designed differently: closed cell board, no timber on the floor, a removable skirting and a plaster that can be replaced on its own. The rest of the wall is a normal job.
Our wall is damp at skirting level. Will insulation cure it?
No, it will hide it. Find out whether it is ground level against the brickwork, a bridged damp course, a gutter or penetrating damp, put that right, let it dry, then insulate.
Why does the lining somebody fitted years ago make it worse?
Usually because it sealed the inside face. The wall still takes water from the ground, and with nowhere to dry to it moves up the wall and comes out above the board.
Is a breathable build up really necessary on an old wall?
On a solid wall that gets wet, yes. A vapour open lining lets the wall dry inwards. A foil faced board traps the moisture in the masonry, and interstitial condensation does the rest.
How long before we can decorate after a lining?
The board and skim have to dry before paint goes near them, and a wall that has been wet takes longer. We tell you at the quote rather than at the end.
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Have the base of the wall looked at first
Thomas comes out, checks the ground level, the damp course and the cavity, and prices the work in writing. The visit and the quote are free.