Wall insulation in Walhampton and Portmore
In a flat the first question is which face of the wall is yours to insulate, and that decides everything that follows.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Around three in ten homes here are flats, and in a flat the first wall question is not what to insulate with but which part of the wall is actually yours. The outside face and the structure usually belong to the freeholder, the party wall belongs to nobody on their own, and the inside face is the part you can do something about without asking anyone.
People ring about a top floor flat with a cold outside wall and mould behind the wardrobe, a converted house where one flat is freezing and the others are not, or an older cottage on the lanes with solid walls and no cavity to fill.
We come and work out the ownership before the specification, then price the parts separately so you can see what is yours to decide. The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote, and where the sensible thing is a letter to the managing agent rather than a job, we will tell you that.
The work
Flats, cottages and who owns which face of the wall
Working out what is yours. In a converted house the external wall is normally the freeholder's, so cavity fill, external wall insulation or anything drilled from outside needs their agreement. Internal wall insulation on the inside face is usually within a lease, though most leases want consent for alterations. We put the scope in writing in a form an agent can take to the leaseholders.
Section 20, when the block does it properly. Where the freeholder insulates a whole building and the cost is recovered through the service charge, section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 means the leaseholders are consulted before it is committed. Slow, but a building done as one beats four flats each lining a room, because it deals with the floor junction and the eaves rather than stopping at them.
Internal wall insulation in a flat. Insulated plasterboard on a continuous adhesive bed, or PIR such as Celotex or Kingspan between battens or a stud, taped and skimmed to BS 8000-8. It is the one thing you can normally do on your own, and it works, provided the reveals are returned and the ceiling and floor junctions are dealt with. A vapour control layer goes behind the board on a solid wall, or the room dries into the wall.
The party wall you share. The wall between two flats or two cottages is a party wall, and cutting battens or fixings into it can bring the Party Wall etc. Act into play. It is rarely a problem, but it is worth knowing before somebody starts drilling.
Houses with a cavity. Where a cavity exists we drill one hole in a mortar joint and put a borescope through first. That gives the width, whether it is clear and dry and whether a failed or slumped fill is in there already. A clear cavity takes bonded bead or blown mineral wool from outside. We do not offer a guarantee scheme of our own; a cavity fill is normally installed under an independent one, so ask who is drilling which scheme covers it.
Solid walls on the older cottages. Nine inch brick, or brick with a rubble core, and nothing to fill. Lined inside, or insulated outside behind render on a render carrier where the National Park will accept it. Reveals take a thin board or aerogel, joist ends keep air around them, and an old wall wants a breathable build up, because penetrating damp behind a sealed board has nowhere to go.
Ventilation and mould. A tighter flat with the same number of showers in it puts that moisture somewhere, usually the coldest corner. Insulation raises the surface temperature above the dew point, which is what actually stops the condensation, but only if trickle vents, a working extract fan and clear air bricks go in with it. Approved Document F sets the ventilation and BS 5250 covers interstitial moisture in the fabric.
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.
The New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority here, not the district, and the National Park sets out its heritage position for the Forest South East conservation area that covers this side of the river. Inside it, cladding or external wall insulation is an application; lining a wall on the inside is not development at all, which the guidance on insulation confirms. There are getting on for a hundred listed entries in the parish, mostly around the Walhampton estate rather than in the newer housing, and on those internal work needs consent too. regulation 23 brings a whole wall up to standard once more than half of it is renovated.
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 top floor flat in a converted house, a purpose built block with a shared external wall and a cottage on the lane behind 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. Mould behind furniture on an outside wall is the common one here, and it is worth a photograph to the agent as well as to us. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
In a flat, half the wall is somebody else's decision
The split matters because it decides what you can act on. The structure and the outer face are the freeholder's, the party walls are shared, and the inside face of your own rooms is yours subject to the lease. So the warmest answer, wrapping the whole building outside, is the one you cannot order on your own, and the answer you can order is the one that stops at your ceiling.
That is not a reason to do nothing. A lining on the two coldest outside walls of a flat, with the reveals returned and the ventilation sorted, makes a real difference to a cold corner and to the mould that comes with it. It is a reason to get the scope written down properly, because a managing agent will not act on a conversation.
Where a block is having work done anyway, roof or render, that is the moment to raise insulation, because the access is already paid for.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Walhampton, Portmore, Norleywood and the lanes east of the Lymington river, broadly SO41, under the New Forest National Park Authority. 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
Walhampton and Portmore questions we get asked
Can I insulate my flat's outside wall without asking the freeholder?
On the inside face, usually yes, though most leases want written consent. Anything drilled through the outer leaf or fixed to the outside is the freeholder's decision, not yours.
The flat below is warm and mine is not. Why?
A top floor flat has more exposed surface and a cold bridge where the wall meets the roof. The wall is part of it, but the eaves junction above your ceiling is often the bigger share of the heat loss, and it is the cheaper half to fix.
Is it worth insulating one flat if the rest of the block is not?
Yes for your own comfort, with the caveat that the thermal bridges at the floor and party walls stay, so the U value you are quoted is not the one the room feels. A whole building done at once performs better and has the shorter payback.
Do I need a party wall notice to line an internal wall?
Not for the inside face of your own external wall. Cutting into the wall you share with a neighbour is different, and a notice is then the sensible route.
Will lining the wall cure the mould behind the wardrobe?
Only if the ventilation changes too. Insulation raises the surface temperature, which helps a great deal, but the moisture still has to leave through a working extract fan and open trickle vents. An EPC will improve either way; the corner may not.
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Find out which part of the wall you can act on
Thomas comes out, works out what is yours and what is the freeholder's, and prices each part in writing. The visit and the quote are free.