Wall insulation in Wareham
Solid walls lined with the flood zone in mind, cavities checked by camera before anything is injected, and failed fill taken out, across Wareham and BH20.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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A newer Wareham house usually has a cavity a borescope can check for a fill, and the older town is solid wall that has to be lined. Parts of Wareham sit in flood zones 2 and 3, and that changes what you should put on the inside of a wall. Insulated plasterboard on timber battens is the standard answer everywhere else. In a property that has taken water, or could, it is the answer that has to be dried out and thrown away afterwards, so we specify differently.
The usual problems are a cold solid wall in one of the older terraced houses, mould appearing on an outside wall in a back bedroom, and people who want a cavity checked before they let anybody drill it.
We survey the wall, check what the ground and the levels outside are doing, and put it in a free written itemised quote with the survey, the build up, the reveals and the making good on separate lines. For the loft, see insulation in Wareham.
The work
Walls that might get wet, and what to line them with
Finding out what the wall is. Wall thickness at a reveal, the brick bond, and a borescope through one drilled hole wherever a cavity is possible. That shows the cavity width, what is already in it and whether the outer leaf is wet with penetrating damp. Much of the older town is nine inch solid brick; the post war estates are brick and block with a nominal 50mm cavity.
Cavity fill. A clear, dry Wareham cavity takes bonded polystyrene bead or blown mineral wool, drilled on a pattern, injected under control, eaves and reveals closed off first and the holes made good. Bead is the right choice on anything in a damp or exposed position, because it does not slump and it sheds water. A fill by a registered installer normally carries a CIGA certificate, so ask for that paperwork with the job.
Failed fill. Slumped fibre in a Wareham wall leaves a cold band of heat loss at the top of the wall; a wet cavity holds damp against the inner leaf and shows as a patch on the inside. Either way it is extracted with a vacuum through a drilled pattern, bagged and taken away, and the wall dries out before anything is refilled.
Internal lining on a solid wall. Insulated plasterboard fixed back to Wareham masonry, or a stud and batten frame with mineral wool or PIR board such as Celotex or Kingspan between it. On old brick we prefer a breathable build up that lets the wall dry inwards. Reveals returned, the floor junction carried down, joist ends thought about and the vapour control layer taped so the dew point cannot sit in the build up as interstitial condensation.
Where flooding is a real risk. On a Wareham ground floor in a flood zone we change the specification for the bottom metre: closed cell rigid board rather than mineral wool, a battenless fixing or a treated batten held off the masonry, and a removable skirting so the wall can be opened up, dried and closed again without stripping the whole room. It costs a little more and it is the difference between a week of drying and a full refit.
External wall insulation. Boards, a render carrier and a thin coat finish outside, EWI in the trade, which on a Wareham house loses no room, cures cold bridging and gives the best U value of anything on this list. In the historic streets it is a planning matter first; on a rendered rear elevation out of view it is often the better answer.
Ventilation. Extract in the kitchen and bathroom, trickle vents in the windows and air bricks kept clear, particularly under a suspended floor in a low lying property. Approved Document F sets what the ventilation has to do once airtightness improves.
How it runs
Insulating solid and cavity walls in Wareham
Thomas comes out and works out which wall you have before anything else, drilling one small hole for a borescope where needed. He prices it himself. On the quote: the survey, the system and its thickness, making good around windows and doors, ventilation, and disposal. Who installs any fill is written on it.
Cavity fill in Wareham is drilled and injected from outside, usually in a day. Internal lining is done room by room, so furniture moves, floors are sheeted and each room is back in use before the next is started. On a terrace in the old streets, a tower or ladder for the front stands on the pavement. If something unexpected turns up, such as rubble in the cavity or damp behind a skirting, we stop and send you a photo and a cost for it.
Dorset Council is the planning authority. Internal lining needs no planning permission, which the Planning Portal page on insulation sets out. External insulation changes the outside, under the Planning Portal guidance on external walls, and in the Wareham Conservation Area it is cladding and needs permission. Wareham has 196 listed entries, many in the streets inside the walls, and on a listed building internal work needs listed building consent as well. Building control applies through regulation 23, with the Part L target in Approved Document L, and insulating a home is currently zero rated for VAT until 31 March 2027.
Cost
Which wall you have decides what insulation costs
The wall area is the easy part. What happens at every window, door and floor junction is where the price is set.
Solid or cavity. The older houses in town have solid brick walls. They cannot be filled, so the choice is a breathable lining inside or insulation outside, and on those walls a system that traps moisture moves the damp problem indoors. About half the town's housing was built between 1945 and the early eighties, most of it with a cavity, and if a borescope shows the cavity clear and dry, filling it is a much smaller job.
Weather. Walls facing south west here take driven rain, and on a very exposed face some cavity fills can carry water across to the inside. The code for wind-driven rain is how that is judged, and it can rule a wall out.
Round the edges. Window and door reveals, the join with the floor, the eaves and any party wall shared with next door are where a lined or filled wall loses heat, and where condensation shows if the detail is skimped. It is fiddly, slow work and takes most of the labour.
Access. A bungalow comes off a tower, a tall gable wants a scaffold, and the work at height rules set which.
Ask other firms whether they have looked inside the cavity or just assumed, how they will finish the reveals, and who puts the plaster and paint right afterwards.
If damp has appeared
Damp patches after cavity fill or lining
Damp patches or black mould on an outside wall after cavity fill or internal lining usually mean water is tracking across the cavity, or warm air is reaching a cold surface at a junction. Phone rather than using the form.
Nothing gets taken out until we have looked, because the fix depends on which it is, and a wall facing the prevailing weather points one way while a cold corner behind a wardrobe points the other. The first visit finds the cause and tells you what can be done about it. Scheduled work is Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If nobody answers your call, we phone back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Insulate a wall so it can be dried out again
Wareham has water on two sides and a good deal of the town sits inside flood zone 2, with parts in zone 3. You can check any address on the Environment Agency flood map. Most years nothing happens.
The point is not to frighten anybody, it is that a wall which might take water once in twenty years should be lined with that in mind, because it costs very little extra to do at the time and a great deal to put right afterwards.
The standard internal lining is timber battens fixed to the wall, mineral wool between them and plasterboard over the top. Every element of that holds water. Soaked mineral wool slumps in the stud and never fully recovers, plasterboard swells and has to come off, and a wet timber batten against damp brick will not dry while it is boarded in. After a flood the whole lining is a skip job and the room is out of use for months.
The alternative is not exotic. Closed cell rigid board takes almost no water. A treated batten held off the masonry lets air move behind it. A removable skirting and a service void at the bottom mean the wall can be opened, dried and closed again without touching the rest of the room. We only specify it where the risk is real, and we say plainly when your address is high enough up not to need it. Where it is not needed, an ordinary lining takes the same heat loss out of the wall at a shorter payback.
Who you are dealing with
Wall insulation for the walled town and Sandford
We insulate walls in Wareham, Stoborough, Sandford, Ridge and the rest of BH20 nearby. Our base in Boscombe is 12.5 miles away, and the council for planning and building control is Dorset. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Wareham, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Thomas Hannen owns the business, checks the wall himself and puts the price together. A verified customer on Checkatrade gave the firm 10 out of 10. Coming to survey the house costs nothing, and the itemised quote is free and in writing.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Wareham?
Most repairs in Wareham 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 Wareham |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Wareham. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Wareham Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Wareham. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Wareham. |
Questions
Questions about wall insulation in Wareham
Should we insulate a wall in a flood zone at all?
Yes, but choose materials that can survive a soaking. Closed cell board and a removable skirting at the bottom metre mean a wall can be dried and closed again instead of stripped out.
Does cavity insulation make flood damage worse?
It can hold water in the wall for a long time afterwards, which slows the whole property drying. That is one of the reasons we look at the flood map before recommending a fill on a low lying address.
Are the old terraced houses in the town solid walled?
Most of the ones inside the old streets are, at around 230mm of brick plus plaster. There is nothing to fill, so the route is a lining inside or insulation outside where consent allows.
Does a listed house in Wareham need consent to line a wall inside?
Frequently, yes. Listing covers the interior, and there are a lot of listed entries in this town, so check with Dorset Council before ordering materials or losing an original plaster finish.
How long does it take to line one room?
Two to four days for the boarding and fixing, depending on the reveals and whether radiators and sockets come off. Plastering and drying come after that, and the draughts are worth doing in the same visit.
Nearby, and next door
Wall insulation near Wareham
Nearby places we also cover for wall insulation, with straight-line distances from Wareham, and the other trades we offer in Wareham itself.
Wall insulation nearby
Our other trades in Wareham
Wall insulation guides
Damp at the bottom of a wall: what it is PIR board vs mineral wool: which insulation? Hollow-sounding wall: blown plaster or dot and dabEverything we do in Wareham Wall insulation, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Line the wall so it can be dried out again
Thomas comes out, checks the wall, the levels and the flood position, then prices a build up that suits the address. The visit and the written quote are both free.