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.
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 calls from the town 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.
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 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 what we use on anything in a damp or exposed position, because it does not slump and it sheds water. A fill is normally covered by an independent scheme run separately from the installer, so ask what paperwork comes with the job.
Failed fill. Slumped fibre 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 the 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 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 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
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.
Dorset Council is the planning authority. Internal lining needs no planning permission, which the Planning Portal page on insulation sets out, and external wall insulation is the one that can, under the Planning Portal guidance on external walls. Wareham has 196 listed entries, an unusually high number concentrated in the old streets inside the walls, and on a listed building internal work needs listed building consent as well as external work. Building control applies through regulation 23, which sets the Part L target in Approved Document L, 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 terraced house in the old town, a post war semi on the edge 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. Wareham is about ten miles from us and we are in the town most weeks. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
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
A local firm you can check
We cover Wareham, Stoborough, Sandford, Ridge 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
Wareham questions we get asked
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.
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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.