Grants for home insulation - bargains!

[HamsterWheel]

I rent privately and at the moment get jsa and hb due to recently ending a work contract, being ended that is not me ending it lol

Rang up company regarding a grant about 3 weeks ago and cavity wall fitters from Wellwarm have turned up this morning actually on time

Only problem is,,, they drilled form my garage to my living room and apparently discovered a " single wall" so have gone straight through to my living room and knocked plaster off and left a hole Then had noticed a trowel etc in garage as bf leaves his tools here and is a painter and decorator, and said to me to " get him to plaster it up"

Not sure how long this process takes but think i ought to be checking rest of my house when im gone, cant help but feel if i wasnt a woman alone in the house they wouldnt have had the same attitude,

Having my loft insulated on tuesday morning too 200mm apparently right now i have 80mm so hoping it will be a big big difference this winter

By the way due to me being on benefits i received all of this for free and got told when its done to get in touch witih warmfront regarding windows and new boiler
xx

[Pincher]

I applied through EON for my 80 year old mother, who qualifies for free insulation. All EON does is pass the details on to some firm that subcontracts. the surveyor has disqualified the job!

The property is a semi-detached bungalow, and has solid walls. So no cavity wall insulation possible which is fair enough. He had a look at the loft, and it's not tall enough! Me and the builders have been in and out doing all kinds of stuff up there. I have boards and lights up there to facilitate movement.

All they want to do is lay and go.
No intention to provide good insulation,
just pick up the government subsidy for doing as little as possible.

[TheKav]

I used these guys to do my cavity wall insualtion and it saved me a proper wedge. They helped me apply for some grants and stuff which was very useful. I'm going to have them do my loft insulation, booked in for September.

their website is markgroup.co.uk

I'll let you know how the loft goes!

[NELSON]

Originally Posted by TheKav

I used these guys to do my cavity wall insualtion and it saved me a proper wedge. They helped me apply for some grants and stuff which was very useful. I'm going to have them do my loft insulation, booked in for September.

their website is markgroup.co.uk

I'll let you know how the loft goes!

I've got these guys coming to do a survey on my new (to me) house on Friday.

My only concern with this is the horror stories regarding damp following CWI, have these issues gone away with the use of modern materials like the blown fibre they now use?

[grumpycrab]

Hi, my wife's Mother is having loft insullation put in by the MarkGroup. She's claims that it is free. Anybody know how this works? Does she pay and then have to claim it back or does MarkGroup sort the money out? Thanks.

[kiran83]

hi i am 28 and OH is 29. we both work full time. I am just wondering if we would qualify for any governments grants for loft insulation?

[Mevs01]

There are grants available from Scottish & Southern Energy even for non customers as well as most other suppliers. As long as you own your own home you may be able to get a grant.

Loft insulation grants range from £40 - £250 depending on your property type and how much insulation is exisiting. If you have less than 60mm existing you will get a bigger grant.

All you need to do is give them a call.

[Mevs01]

Originally Posted by grumpycrab

Hi, my wife's Mother is having loft insullation put in by the MarkGroup. She's claims that it is free. Anybody know how this works? Does she pay and then have to claim it back or does MarkGroup sort the money out? Thanks.

But, the Mark Group will have links with suppliers who will fund them for carrying out CWI to obtain carbon savings. So your mother in law may well have got it free of charge Mark Group would then sell the carbon savings to a supplier who would pay Mark Group for the work and the supplier will use the carbon savings towards there CERT targets.

Everyones a winner.

[samandmillie]

Hi does anyone have experience good or bad of the above. Looking to get cavity wall and loft insulation. Many thanks

[SEE]

British Gas came round to survey my loft last week. They refused to do it as the loft hatch was 50mm to small for health and safety. This means the old houses that really need it won't be getting loft insulation as they are built on similar specs. A cop out as modern houses don't need insulation as much. Perhaps they knew this when offering grants.

[TiredGeek]

If only someone would offer grants to those of us without cavity walls to have external insulation fitted....
The cost of that is frightening and the savings are weak in comparison. Four bed detached = ~£16k to insulate - annual saving ~£450. Time to break even = 35 YEARS!

Yeah, like I'm gonna pay for that doing

[rosscouk]

I agree with TiredGeek, we have a house (circa 1900) which is a mixture of solid brick walls and uninsulated cavity wall extension. I am also on oil and desperate to insulate parts of the house. The kitchen today 12c when the rest of the house is about 16.5c and the heating has been on now for about 6 hours!!

[carolynt71]

We recently applied for the free loft insulation grant. We applied in November but were told that the insulation could be fitted in January. Happy. Now I get a letter from the company saying that the grant has been removed.

Everything I read says the insulation should have been fitted by end December.

I've tried taking this up with the company and they say they have been let down by British Gas and its not their fault.

Is this correct or have I been mislead. If so who do I take this up with

[Ecodave]

Originally Posted by rosscouk

I agree with TiredGeek, we have a house (circa 1900) which is a mixture of solid brick walls and uninsulated cavity wall extension. I am also on oil and desperate to insulate parts of the house. The kitchen today 12c when the rest of the house is about 16.5c and the heating has been on now for about 6 hours!!

You should call the Energy Savings Advice Service on 03001231234, you should be entitled to grant funding under ECO for the solid wall insulation.

[maxinex]

Did you know you can now have a replacement boiler free of charge, it is a government/energy provider scheme. If you are a home owner or a private tenant and get certain benefits, they will replace your boiler with a more energy efficient one completely free of charge. I have had mine done, the company that approached me were eco boilers http://ecoboilers.vpweb.co.uk/ they are in manchester area but not sure if do anywhere else. Worth it to see if you qualify, i was in private rented house and on jobseekers and child tax credit. It also applies to pensioners, i have just enquired about my mums.

[babyblooz]

Our house is a thirties semi and has solid upper walls, the bottom half has a cavity and has wall insulation. The top half has render that is coming off in parts and should really be re-done.

Are there any grants to help with insulating the top half while we have the rendering sorted out. It is expensive to have the render done but we love the house and want to stay in it. Husband is almost 60 so perhaps there might be grants for older people maybe?

We have insulated the loft and boarded it out so no savings to be made there.

If anyone has any information about external insulation or grants to have it done I would be interested!

[Ecodave]

Babyblooz, the ECO grant funding applies to anyone with solid, or hard-to-treat walls. Either call your energy company or the Energy Savings Advice Service on 0300 1231234 for more info.

[babyblooz]

Thanks Ecodave, I will call them tomorrow then. Does anyone have any idea of how much it would cost for the top half of my house to be done?

[unlucky67]

I'm despairing of these free energy deals...basically they want to only do standard easy work....the hard stuff - you struggle to find someone to do - they won't help with!
Current house is a funny layout - a number of years ago, after looking into it, I decided best thing would be to have rafters insulated rather than have insulation on loft floor. I couldn't get a grant to help with that as non-standard or any real help choosing an installer. Used a company who did grant work (thought they must be ok) they did a terrible job, pushed rockwool up into the rafters with no ventilation - on the advice of a builder and surveyor it all had to come down...I managed to get just the cost of the insulation refunded....
Current house has double glazing - badly fitted, extremely draughty double glazing. No one will repair it - so warped it needs replacing- but it is double glazed so any grants etc are out of the question.
Now have a new house, refurbishing it to move into. After freezing in this house want it to be well insulated and warm.
Would love someone to come round ( even for a small charge) to make recommendations - eg I have got the joiner to lower the ceiling on the stairs a bit - to make decorating etc easier but also cos I thought the heat would rise up there and be a bit of a waste. That was my idea - wasn't sure what to tell the joiner etc...thankfully looks ok...
Anyway got a letter through the door about £500 cashback if you make your house more energy efficient. So just spoke to them (Energy Saving Trust - we are in Scotland) . House had original 1970's double glazing (few mm thick and patio doors were single glazed) - have had it replaced - any help with that available? - no cos it was already double glazed!
Other job I think could do with doing is insulate under suspended floor (did it in one room in current house and did seem to make a difference) - can't find anyone who will do this for me - going to have to do it myself...but they do it - great - except they will only do it if they have a reasonable size access hatch (40cm by 40cm) -fine - but crawl space is higher than 90cm ! Again they won't do it....
Have got someone coming to assess it for cavity wall (suspect it won't be suitable as quite exposed) but will see what they say ....and have a think about it ...have heard lots of horror stories...
What we really need are companies who will do the hard jobs...not just ticking boxes...or financial help with the really expensive things that will make a difference to energy usage...
Anyone can lay insulation a couple of foot thick in an empty loft ....leaving no storage area ...for not much money...
Sorry rant over!