Cavity Wall insuation??

poppyolivia

I was worried about it for long enough..we were the only house in the street near enough not to have it done and some people were complaining of damp since getting it done??? We were only allowed to get the front of the house done though for some weird reason and they never did come back to do the loft!lol... I'm gonna give them a phone to see whats what. We managed to get a grant for it, well the front of the house.

liitleblackcat

The cavity wall insulation used these days is either fibreglass or rock wool blown into the cavity or expanded polystyrene balls in an adhesive liquid which sets once it's in there. We had the polystyrene balls done in about 1980 in our 5 year-old house at the time and it made a huge difference compared with the uninsulated walls before. We also had the rock wool installed in the cavities of our current house about 10 years ago and our gas bills at the time dropped by around 20%. I must say if you get a choice go for the polystyrene.

Last year we had our loft insultation increased from 100mm to 270mm (using fibreglass) and a new condensing boiler and our gas bill for a 4 bedroom house is about £400 a year (we heat and cook with gas). No doubt that will go up to £500 with the latest price rises.

As everyone has said, it's a no brainer. Contact your local council and they will be able to advise. Ours will organise them both for £150 each, depending on the size of the house.

Of course if the house was built before 1930 it probably won't have cavities, not sure what you do then!

Optimisticpair

poppyolivia wrote: »

some people were complaining of damp since getting it done???

I'm not an expert on building, I'm just researching to find the best way to go on with a house which has a 1980's cavity wall extension and old solid walls.

Damp can come from different sources - one of these being condensation, the warm air carrying moisture hits a cold surface and water forms that's possibly as a result of less draughts aka ventilation now.

I'd be interested to hear what any builders or domestic energy engineers have to say.

mebumu

You may find the following link interesting, whether you agree with the author or not.
http://www.askjeff.co.uk/content.php?id=4
I myself have spoken to a colleague who had to get a cavity wall insulation company round 4 times to ensure the job was done "properly"; he had a cupboard in his property with some bricks missing on the back wall which allowed a visual inspection of part of the cavity; when the company claimed to have completed the work, my colleague stated he could prove that part of the wall was still not insulated (without allowing the company access to the cupboard of course) Only after the company had re-insulated the property 4 times was the visually accessible area found to be adequately insulated! And this work was done privately, with no grant, by one of the most reputable firms in the country, not one of the many cowboy firms employed on Government grants to insulate umpteen houses a day!

CFC

I would think carefully before you have this done. Although there are less problems now, there STILL are problems with insulation in older houses creating damp patches on walls. Although the stuff is indeed water repellent, dirt that can stick to it is not water repellent; and there is no longer the empty cavity to ensure that water gets dried out.

melbury

CFC wrote: »

I would think carefully before you have this done. Although there are less problems now, there STILL are problems with insulation in older houses creating damp patches on walls. Although the stuff is indeed water repellent, dirt that can stick to it is not water repellent; and there is no longer the empty cavity to ensure that water gets dried out.

Somebody at work was telling me that the polystyrene beads are not used anymore because it seems that they settle and just go into a mass at the bottom of the cavity over time.

All things considered I think I will give it a miss and keep the cavity as it is. I have found out that our house was built with the inside blocks made of an insulated material, so that is something.

melbury

CFC wrote: »

I would think carefully before you have this done. Although there are less problems now, there STILL are problems with insulation in older houses creating damp patches on walls. Although the stuff is indeed water repellent, dirt that can stick to it is not water repellent; and there is no longer the empty cavity to ensure that water gets dried out.

Man came today to do a quote for cavity wall insulation and it came out over £100 more than the girl in the office mentioned. He also expected me to sign up and place the order there and then. But have decided not to go ahead with it because a) I didn't like the man, he was a total a***hole and b) I still don't like the idea of filling up the cavity with alien material when nobody really knows what will happen to it further down the line.

He also stated that because we have an open fireplace in our living room we would, by law, have to have a vent fitted because of carbon monoxide poisoning - I ask you, from a coal fire in a very well ventilated room. Of course that would be an extra £50. Is that total boll**ks or what? It really is a miracle that anyone survived the past century.

I don't believe that we should have our houses so tightly sealed up with insulation that they cannot breathe at all, it's just not healthy.