British Gas free insulation (cavity wall and loft) - anyone had this done?

shackalak

The surveyor has been out to us this morning and it seems in our case, it wouldn't be as 'free' as they made out when the original agents knocked on our door.

As we have a sloping roof on our extension, they can't put a ladder up and we would have to have scaffolding errected around the house. We would have to pay for the scaffolding. The only other alternative would be to go in through internal walls but redecoration would be necessary.

I know this may seem like a small price to pay for the longer term benefits but we really don't have any spare money at the moment and only agreed to the offer because the initial contact told us it wouldn't cost us a penny.

I've rung up to express my concerns this morning and they are referring it to a manager. They even asked us if we were sure the original contacts we had who knocked on our door were definitely from them as apparently, they should have explained all this to us.

retiredalso

we have a sloping roof on our extension

Where I stay most of the homes have a garage on the side and none of the companies will give us free cavity wall insulation. Not even from the inside, in case something gets damaged and also because of the water tank in the attic.

3 homes don't have a garage and they have been done for free. We are awaiting the spring so we can find out how much the 3 homes will have saved.

Most of the homes are identical in construction.

Sunnydazey

I gave up waiting for my free cavity wall insulation from British Gas. It was a very frustrating experience.

prowla

Well, I have a letter from British Gas saying today is the dauy and I would receive a call of confirmation of time either yesterday or today.
No call by 10:00, so I called them (I looked up their 0800 number rather than using their 084xx).
Sat in a queue for 15 minutes and then they gave me the installers (084xxx) number.
I called the installer (using their national number rather than the 084x one), and got to speak to someone who said the dates supplied by British Gas were not valid and that they would look up my information but it wouldn't be today.
Not very impressive really...

prowla

The subcontractor came and did the job yesterday.
Three blokes from Castle Point; they were friendly and efficient and got on with the job.
They also gave me some left-over mortar to patch up some gaps.
Now it's done, the first thing I've noticed is that the house is quieter; I hadn't realised it would be, but basically the insulation has given a similar change to putting in double-glazing or the quiet you get when it's just snowed.

ThriftyHousewife

We tried to take out this offer from British Gas and they sent a surveyor round, our side entrance is apparently not wide enough and the workmen wouldn't be able to use ladders - for safety reasons they would have to put up scaffolding which we would have to pay for. Although the cavity wall insulation would be free the scaffolding would cost in the region of £400, which we didn't have, so haven't taken up the offer. We would have to work out whether or not any savings would outweigh the outlay.