Free and Cheap Insulation Official Discussion

taffy056

broxis11 wrote: »

So it cost you 20 quid and 10 hours of your time but you wouldn`t pay 48 quid to BG `as a matter of principle`. You obviously don`t value your own time very highly

You get what you pay for, if you look at the insulating properties of the stuff bought for £2 a roll you will see a huge difference in that compared to something British Gas would use, they only install the best material, the same for all insulating companies.

For that £48 they would insulate up to 270mm, lag any tanks up there, insulate any pipework, draught proof the loft hatch and pin insulation over the top of the hatch, they would ensure that there is no insulation blocking the eaves to help with condensation, and they would put poly vents in to ensure airflow in the loft if there is felt there, basically they would MOT your loft.

So saved £28 , must be chuffed with that, probably lose that in the first year by putting material that is less efficient, and will probably lose that every year, still £28 saved I guess.

2010

taffy056 wrote: »

You get what you pay for, if you look at the insulating properties of the stuff bought for £2 a roll you will see a huge difference in that compared to something British Gas would use, they only install the best material, the same for all insulating companies.

I did my own loft with the £1 a roll offer from NPower and so did one of my neighbours.
The neighbour on the other side had one of the "insulating companies".
It`s quite a sharp frost at the moment and if I go outside and look at the three roofs, two of them are absolutely covered all over with frost.
The "insulating company" roof has hardly any "white" on it.

A relation of mine had her`s done by an "insulating company" and comparing the difference in quality, weight and density to mine, her`s is like candy floss.

If you do it yourself, you KNOW it`s done properly, unlike relying on some "insulating company" who`s only concern is doing the job as fast as they can with the least amount of material for as much money as they can get.

Another bit of nonsense I`ve heard from these "insulating companies" is "we always leave an area uncovered for your storage".
This of course saves them time, material and in a way defeats the object of trying to keep the warm air out of the loft with an area left uncovered.
(And I do know all about the small area under the water tank, if you have one)

taffy056

2010 wrote: »

I did my own loft with the £1 a roll offer from NPower and so did one of my neighbours.
The neighbour on the other side had one of the "insulating companies".
It`s quite a sharp frost at the moment and if I go outside and look at the three roofs, two of them are absolutely covered all over with frost.
The "insulating company" roof has hardly any "white" on it.

Well I can't speak for what a company has done there, and what has occurred since the job has been done, but if there was a problem, I would suggest the owner complain to the company involved.

2010 wrote: »

A relation of mine had her`s done by an "insulating company" and comparing the difference in quality, weight and density to mine, her`s is like candy floss.

Again can't speak for something done by another company, but most insulating companies use either Rockwool, or Earthwool, they are currently the best on the market.

2010 wrote: »

If you do it yourself, you KNOW it`s done properly, unlike relying on some "insulating company" who`s only concern is doing the job as fast as they can with the least amount of material for as much money as they can get.

Problem is a very small minority of people know how to insulate a loft, and very few of them know what to look for when there is a problem.

2010 wrote: »

Another bit of nonsense I`ve heard from these "insulating companies" is "we always leave an area uncovered for your storage".
This of course saves them time, material and in a way defeats the object of trying to keep the warm air out of the loft with an area left uncovered.
(And I do know all about the small area under the water tank, if you have one)

Nope complete rubbish a loft is not meant for storage, if a customer asks to leave a space for this that is up to them, an insulating company must do at least 66% of the loft space, they do not arbitrary decide just to leave a space when ever they feel like it, the amount of time saved is practically nothing, the insulation saved is nothing as most companies will leave an extra roll there in case they want to cover that storage area in future.

I work for an insulating company, and I explain fully the material we install which in our case is Knauf Earthwool Roll 44 , or blown cellulose in awkward lofts with small hatches or with a pitch below 1.2m, I don't do hard sell as there is no need to, the product and our service sells itself, at the moment we giving insulation away for free no matter the circumstances.

Your problem is that you generalising all insulating companies with the same brush, not all companies are the same, most actually do the work properly, and the people doing the work do a good job. The company I work for has very little complaints, the ones that we do are dealt with very quickly and professionally.

2010

taffy056 wrote: »

Your problem is that you generalising all insulating companies with the same brush, not all companies are the same, most actually do the work properly, and the people doing the work do a good job. The company I work for has very little complaints, the ones that we do are dealt with very quickly and professionally.

Your problem is that you generalising that all companies are doing a proper job and doing the work correctly and fully.

Companies get a fixed amount for each job and can make extra by saying that the loft or cavity is just over the allowance limit and it`ll cost X amount for it to be fully done.

I`ve given two examples in my previous post on how this is going on.
I`m not saying all companies are "at it" but some definately are.

taffy056

2010 wrote: »

Your problem is that you generalising that all companies are doing a proper job and doing the work correctly and fully.

Companies get a fixed amount for each job and can make extra by saying that the loft or cavity is just over the allowance limit and it`ll cost X amount for it to be fully done.

I`ve given two examples in my previous post on how this is going on.
I`m not saying all companies are "at it" but some definately are.

I didn't say that, I said most companies are, if you are going to quote, get your facts straight , ok?

And obviously you don't know how the grant schemes work, there are many of them and companies like tesco , and npower etc have their own rules of this in regards to meterage etc The fact is that most houses fit into the average size houses, and get the job free if their circumstances allow.

And people are more than welcome to ask many companies to give quotes for work, but if a property is over sized its over sized, and will be charged if they want the work done. You seem to think that it should be free no matter the size of property, sorry it doesn't work like that, if you went into B&Q and got 8 rolls of insulation took it home and laid it out only to realise you didn't have enough even though you asked for advice, would you expect them to give you free rolls to do your property?

2010

Nobody`s getting it free anyway because we are all paying for it through higher energy bills.
The government has greenhouse gas targets to meet and if the energy companies don`t meet those targets there is a hefty penalty to pay.
This is the reason why it`s being given away and of course if the insulating companies can get extra money whilst doing it, that`s whats happening.
Basically they`re "at it". taffy

taffy056

Yes energy companies have targets, and currently £52 a year is diverted from energy costs to pay for the insulation from every household in the UK, so as its already being paid for it makes sense to do the work. Also the footprint of the house is exactly that, if it's 10m x 6m it's 60sqm , if a company allows for example 55sqm there is an excess of 5sqm which must be paid for if the job is to be done.

There is no wide scale over charging of people , as a percentage of jobs are checked independently of the installers, as I said most companies act ethically and do a good job, I would suggest people get at least 3 quotes to get work done, and choose the company they think will do the work correctly and well, our company gets a lot of work through referrals, when I ask for referrals I say wait until the work is done if you are happy can you pass my name on, I get 20-30 referrals a month. So it sort of flies in the face of what you are saying.

2010

taffy056 wrote: »

So it sort of flies in the face of what you are saying.

Of course it doesn`t.
You can only speak for yourself and your company.
There are hundreds of "insulation companies" out there, who my not be as ethical as you.

Once again I can only point you back to my initial post regarding neighbour`s insulation and a relative`s.

taffy056

2010 wrote: »

Of course it doesn`t.
You can only speak for yourself and your company.
There are hundreds of "insulation companies" out there, who my not be as ethical as you.

Once again I can only point you back to my initial post regarding neighbour`s insulation and a relative`s.

The thing is I used to be self employed in this and could book any insulation company, so know how the major companies operate, so I can say that I know more than just the way my company works. And there are quite a few insulating companies, I would say that there ain't hundreds though .

The ones who should be complying are on the National Insulation Association website or the Energy Saving Trust (EST), and CIGA , if they are not on there I wouldn't touch them at all.

If I was looking at insulation grants as a consumer, I would ask friends and families for a company they used if happy, or search through the EST website for a local installer. As I said get 3 quotes to do the work like you would for building work etc

rangler2

Hi,

Sorry if this has already been covered.. I want to get CWI but I have read too many horror stories about the foam / mineral wool so I want to get the expanded polystyrene balls instead. Do you know if any of these companies offer this either under the 'free' offer or otherwise for good value? I asked BG who said they could not offer this.

Thanks,
Andy