Cavity Wall Insulation

mk_lood

Hi everyone,

I'm after a bit of advice on Cavity Wall Insulation. Done a bit of research on it and seems as though there are free grants available to have it installed.

I live around the Milton Keynes area so I'm looking for anyone that's had it done, what there experiences were, and whether or not it's worth it?

Seems bizarre it can be offered for free! There must be a catch?!

macman

Welcome to the forum. Where have you been hiding? The utility co's have been offering it for years now.
It's only 'free' in that it's grant-aided by government, so you end up paying for it in your taxes and energy bills.

mk_lood

I know they've been offering it for a while...but I've always been a bit skeptical about "free" offers.

The scheme also appears to run out on 31st December in preparation for the green deal coming in.

Man_Overboard_2

Many years ago (in Milton Keynes, as it happens), I had a cavity wall insulation guy around to give me a price, and he told me that I would not save much money, but I would feel more comfortable.

If you can get it for free, then why wait? But if you have to pay, then consider how much of your house consists of exposed brickwork, and how much consists of windows and party walls. Also, consider the fact that it is completely impossible for you to inspect the work which you have paid the installers to do.

My current neighbour paid for cavity wall insulation a few years ago, and has detected no difference whatsoever in anything at all.

ladyburdy

I had free cavity wall insulation from EDF earlier this year, i followed the link on MSE website to apply, not sure if the link's still there though. Absolutely no problems at all, maybe a bit of sweeping up outside when they finished, thats all. Didn't cost a penny and we have a detached house so i thought there may be some charge but no, totally free. go for it!!

bee78

hello enquiring on cavity wall insulation, can everyone get it done free. what about new builds?

rogerblack

New builds are required to be insulated to a good level, and installing insulation in any designed gaps in the structure may cause damage due to blocking exits for condensation.

To do it properly requires an understanding of how the building structure works.
In some cases, just installing it in an unsuitable property will lead to the structure and the insulation becoming very wet, and being damaged.

mk_lood

Had a survey carried out earlier in the week and their coming round to do next week. All seems fairly hassle free so far...

I'll keep you posted!

steevo_h

Just had a guy round to survey my house for the loft insulation. I said I was only interested in this as I didn't require CWI. He asked why i didn't want CWI and offered to tell me some more about it.

He answered some of the standard objections to having CWI. Saying it is waterproof, anti-corrosive and because they are beads, they will work around any obstacles to fill all the space. He also guaranteed to me that these won't cause damp problems - which is my biggest concern. In a nutshell, the idea of having a cavity is that if water does find its way through the outer wall, it drains harmlessly down the inside edge of the outer wall. CWI, especially the fibrous kind offers the water a route to your inner wall which is where the problems can occur. Additionally, the figure of 8 spacer wires that maintain the gap between the walls, should be installed at a slight downward angle towards the outside, so that any water naturally drains away from the inner wall. If, however, any have been installed incorrectly(which happens a lot I'm told due to incompetance of labourers putting up newbuilds), the CWI can aid the water travelling along these towards your inner wall.

For me, the devil is in the detail though. I mentioned the issue of the figure of 8 spacers and said if they were incorrectly installed then even if they've done their bit correctly, it could be argued that is a defect in how the house is built rather than whether they have done their bit right and hence they would not be to blame. He went quiet at this point. I then read in the literature, that their work is guaranteed as long as the house fully adheres to all the relevant building regs. He did admit that they are not liable for a pre-existing condition and he was unsure as to whether the scenario I just stated counted as such.

For now I'll pay the extra few pounds a month and let them just put the loft insulation in. At least that's easy to undo if they mess it up.

melbury

Cavity wall insulation - no way, not even if they paid me for having it:eek::eek::eek:

http://www.askjeff.co.uk/cavity.html

sillygoose

Roll on the end of the year when it ends and the annoying 3 times a day calls trying to get me to have insulation, the stream of shifty doorknockers doing the same should stop. :j

You may same some energy usage, but that reduced energy will cost more as they add on the cost of rolling out all this insulation to your tariffs, will take years and years to make any gain.

If I increased my loft insulation it could save £100 a year but would cost me £25,000 to build an extension to put everything in!

Your only allowed to keep 10% boarded for storage to still qualify for 'free' insulation - mine is 90% boarded and full of stuff.

My walls are already insulated, so leave me alone!

I think some people have been making a tidy killing out of this or how could they afford to set up call centres to harass everyone?