Cavity wall insulation - newish house - advice please

skivvy3

Do I need extra cavity wall insulation - the house was built about 6 years ago? I have been offered free insulation under the government scheme. Is this worth doing - I would have thought that being a newish house there would be adequate insulation. Are there any down sides / negatives with going with this? Advice welcome. Thank you

ferretkeeper

I would have thought your house would be ok for insulation being so newly built, regulations get tighter all the time but I would expect yours to still be more than acceptable. What type of construction is your house? assuming it is cavity wall it should already be insulated.

Companies will offer anything to anyone under various grant schemes without checking the property's suitability or establishing a need, they probably have targets to meet on leads generated and will discount people at the next stage.

It's a big money making scam IMHO and it's going on a lot near me - external insulation is going up all over the place as a result of grant money becoming available, and companies are starting up with no experience to install it. Be very careful...Have "they" done a site survey yet?

I had cavity insulation installed a couple of years ago at my request - our house is brick built, I knew we had a cavity wall (as opposed to solid) and I checked that the cavity was wide enough to get enough insulation in before I asked anyone to quote. When they came to look it was not a builder, but a young lad in smart clothes, he drilled a couple of holes, shone a torch in, that was it.

I also ensured the cavity was cleared of debris at the bottom myself, this is a common route for damp crossing from outside to inside and damp can be greatly exacerbated by installing this insulation. I was also having the house re-rendered so I was confident it was water tight on the outside.

This is not something these companies' employees are generally qualified to check or advise on, and builders aren't always forthcoming in offering advice, so I got my local building inspector's advice.

We had terrible damp issues for years before but all the remedial work has been done for over a year and we are warmer and drier now. But I have seen horror stories on telly of people having to open up walls and remove the insulation because damp problems were never dealt with.

Incidentally I was refused any more grant scheme improvements like the external insulation because having the cavity done already meant there would not be a big enough improvement to energy savings to qualify. I suspect after a bit of digging the company concerned might come to the same conclusion with your property!

Sorry to drivel on but I hope there's some useful info there?!

justintime999

New-builds have sufficient insulation. No need to add more or do anything really. You are lucky to have a super efficient house.