Cavity Wall Insulation - what are my options in this dilema

Trystano

Hi all,

I bought my house from its previous owners around 9/10 years ago. It is a semi-detached house. Over the last few years we have started to notice issues with the inner wall of the side of the house, firstly the wall paper peeled off and now the plaster is blistering. It is quite bad now actually as its blistered on the stairs in quite a large area. There are also wet/moist spots appearing in various room on the same wall (the wall that is on the side of the house. We know this is the cavity wall insulation that has wrapped around the wall ties and is transferring the water/rain that is hitting the outer side wall along to the inner wall.

The dilemma we have is that the previous owners never stated the cavity wall was done and also the job done by the company who had done it, it seems, was done as a hobble job. We know this because the same company done our neighbors house (both side) but they both got the certificate/insurance through CIGA. CIGA have no record of our house being cavity wall insulated. The drill holes are clearly visible on the outside side wall which indicates Cavity wall insulation has been done (well, the inside consequences of blistered plaster and circular wet patches is evidence of this).

To make matters worse, the company that done the cavity wall insulation on my house (and our neighbours) has since gone bust, so we cannot approach them.

Does anyone know where I stand with this. Is there any avenues I can go down against the previous owners. Are there public service claims companies I can contact to help me make a claim or help cover the costs that it will cost me to extract the cavity wall insulation (and potentially to also restore the damage to the inner wall of the house)?

Would be very grateful for any kind of advise from people who have had such past experiences.

Thanks in advance

Tryst

Tryst

ic

Sold as seen.

As you state, you could see the drill holes, so its not like it was concealed from you. How do you know who did the work if you were never given receipts or information?

Davesnave

Leaving aside any hearsay evidence you've written here, what did your surveyor say about the walls before you purchased and the evidence that CWI had been installed?

If there is nothing in his/her report, you have nothing to prove it was even there prior to purchase.

The TA6 (questions before contract) form was different 10 years ago, so did you ask the previous owners directly whether CWI had been installed?

Expecting them to volunteer the information would not be reasonable. 10 years ago little was known about the problems that might be caused by CWI and they could easily have forgotten, rather than witheld information deliberately.

Clearly there were no problems then, anyway, or your surveyor would have pointed them out.

OK, I'm being devil's advocate here to demonstrate what an impossible task it would be to land any claim on the previous owner. To expect to do that is clutching at straws.

As no one is going to make a profit from removing your CWI, you would have to rely on a goodwill gesture from CIGA to get this done for free, or at a reduced rate. I feel that they have no obligation to you, so I wouldn't be at all confident of this happening. There might be another avenue, but I don't know what it could be.

Chanes

Our house has CWI I don't like it but it hasn't caused any problems and has been in since 2002.

When we had the survey done before we bought it, our surveyor mentioned the drill holes and stated it was likely that CWI was installed and to ensure we obtained certificates. We did and it was British Gas who sorted it as part of a bundle when they bought a new boiler. Most of the neighbours have had the same insulation also with no problems. And I will say yet because if the pointing or brickwork start failing it will start causing problems where water can penetrate.

We had prices to have the insulation extracted (averaged at 3k) but given the house heating bills are really low and we have had no problems (and I was expecting them) we've left it alone. We did get a reduction of 1k on the house because we wanted to get it extracted.

Trystano

Thanks for the replies both.

Just to comment on ICs comment first. I can see the drill holes only have the neighbor pointed them out to me and only after we had realized we had a problem, this is several years after purchase. The inner wall was wall papered with several layers by the previous owner making impossible to see.

The neighbours can confirm that cavity work was carried out on the house as it was done the same time they had theirs done and by the same company (which has since folded).

Onto Davesnave's comment, the surveyor flagged nothing about CWI having been done on the house.

Just seems I am left with the ball here on unfortunate circumstances.

Thanks

casper_g

Is the neighbouring house suffering similar problems? Perhaps when they have their CWI extracted, you can get the workers to do yours as well, cash in hand. There'd be a pleasing symmetry about that!

Furts

Trystano wrote: »

Thanks for the replies both.

Just to comment on ICs comment first. I can see the drill holes only have the neighbor pointed them out to me and only after we had realized we had a problem, this is several years after purchase. The inner wall was wall papered with several layers by the previous owner making impossible to see.

The neighbours can confirm that cavity work was carried out on the house as it was done the same time they had theirs done and by the same company (which has since folded).

Onto Davesnave's comment, the surveyor flagged nothing about CWI having been done on the house.

Just seems I am left with the ball here on unfortunate circumstances.

Thanks

CWI gets blamed for a multitude of damp problems when the reality can be different. You should be investigating, then rectifying, why the CWI is transmitting moisture to the inner leaf. This could be defective render, or defective lead flashings, or leaking gutters, or cracked masonry, or a requirement for re-pointing, or a multitude of issues.

You mention wall ties and these may be encased with mortar. If so the solution is to remove this mortar. But also check why the moisture has got to this point and establish if this is down to your lack of maintenance of your home.

There has to be a reason why this issue has only become apparent 9/10 years after you purchased. Equally after 9/10 years it is unreasonable to expect the previous owner to have a responsibility in this issue.

phil24_7

I agree with Furts.

CWI has it's place and maybe your house wasn't idea for it (if the gable walls is in an exposed location for instance) but water still has to penetrate the external skin before it can cause any problems.

This is likely down to poor maintenance or some form of damage.

Investigate the wall and roof to see how and where the wall is allowing water in. Decide on a course of action to stop this and then allow the walls to dry out before sorting the internal walls.

It may be worth involving your insurance company to see if they will pay out for works, though they may not if it is due to your lack of maintenance.

Davesnave

I have blown CWI and live in quite an exposed place at 500'.

Despite this, I have no problems with damp. Significantly, perhaps, my property is rendered and painted with Weathershield, all of which is in good condition.

I did my own survey and noted the tell-tale holes had been filled-in. However on the TR6 the previous owner wasn't sure if CWI had been installed, but she added that she "thought it had been."

That's how vague some people's recollection can be.