Cavity Wall Insulation - Damp/Damage Claims

Furts

This is fine provided the surveyor was appointed by CIGA. If not you are little further forward.

kingey_2

over the last 2 months be have been contacted many times by companies asking about our cavity wall insulation - we live in blackpool and apparently the insulation that was put into our property was not appropriate for this area (poly beads or whatever it is called). we are having problems with damp etc. and are questioning our choice in the insulation. They are claiming that the company that installed the insulation has gone into liquidation and they will take on the case against the insurance company who covered the guarantee, and each time they quote the figure of £10,000 - as per the PPI they will take on the case, cover solicitor fees and its a no win no fee basis taking 25% on completion of suit. Whilst i know that the carrot of £10,000 is ridiculous I would just like some advise of best course of action of how to take on the insurance company etc with a hopeful positive outcome. Help please

Furts

kingey wrote: »

over the last 2 months be have been contacted many times by companies asking about our cavity wall insulation - we live in blackpool and apparently the insulation that was put into our property was not appropriate for this area (poly beads or whatever it is called). we are having problems with damp etc. and are questioning our choice in the insulation. They are claiming that the company that installed the insulation has gone into liquidation and they will take on the case against the insurance company who covered the guarantee, and each time they quote the figure of £10,000 - as per the PPI they will take on the case, cover solicitor fees and its a no win no fee basis taking 25% on completion of suit. Whilst i know that the carrot of £10,000 is ridiculous I would just like some advise of best course of action of how to take on the insurance company etc with a hopeful positive outcome. Help please

Do you have the 25 year guarantee issued by CIGA? If so contact them with your concerns and they will send someone around to investigate. If you cannot find your guarantee it is still worth contacting them - your installation may be on their records. None of this costs you anything and leaves all matters in your control.

Magic789

We were contacted by a company too here in Blackpool regarding the CWI. But now I'm not sure if I should just go back to the installer or contact CiGA first? Just not 100% confident in the claim companies credentials. Have you heard anything back from them?

Magic789

What would you recommend as the first course of action?

Furts

Magic789 wrote: »

What would you recommend as the first course of action?

It is likely the installer no longer exists - which is a reflection on the dubious CWI industry. That is why the cIGA guarantee exists - it offers a degree of protection. Hence contact them.

Magic789

The supply does still exist surprisingly, should I try them first?

seligshopping

To all the smart (younger?) people who question why on earth we had CWI installed - when your reputable energy supplier (British Gas at the time, I think, but that might be wrong) says they will pay for it to be done, because the government wants us to do it to save money and reduce energy consumption and have warmer homes - why wouldn't you trust them (at the time)? It's not like someone you've never heard of knocked at the door and you paid lots of money for some dodgy home improvement.

Shroppey

Long time lurker, first time poster, I came across this and felt the need to add my experience. I'd go grab a cuppa and sit comfortably, this may go on a bit!

For clarity, I work for/own a company concerned with helping people get their homes sorted following the incorrect installation of cavity wall insulation, so I hope this is allowed! I'll try to ensure any statements I make are impartial, based on my experience and will not use this as a company advertisement. Obviously if I'm breaking rules please feel free to delete/edit/let me know, as appropriate.

Bit of Background
The truth is, here in Wales along with Cornwall, north west coast of England/Scotland and a few other areas exposed to wind and rain, cavity wall insulation should never have had cavity wall insulation fitted. As with many of these "schemes" greed got the better and unqualified, profit driven and targeted "sales people" were left to decide which properties were suitable. Surprisingly, it seems that every door that they knocked was suitable to have cavity wall insulation. In addition to this, a lot of the work done was to a very poor standard. It's now causing MASSIVE problems.

Is your damp caused by cavity wall insulation?
When I'm assessing the likelihood of damp in a person's home is due to cavity wall insulation, the two most pertinent questions are:

Did you have issues with damp before having cavity wall insulation fitted?
If the answer is "no", then it's highly likely cavity wall insulation is causing your problem. If the answer is "yes", then it should never have been fitted in the first place!

Did the damp initially appear on a south/westerly wall?
This is significant due to our prevailing weather, it's often the first place we see damp and mould forming.

What can be done?
Left untreated, you are risking serious damage to your property and possibly your health. The black mould that eventually grows on the affected wall is called Stachybotrys and can be extremely dangerous. In other words you have to do something!

Installer
These are the people who originally did the job, most have now closed down and many of these are now operating cavity wall insulation extraction companies.

Guarantees
Most properties that had cavity wall insulation installed would have been given a 25 year guarantee, usually but not always backed by CIGA, which would seem the ideal place to go to get the problems resolved. In my opinion, the issue with CIGA is that you are asking the people who are going to pay for any work if you actually need the work doing....................Again, in my opinion, the future of CIGA is bleak, it seems they have set aside £18,000,000 to pay for remedial work, depending on whose estimates you use there are somewhere between 1,000,000 and 3,000,000 homes affected, giving £6-18 per home for repair bills..........

Pay for removal
Removal certainly needs to happen. Depending on your property the cost will be in the region of £1,500 per wall, obviously costs vary. The most I've seen charged for a detached 3 bed property is a staggering £14,000! See my comment earlier about extraction companies.

What ever you do, do not allow partial removal of cavity wall insulation!
Not even total removal from just one wall. This may seem like a good choice, it's not, you'll open up a whole can of worms.

Professional Help
Unfortunately, cavity wall insulation is going to be the new PPI. There are companies that can help, they'll sort surveyors etc, get the job done and ensure it's done correctly all under a Conditional Fee Agreement (think "No Win-No Fee"). These companies will also claim for re-instating your property to its former glory, etc.

Do not pay an up-front fee!!

In summary (assuming you've got this far!) cavity wall insulation is causing huge problems. If you have damp you believe to be caused by cavity wall insulation, it needs checking and sorting. How you sort it is up to you.

If there any questions, I will try and answer them as and when I can.

qbazdz

Hi Shroppey,

Since you offered, I'll have some questions for you.
Our CWI is about 6 years old and had been installed before we bought the property (1950s semi-d bungalow, W. Sussex and away from the sea).
When we replaced the windows last year, it was rather obvious that some areas had no beads whatsoever and some grey beads could be seen in various places but blown out and on the ground around the house.
Had an inspection recently from the installer who drilled some holes and had a look at the cavity and in several places where we had damp issues internally he either found debris and bridging in the cavity or/and big voids.
We had a look up the loft and generally he made an effort to check if my concerns were valid.
Both extreme ceiling corners to our neighbours, have wet patches with black spots of mould in between coving and on the wall (kind of V shape stain, not a lot but need doing now!)
Before we did our bathroom, one corner had been quite well all the time (opposite end of external wall where the extraction is) and when I took coving down, it was all wet.
The SW corner of the house (on a gable end) has really bad mould in the ceiling corner.

Now his comments..
Accepted that where we had voids, they would fix it as it is not meant to be like that.
He did find that insulation in the loft was pushed right up against roof membrane blocking up the airflow from soffits (poor job by a loft insulation company according to him) and said it would have caused the effect we had seen in the bathroom.

My big question is now if the re-fill and cleaning up of debris where we found is going to make a difference and will allow the walls to dry out etc or would we be better asking for the CWI to be removed?

Any thoughts?