Cavity wall claims

Spies

There was nothing in the information pack, if the house builder was to simply state there's no CIGA guarantee then fair enough, but they were not being very helpful in that regard.

What I didn't realise is that it wasn't until some months after living in the house that I experienced the first patch of damp, when looking back over the estate agent photos it was then clear that the previous owners had damp issues in the same place.

It just kills me that I never paid to have a full survey done, basically because money was tight (and still is).

teneighty

Too much of this just does not make sense.

Originally the OP said the insulation was inserted when the house was built in 1996 and now they are saying it was retro fitted. A house built in 1996 would have had a pretty good wall insulation value even with a clear cavity so retro fit cavity wall insulation would have had limited value.

This cavity insulation extraction company are claiming the wall cavity is too narrow for insulation and the stone quoins make the cavity even narrower. This really does not sound like a house built in 1996, I would be extremely surprised if any house built then had a cavity of less than 50mm. (I am still surprised it was built in 1996 judging by the photos)

If the extraction company found cold spots due to damp slumped insulation "all over" why is the damp only visible in one spot below the window? You would expect to see patches of damp all over.

From the photos the external render looked quite good. I would expect it it to look far worse with cracks and being blown to allow enough water penetration to soak the external leaf of the wall to the extent that it saturated the cavity insulation to allow it to track across the cavity to the internal leaf.

I do not understand why the insulation is getting wet by condensation?

I didn't realise the company doing the survey was a cavity wall insulation extraction company. I cannot help feeling it is a situation similar to some of the more unscrupulous remedial damp proofing companies where they seem to only ever recommend their own services to fix the problem.

As for claiming against the original builder, as Furts said, after 21 years that is going to be a non starter.

I still suspect the issue is related to the window lintel/cavity tray or the cill. It is a shame the extraction company did not investigate that but it seems they were just following their own agenda to justify expensive extraction.

Furts

I second the above, and am thinking the original builder did the insulation. If so, that is why there is no CIGA registration, and that is why the builder is not helpful. It is a reality in life that numerous companies do not keep records for very long. To expect the builder to have information after 21 years is expecting far too much.

One area I would question with the excellent post above is the comment about having good insulation without needing additional materials here. Back in the 1990s one could build the inner leaf with concrete blocks then add CWI to achieve the U Value. This was happening with the national builder I referred to. That one was Taywood, who merged with Wimpey.

I accept the CWI concept was a flawed, non starter but consumers were buying the houses regardless. That said, there were major problems with quality, defects, buy backs, and pay offs to achieve silence. So I am not going to mention the location!

Spies

The house was built in 1996, it has a keystone with 1996 on it.

The wall on the opposite side of the building which doesn't get adverse weather was fine, all orange with no blue other than in the very corners where the wall meets the roof.

I will draw up a diagram.

Spies

I have updated the OneDrive link I posted earlier in the thread with exterior pictures.

I have noticed that the outline of the external blockwork is now quite pronounced, this is a recent development, as is the missing mortar above the lintel on the left so I don't think that has contributed to the damp.

The other cold area was shown to be to the right of the top window, the damp on the interior wall is to the right of the keystone.

Spies

Slight update, the neighbour has a CIGA guarantee which states the contractor that did the work, all these were built together so it's likely the same contractor did them all.

Furts

Spies wrote: »

Slight update, the neighbour has a CIGA guarantee which states the contractor that did the work, all these were built together so it's likely the same contractor did them all.

What is the installation date on the certificate?