New Build - Anwyl

Macca68

Hi all, I'm interested to read that some of you have bought from Anwyl Homes. I've been looking into Anwyl over this last year as we're interested in a move to North Wales in later life. The prospect of a new build is very appealing as I get older from a maintenance perspective.

Their builds seem to be very good quality, and have a bit of character too.

I'd be interested to hear what your experiences of dealing with Anwyl have been, and what you think of their builds, so please feel free to share your views.

Cheers, Mac

IvorDraft

We have recently purchased a new Anwyl home The house does not retain heat very well and the inside exterior walls are cold. Some of the rooms are drafty and cold. On investigating the drafts I was shocked to find that the house does not have any cavity wall insulation installed. There are many other builders building new builds in and around the area and all are installing cavity wall insulation. I have not yet discussed this with the builder and I feel I need some advise / help first, can anybody out there help me

AdrianC

IvorDraft wrote: »

We have recently purchased a new Anwyl home The house does not retain heat very well and the inside exterior walls are cold. Some of the rooms are drafty and cold. On investigating the drafts I was shocked to find that the house does not have any cavity wall insulation installed. There are many other builders building new builds in and around the area and all are installing cavity wall insulation. I have not yet discussed this with the builder and I feel I need some advise / help first, can anybody out there help me

Very surprised Building Control have passed that - it certainly won't meet thermal standards for Building Regs.

How have you determined there's "no cavity wall insulation"? It would typically be invisible, and would have been installed at the time the walls were being built up. It's not the fluffy ball retro-fit stuff, but hard slabs fitted between the leaves.

If you've taken a socket or light switch off and can't see any, then bear in mind you're probably looking between plasterboard and inner leaf, not between inner and outer leaf.

IvorDraft

Adrian, thanks for your reply.
The house next to ours is nearly finished and I have watched it being built, there is no cavity wall insulation installed.
When we first viewed our new house it was finished and ready to move in so we never witnessed any of the build progress. I assumed with it being a modern new house that thermal cavity wall insulation would be used. Same as you see in all of the TV building programs.
Can a house be passed off by building control without the cavity wall insulation and how would I check the house thermal properties.

ComicGeek

Have a look at your EPC - it will give a description of each element and state what kind of construction is used ie cavity masonry wall, timber frame etc. It will also state what kind of insulation has been assumed for the external walls to achieve Bldg Regs compliance.

This would confirm what should have been installed. You can then check what has been installed and raise with the builder.

I've seen many, many new builds where small areas of insulation have been missed, and a few where pitched roof insulation has been missed - but never come across all external wall insulation being missed, let alone on two adjacent plots. Not that it's impossible, but there would be so many opportunities to spot this. Cavity wall insulation slabs are installed as the walls are built, so this might only happen with pumped bead insulation - I have worked on some schemes where this is done afterwards to not slow down the brickies.

IvorDraft

Thanks ComicGeek,
I do not have the house EPC, is this something our solicitor would have provided when we purchased the house?

IvorDraft

Thanks to everyone for the various feedback. I did some further investigation and it looks like our house has those small polystyrene beads pumped into the cavity between the thermal blocks and brick work and this must be done after the build.
I will have to continue looking for why he house is so cold.
Thanks again to everybody for the feedback as it helps to point a non-builder into the right direction,

AdrianC

IvorDraft wrote: »

I do not have the house EPC, is this something our solicitor would have provided when we purchased the house?

https://www.epcregister.com/reportSearchAddressTerms.html?redirect=reportSearchAddressByPostcode

harz99

ComicGeek wrote: »

Have a look at your EPC - it will give a description of each element and state what kind of construction is used ie cavity masonry wall, timber frame etc. It will also state what kind of insulation has been assumed for the external walls to achieve Bldg Regs compliance.

.

Mine was done late 2013 and only shows "average thermal transmittance values" for walls roof etc.


Unless EPC's have changed to have more information since then that isn't a lot of help.

ComicGeek

harz99 wrote: »

Mine was done late 2013 and only shows "average thermal transmittance values" for walls roof etc.


Unless EPC's have changed to have more information since then that isn't a lot of help.

Yes, but if you know what you're looking for then the average U-value quoted on the EPC gives a lot of information - for walls for example 0.28 would normally be pumped bead insulation, 0.24/0.26 different types of cavity insulation batts etc. It will also state whether an air test has been carried out for that particular property, or the average used from another plot.