Cavity wall insulation caused rot and damp

Samitha89

I had free cavity wall insulation installed in my semi detached back in 2012. The front room and hallway were suspended floor with the back room and extension at the rear solid floor. (We knocked down the old extension and put a longer one up 4 years ago). We decorated and put new flooring down shortly afterwards installation. The floorboards and joist were in good condition. We then went to redecorate in the front room June 2021 and found underneath the laminate that the floorboards and joist were totally rotten. We had some patches of damp in palaces on the wall but I never really thought too much of it. We had the company back out who did the cavity insulation. The job was not done properly. There was no sleeves/trays around the air bricks, so all the insulation had fallen and blocked the air rick so blocking the air flow. At this point they were willing to come out take the insulation out and any debris in the cavity, leave it to dry out and then redo the insulation. (Said over the phone - not in writing) I asked them what about the internal of my house, as it was like this in the front room we were unsure what the state would be in the hallway. They then told me that it would have to go to their insurance company for this, basically making it seem like a formality. The insurance company then send out a surveyor who also concluded the job has not been carried out correctly but said that the lack of airflow under the floor was the result of my new extension and that by building that the airflow front to back was stopped. I have explained that there never was front room back flow of air, there was only ever front to side air flow due to the solid floors at the rear that were there when I moved into the property and at the time of installation of the cavity wall. The insurance company will only rely on their surveyors opinion and will not do anything unless I can get my own surveyor to prove otherwise (at my own cost). I then involved ciga who also sent someone out who also concluded that the work was not done properly. Ciga said that they only cover the bad workmanship not the problems caused by the bad workmanship. Ie fix the job done wrong. I asked ciga what this would involve and have not got an answer. They have been saying since January that their is an insurance claim in progress that I am third party to and basically won’t speak to me about anything. The company that did the work, their insurance company won’t tell me any details of this and won’t change their original stance. So then I spoke to the company again who told me to put in writing exactly what I wanted doing they wanted to move forward with it aswell as it’s being over a year. So I did; remove insulation and debris, let it dry out and redo but stating I wanted all Senior staff their to insure it was done properly. They are now only offering to take the insulation back out. They said that they can assess the suitability for new insulation after this, they have not said they would do this for free and I’m guessing they will come back with it’s not suitable as there is some debris in the cavity (which they should have removed before the initial job). So I’m a totally stuck as to what to do. If I pay for a surveyor that’s costing me money and then it will be there surveyor against mine so then there’s no guarantees. If I agree to let them take out the old insulation I’m still stuck with all internal works, and also either trying to get someone to re-insulate or know the house will be colder therefore costing more in heating. This has been going on for over a year and I need to mover forward but don’t know what to do for the best money wise? This was a free government grant at the time so I did not pay for it. Help!

Keep_pedalling

It might help if you edit your post to break it down into paragraphs. Lots of people (including me)  see a wall of text like that and won’t even attempt read it.

Dec4

Hi we had Millar and Patterson do our cavity wall insulation in 2008 as told to do so by our local council Merton to save on energy.
we paid around £99.00 .
we are now having problems with damp and mould comming through to inside walls and some rooms colder than before.
I have now googled and seen so many people have same problem and no one is helping resolve these issues.
Is there anyone that can help us with this please .