cavity wall insulation in the 1920s

MissPeachtree

We have had a survey back on a house we are hoping to buy.  It has cavity walls.  The house was built in 1920.  In the surveyor's report they mention:

Given the age of the property it is likely the main walls are insulated but not in line with current regulations and there is no evidence to suggest insulation has been upgraded since the date of construction.

The day of the survey we received a phone call during which the surveyor said there is no evidence of cavity wall insulation being installed.  I took this to mean there was none at all.  But the comment in the written report implies otherwise.

This leaves me with the question - What cavity wall insulation could have been installed in the 1920s?

Many Thanks

Slinky

Sounds like a cut and paste comment that shouldn't be in the report to me. Makes no sense given the age of the property; they didn't do cavity wall insulation in the 1920s.

LHW99

Almost certainly cut & paste. Not all 1920's houses have cavity walls anyway.

Ours doesn't, but that was written in the EPC, and it seems it was just copied across. Our survey also said double glazed throughout - I had a nice discussion wih the surveyor about wooden frames for DG windows - except the wooden windows are single glazed with original 1920's panels.

We assumed that the surveyor was overworked, and got his houses mixed up!

spannerzone

Yes sounds like a cut n' paste from standard document... 1920's housing won't have insulation fitted in the cavity when the house was built...as the cavity was empty to serve a purpose.

Personally I'd be glad to buy a house where cavity wall insulation hadn't been retrofitted as there's the risk of poor insulation causing damp bridging issues. That's just my opinion of course, many have insulation fitted without issue.

MissPeachtree

spannerzone said:

Yes sounds like a cut n' paste from standard document... 1920's housing won't have insulation fitted in the cavity when the house was built...as the cavity was empty to serve a purpose.

Personally I'd be glad to buy a house where cavity wall insulation hadn't been retrofitted as there's the risk of poor insulation causing damp bridging issues. That's just my opinion of course, many have insulation fitted without issue.

Thank you.  Yes, we are glad none has been fitted.  The house feels very warm and dry as it is.

FreeBear

In the 1920s, cavity wall construction was being adopted across the country. But a lot of houses were being built with cavity walls on the lower half, and solid brick on the upper. The upper half often being rendered to hide the low quality bricks being used. The clue in identifying mixed construction is the depth of the window recess (or window board). Around 150mm for solid walls, and 230mm for cavity.

If you have solid brick walls on the upper half, it is well worth insulating the walls and plugging any draughts around the windows - I have this half & half construction here, and have been adding ~75mm of Celotex to the walls. It has made a huge difference in comfort levels and reduced heating bills a little (some of that will be down to the new windows).

Martyn_H

Our house was built in 1935. No cavity walls.

stuart45

Even today there's no Building. Regs that state you need cavity walls. For clay brickwork 13 inch solid walls are required unless the face is protected by tile hanging, render, cladding etc.