Nutec loft insulation

cherry76

Had my loft surveyed this afternoon. Was told it need to be done and was quoted over £6000 to insulate the rafters. £3000 to remove fibre glass insulation and replaced. Does this seem fair or am I being scammed. Thanks

greyteam1959

Scammed big time.

born_again

Well you can fit that stuff yourself...

ThisIsWeird

Hi Cherry.
Don't forget to ask them for a third quote - to come back in 5 years and remove the 'rafters' insulation.
Joking. Probably.
Is this a normal UK loft? Ie,  it's unlined, cold, breezy, but dry? If so, adding 'rafter' insulation will provide no insulation value for the actual house, and could - likely will - cause you serious problems moving forward.*
'Loft insulation', on the other hand - Ie the stuff you lay on top of the ceiling - is pretty essential. But shouldn't cost anything like £3k. Find a recommended local 'home maintenance' fellow, who'll do this for a £raction. 

* Numerous threads on this topic. Insulation between the rafters, in a normal ventilated loft, will do nothing for the house, and could lead to rot in your rafters. It can cause immediate issues as your house being unmortgageable and unsellable. So, pretty serious 

Albermarle

The key technical point is that your loft does not need insulating from the outside.
It is supposed to be cold and draughty ( especially at this time of year) as this stops all the timbers getting moist/rot.

Insulation on the floor of the loft is needed to keep heat in the house from escaping into the loft, but as said above this is a relatively easy low cost job. It sounds like you have some fibreglass insulation there already. Normally there is not quite enough, so might need ideally adding to, but that would cost a few hundred pounds at most.

You need to send the 'loft surveyor' on their way.

grumpy_codger

cherry76 said:

Was told it need to be done and was quoted over £6000 to insulate the rafters.

Why exactly does it need to be done and to insulate how?

Hopefully it will be just insulating blanket, but these guys seem to do notorious spray foam as well - https://www.stmedia.co.uk/portfolio/2d-animation/explainer-video/

FreeBear

If it is spray foam insulation, it will make your house difficult to sell. A lot of surveyors will down value a property with the stuff - Even going as far as a zero valuation.

Don't be swayed by claims that the stuff is breathable, comes with warranties, and is "approved" by the PCA. It is all BS (and I wouldn't trust anything "approved" by the PCA).

£6000 will pay for a lot of insulation - e.g. proper fibreglass/rockwool to a depth of 300-400mm and still leave change to insulate some of the walls.

ThisIsWeird

@cherry76 could you show us, or tell us, exactly what they said, please?
If you have written quotes describing the proposed work, could we see this too, please? (You can block out the company name if you wish).
It would be very useful to a number of folk, I think, to know on what basis this 'insulation' is being sold. 

cherry76

https://www.nutecspacewrap.com/

Check this. Am interested but not at more than £6000. He said to remove existing old fibre wool insulation will cost £1500 by a private company and £1500 for new one. I have noticed am getting mould to bathroom and bedroom ceilings so I will need to do something about it.

ComicGeek

cherry76 said:

https://www.nutecspacewrap.com/

Check this. Am interested but not at more than £6000. He said to remove existing old fibre wool insulation will cost £1500 by a private company and £1500 for new one. I have noticed am getting mould to bathroom and bedroom ceilings so I will need to do something about it.

It's all absolute nonsense and a complete con. Your old loft insulation will still be working and doesn't need removing. If you don't currently have 300mm of loft insulation, then buy some new rolls https://www.wickes.co.uk/Knauf-200mm-Insulation-Super-Top-Up-Loft-Roll---5-61m2/p/109451?gclsrc=aw.ds&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PMAX Shopping - Monthly Event&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAkc28BhB0EiwAM001TcTeMiU8DRkxz1aRBARS_vNJf561YYlZSrqHpOOHx599nO5qZtZ18RoCYF8QAvD_BwE and place it on top of the old. Will cost a fraction of their quoted removal cost, let alone their ridiculous prices for installation.

It's likely that the mould on your ceilings is due to condensation from poor ventilation of the rooms and/or heating not being on enough. Multi foil insulation in your loft will actually make that even worse.

Cunning_Stunts

Some poor and some good info here.

It's over priced, it is however to convert your loft from a cold area outside of the home to being a warm and dry area inside the heated area of your home, though it's critical that it's done properly. The insulation needs a sufficient insulation value to ensure its always warmer than the dew point, it must be fully enclosed, sealing against the wall plate and covering any gable ends, if there's a boiler or solar sytem the insulation should go behind it or sealed around it, not enclosing it and the aluminium foil insulation should not be in contact with any copper pipes or electrical fittings.

With a solar system, you may lose WiFi connection with it.

It's not an easy job to do properly and due to how awkward it is to seal against the wall plate I would suspect that most don't do that critical part, failing to do that would mean you wasted every penny spent.

As for £3k to dispose of the old insulation, I'd just leave it where it is or get a local handy man to bring it down and bag it, you take it to the dump yourself (no, it's not going to be toxic waste if that's what the sales guy told you)

Installing the correct product properly is laborious but should cost no more than £40 per meter (add up the area of each roof facet plus the gable ends)