Would you buy a house that had previously had spray foam insulation?

stuart45

Just don't get them sprayed

Hmaz_2

FreeBear said:

Any idea when that dormer was constructed ?

Quite possible that it is very poorly insulated. So budgeting to strip out the walls & ceiling to stuff both with insulation would be prudent.

I don't know unfortunately 

youth_leader

Personally, in addition to the spray foam issue, I wouldn't buy this property because of the flat roof.  I bought this bungalow with a flat roof over the extension and six months after moving in Storm Arwen blew the flat roof off. The vendor told me the roof had been newly replaced in 2019 - she hadn't realised he was a cowboy.  He'd only nailed it down with short nails, not screwed it down with screws.   Other people lost a few tiles, I had a miserable Christmas and New year with saucepans with the ceiling finally coming in, for months.
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WIAWSNB

FreeBear said:

Any idea when that dormer was constructed ?

Quite possible that it is very poorly insulated. So budgeting to strip out the walls & ceiling to stuff both with insulation would be prudent.

Indeed. And the flat roof does look quite thin by current reg standards.

The good news is that adding extra insulation should be very straight forward to do. 

david29dpo

youth_leader said:

Personally, in addition to the spray foam issue, I wouldn't buy this property because of the flat roof.  I bought this bungalow with a flat roof over the extension and six months after moving in Storm Arwen blew the flat roof off. The vendor told me the roof had been newly replaced in 2019 - she hadn't realised he was a cowboy.  He'd only nailed it down with short nails, not screwed it down with screws.   Other people lost a few tiles, I had a miserable Christmas and New year with saucepans with the ceiling finally coming in, for months.
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I would be more worried about the flat roof, lenders are as well.

Hmaz_2

Thanks all for the points about the flat roof I hadn't really given it much thought.  Come to think of it I did have problems with the flat roof on my last house (luckily it was quite a small area that had a flat roof), after my ex had it replaced by a cowboy builder and it kept leaking. We had to pay to have it replaced again on the end

youth_leader

I was reluctant to buy this bungalow with its flat roof, but the fact it was 'new' gave me false confidence.  The flat roof here was resin - when I 'claimed' Policy Expert's claims department, Trinity Claims, wanted me to accept a £6,000 cash settlement that would pay for 'bitumen and hot torching'.  Very luckily my local surveyor lives around the corner and he helped me as a friend, I was nervous negotiating the 'portal' and it was hellish trying to get a quote as all builders/roofers were so busy.  Finally got a quote for £9700 and I paid extra for the insulation from my own pocket.  The cowboy roofer that had done the 'new roof' was cruising the streets after the Arwen damage, rumour is he was tarmacking drives before.

theartfullodger

If cheap enough, yes.  Everything has its price, obvs.

BikingBud

I was walking yesterday. 

I would be striding out quicker now and not be committing any funds to it.

I would need those against my final purchase. 

ReadySteadyPop

tetrarch said:

The answer to your question may not even be in your hands. Many lenders consider spray-foam insulation an absolute red line

It can be removed - my main question would be how long has it been done? i.e. how much damage has already been caused

That said, these very liabilities will also give you the opportunity to negotiate a lower price

Regards

Tet

Yes, definitely get a lower price, but also bear in mind the point about re-sale value/re-sale difficulty.