Cavity Wall Insulation removal

Eld1985

Has anyone else experienced problems AFTER removal? 

We contacted CIGA September, inspector came out and confirmed the insulation should never have been installed and proper checks not made, report confirmed this with photos including reading found internal on damaged walls.
We had the cavity removed within the last month, they didn't complete this in a day and due to come back to complete.
We are now seeing new areas of dampness, large area.

My neighbour is months ahead of me and have experienced further issues too. It is causing quite a bit of distress.

I totally regretting to this grant 18 years ago!!

Scot_39

Cannot really comment on the partial removal - but have had problems in the past at parents - who didn't realise it was far more critical to keep the outer walls and roof fully maintained to prevent insulation leading to damp carry over or trapping small roof seapages against inner walls

The inner skin / leave bricks of your wall and plasterwork  is likely to be damp through if had damp carryover as reason for removal - and that can take weeks if not months at this time of year to dry out even with full cavity ventilation.  One of the reasons new builds not encourage papering new walls is to allow them to dry out.

And depending on age - it might be possible that any remaining insulation might still be blocking old air bricks or modern damp vents thst sit between bricks vertically.  Slowing cavity airing / drying process. 

So until the inner brick wall skin/leave is dried out -  cavity through to room side - heat and/or good ventilation are key for any rooms with impacted exterior walls.

And care should be taken that furnishings, storage etc and even soft furnishings like curtains dont permanently block heat and air circulation to areas of external walls with potential damp issues.

Some have found standard fans enough to stop dampness becoming localised at so called cold spots on exterior walls - where the humidity in the room ends up finding and condensing out in one smaller area.  And likewise may be enough to keep any leaching out from damp skin / plaster etc staying locally on surface.

Assuming the main crossover issues fixed.

Buy a dehumidifier?

Given you likely have had damp on interior driving the removal - you might want to invest in a dehumidifier if can afford one  to speed up the drying process. To both reduce any humidity condensing out on now colder interior of exterior wall surfaces, and encourage / allow the wall itself to dry quicker.

One suitable for a smaller room - if kept at 15C plus then cheaper refrigerant/condenser models should be fine - say rated 10-12l - and these cost from just over £100 at common high street / strip mall big box electrical retailers  - top rated branded like Maeco etc closer to £200 -  and will use about 1kWh every say 4-6 hrs - which should be enough to make a real difference to humidity and so dampness levels.

Get one that's mobile and move from room to room if more than one impacted - say for maybe 4 then down to a couple of hours a day - folk often find the first say week of use draws more out of structure / furnishings (bedding, curtains, carpets etc) and then quickly settles down.

Last time my sis had a bad roof leak, fixed within 24 hrs - she had big damp patches on plaster ceiling at wall and exterior wall wallpaper and soaked the carpet at wall. The dampness also streaked across whole ceiling at gaps and under joist runs in large - 22m2 - bedroom - we used a  cheap 10l dehumidifier in the room 4 hours a day for week or so (we couldnt get a small branded model at a reasonable price in a rush - as were selling quickly at the time in local Argos or Currys) - any signs of dampness on plasterboard ceiling or wallpaper were gone and carpet dry enough to use a rug doctor to clean - we replaced a strip of foam underlay though.

And painted out a little staining - using normal not damp paint om wall ceiling - after a month.

(We got a relative - an ex council electrician / clark or works - to check out the light wiring as well)

Cheaper than using heat alone to dry things out.

I have had one since myself for years now - only use mine after  laundry when indoor drying normally -  and regularly get 0.3l plus out of it after 2 hours use - and do that 2-3 times over couple of off peak electric runs after heavy cottons. But others run theirs every night - as we humans - both exhaled breath and perspiration - emit water volumes in 100s ml of water per day - as much as 1litre per adult - even without exercise.