omega 24 v6
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 posted on 8/1/11 at 12:35 PM |
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Cavity wall insulation
Ok so after 30 years as p**sed off tax payer who always feels like he gets very little in retrurn for his payments ( compared to lazy fecking
scroungers who have NEVER worked) yesterday I had a visit from a ( scottish government door to door ) guy asking how well my house was insulated.
And yes it is legit as I've checked.
So my loft is fine as i did it myself many years ago.
But I may be legible for some if not all of the cost of cavity wall insulation. We have spoken about it before (SWMBO and me) but never carried it any
farther.
So what are the pro's and cons?
What materials are used foam or loose fill?
any potential problems to look into or avoid?
Question to ask during any survey prior to going ahead with the installation?
I ddi ask about under floor insulation as I feel it would be of huge benefit to us but that was a no no. A lot of work most likely and not very
pleasant.
Our outside walls ar all plastered on the hard so I feel it may be of quite some benenefit to us to go ahead with it. However obviously I do not want
to do something that may affect the structure of the house.
Discuss
If it looks wrong it probably is wrong.
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blakep82
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 12:43 PM |
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many many years ago, my house had cavity wall insulation. its those tiny polystyrene beads. don't know if they really work. don't know if
theres many left either. the cats used to come in with them stuck in the corners of their little eyes. they used to be everywhere, not seen any for a
while though
________________________
IVA manual link http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1081997083
don't write OT on a new thread title, you're creating the topic, everything you write is very much ON topic!
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Confused but excited.
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 12:43 PM |
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Make sure they remove the old air bricks first and fit the plastic ones with a duct that goes all the way through ther wall.
The prats that did mine didn't and when I had to get under the floor, I found the insulation had started to fall out. My locost fix was to stuff
some fibre glass insulation up the void to stop it falling out, ;eaving the breathing hole obviously.
Told my missus that we would feel the difference within a week after the walls warm up. B*gger me, the difference it was noticable that night.
Go for it.
We had recycled paper blown in. Works a treat.
Tell them about the bent treacle edges!
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Bigheppy
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 01:17 PM |
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Have you got a cavity in your wall. Stupid question I know but some time ago we had door knockers guaranteeing to save us x% if we had cavity wall
insulation fitted. I asked for his claims to be added to a contract and a clause inserted where they would pay £000's in compensation if the
savings were not made. He was puzzled by these requests as it was not standard policy to change the contracts in such a way. When i informed him that
the house was built in 1876 and had SOLID walls he still insisted they could get the insulation in,  The company suprisingly would not add my terms
to the contract so I never did get the insulation. 
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britishtrident
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 01:22 PM |
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If you have even the slightest suspicion of dampness in the wall sort that out before installing any insulation in the cavity.
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v8kid
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 01:25 PM |
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Thinking about the same course of action myself.
As I understand it the sponsored cavity insulation is blown fibre - dunno if it settles or gives cold spots under windows. Beads are supposed to be
blown in with a glue so that they star where they are but quality control can be a problem.
Foam is the best but there are health concerns about fumes given off (styrene I think).
All forms are susceptible to capillary water ingress - some claim to have a reverse capillary meniscus - could be true?
All forms highlight existing defects which may not be visible - dirty cavities, mortar bridging lintels and water in cavity below DPC.
Built my house myself so no probs here if you are worried look in the cavities with a 'scope of some sort.
Interested to see what the pricing structure is and can it be used in timber framed houses?
You'd be surprised how quickly the sales people at B&Q try and assist you after ignoring you for the past 15 minutes when you try and start a
chainsaw
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Humbug
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 01:42 PM |
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We had someone come round last Spring. Same as you, I was a bit suspicious but checked it out and it is a valid scheme via the local council.
Apparently they get incentives to show how green/environmental they are and/or fines if they can't show x% improvement, so they subsidise it.
Our house was built in 1997 but didn't have the cavities filled at the time. The company that did the work came and did a survey - drilled a
couple of pilot holes in the outside walls to check the gap, etc. I asked about filling material etc. - apparently some used to use a sort of foam
that bridged the gap and let damp get across. Ours was the blown fibre type stuff - looks a bit like white candy floss, but is not nasty like glass
fibre.
To do the work they drilled a matrix pattern of holes in the outside walls about 1.5m apart max. drilled through the mortar rather than the brickwork,
then used blowing machines to fill up the gap from the bottom, hole by hole. It took half a day or so and they mortared in the holes. The only minor
issues we had were a) that the wall gap exits in the loft, so we had a bit of loose fibre blown up in there, and b) the front of our house is painted
render and when the holes were filled the filling dried slightly below the surface. As the render needed repainting anyway, that wasn't a big
problem.
As far as effectiveness is concerned - we had it done in summer and it certainly helped keep the inside of the house a bit cooler. In winter we tend
to have our heating on only during the day. There wasn't any noticeable difference in the day since, presumably, the thermostat will make the
heating heat to a given temperature anyway... hopefully though, it will be using less fuel to keep it at that temperature. The big difference is at
night, when we don't have the heating on. The house seems to retain the heat much better and we didn't have to put the winter duvet on our
bed until the beginning of December - usually it is September sometime.
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Jasper
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 01:56 PM |
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Cavity Insulation doesn't suit all homes, I remember seeing a programme about it not being suitable for some 1930/50's homes and can cause
huge damp issues, so worth checking that out first.
If you're not living life on the edge you're taking up too much room.
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Myke 2463
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 02:05 PM |
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Dose anybody know if the blown fibre type stuff has a life of x years as my thinking is that over 20 years it could compact and only sit in the bottom
of the cavity, just a thought as mine is 20 years old and dont seem to be as good as it was. I will be removing some tiles in the summer and having a
look.
Be Lucky Mike.
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omega 24 v6
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 02:35 PM |
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Some of the queries I had you have already asked, especially the bridging damp ones.
Surely they would use non absorbent materials but I had not really considered the capilliary side of it so thanks for bringing that up.
If it looks wrong it probably is wrong.
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bartonp
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 02:39 PM |
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Well worth doing.
Check no PVC mains cables run in the void if filling with polystyrene beads as the poly leaches plasticiser out of the PVC causing it to break
down.
Phil.
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zilspeed
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 03:13 PM |
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In our office, cavity fill insulation is generally considered to be the work of the devil.
The industry which promotes it will have an answer for any question which you might have regarding any effect it might have upon your house.
We've seen all sorts of houses where an otherwise latent defect such as water ingress into the cavity has been exacerbated by the presence of
cavity fill insulation which can hold the water and make it a problem. Had there been no cavity fill, the water would have went down the cavit and
exited via the weep holes.
We've had house so bad, that we had to pay contractors to come and remove it from the cavity.
If it's improperly installed, it can cause issues with regard to irregular filling causing uneven surface temperatures and condensation issues
as a result.
It's easily installed, yes, but the cavity is there for a reason.
Retro fit wall inulation is best by either lining internally with thermal insulation backed plasterboard or an externally applied powerwall system
complete with new render.
Our office has 9 building surveyors in it incidentally, all either chartered or en route to being so and not one of us is an advocate of cavity fill.
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MikeR
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 03:50 PM |
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Don't get teh beads ............. if you do and EVERY drill a hole through the walls you'll get millions of beads everywhere. Now of
course you wouldn't do that would you ........ except if you get patio doors fitted / extractor vents added etc.
Blown fibre seems to be the way to go, you lose a little but not much when you cut a hole.
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 03:56 PM |
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We considered this a while back and spoke to a local builder. He said that our house (a mid-30's semi) has a cavity rather smaller than the
standard size these days (he did mention the sizes but I fogot them!) and said that cavity insulation in the narrower cavities can lead to damp
problems. Worth checking anyway.
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Peteff
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 05:31 PM |
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The ones who did the flats near here drilled the walls every metre and used expanding foam in cartridges.
yours, Pete
I went into the RSPCA office the other day. It was so small you could hardly swing a cat in there.
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macc man
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| posted on 8/1/11 at 06:24 PM |
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We had our bungalow don over 2 years ago cost me £99 after rebate from council. No problems to report so far, but have not
noticed a great difference in heat retention. The fill was a blown fibre. The guys made a very neat job of filling holes and is hardly noticable.
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kj
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| posted on 9/1/11 at 10:03 AM |
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Cavity wall insulation is fine as long as the surveyor does all the checks he should do as part of his job.
1; The house should have no sign of the dpc bridged or large cracks etc.
2. The house has a suitable cavity which must be a minium of 50mm.
3. The house does not have insulation in at present, some house built in the 90s may have Kingspan or similar fastered to the inner leaf of the
cavity. This can be insulated using EcoBead providing the boards are fixed and should be identified in the survey and the cavity must be a min of
50mm.
4,The house should not be timber framed or have solid walls as some surveyers miss this and some mis brick tied walls.
He should ask what heating you have fires etc as you may need a core vent fitted which when most people see that a core vent is a 5" hole cut
into the wall to allow ventilation.
Product the propose to use, i dont think anyone uses the lose bead fill as the problems of it falling out, if anyone has it check you garantee as you
may be entitled to it being removed and another product installed as long as your garantee is still valid.
Most installers use Knauf white wool or some use Rockwool which is better for noise reduction as well as heat loss.
The best product is EcoBead which is manufactred by springvale which is injected with a pva glue so no slump or loss if you cahnage windows etc, the
other product may slump in time.
Ensure that the fitting team carry out pre install checks and checks after the install.
If you need anything esle just ask.
Cheers
kj
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omega 24 v6
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| posted on 9/1/11 at 10:30 AM |
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Wow i never expected so much detailed information. Just goes to show yet again the power of LCB. Many thanks to you all for the valuable information
which will allow me to ask a lot more questions than I would have.
If it looks wrong it probably is wrong.
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kj
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| posted on 9/1/11 at 11:49 AM |
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If you need any more help or info drop me a pm.
Think about it, think about it again and then do it.
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kj
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| posted on 10/1/11 at 08:25 AM |
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Couple of other things some houses built in the 70s were system built, which is similar to a pre fab and can not be done.
The other thing ask is it backed by a CIGA warranty for 25 years.
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