Why would you refuse free cavity wall insulation?

[anonymous-user]

Hi all,

As a lot of councils are doing, ours has started offering free cavity wall insulation to all homes that are privately owned, and built after about 1920 (I think), they are also offering free loft insulation up to a level of 30cm.

They offer a 20 year government backed garuantee with all works and send a surveyor round prior to doing the cavity walls, to make sure the property is suitable and there is no damp present.

Now, myself and a couple of others in the town think this is an excellent offer, and have asked to take it up.

But... Speaking to people at work, they have all been muttering things like 'no way, I'm not having that done to my house' and 'it causes damp' etc.

My house was built approx 10-11 years ago and seems to be in excellent order with no signs of damp or anything like that.

I'm going to get the free top up of loft insulation whatever happens, But based on all the information above, can anyone advise why I should or shouldn't take advantage of the councils generosity?

Thanks!

[Cupramax]

Cant say I'd risk getting it done, theres no damp proofing between the bottom of the cavity and the insulation so it "could" act as a wick to any moisture transfering it to the walls inside. I've seen a couple fo properties affected by this on Watchdog I think it was, results were not clever.

[Busamav]

Given the age ,It is highly likely that your house already has insulated cavities.

[Mattt]

NinjaPower said:

They offer a 20 year government backed garuantee with all works and send a surveyor round prior to doing the cavity walls, to make sure the property is suitable and there is no damp present.

Then presumably the surveyor salesman finds lots of remedial work to be done?

[Soovy]

They put cameras in your walls, and microphones.

[bga]

My inlaws had it done to their 15yr old house and it has made it almost unbearably hot in the summer. Our 1950's house has the cavities insulated before I moved in so I can't comment on the difference but I know it's been OK in the summer so far and hopefully will save us some £'s in the winter.

[whitechief]

Mattt said:

NinjaPower said:

They offer a 20 year government backed garuantee with all works and send a surveyor round prior to doing the cavity walls, to make sure the property is suitable and there is no damp present.

Then presumably the surveyor salesman finds lots of remedial work to be done

Indeed they are not Surveyors, someone I know has started doing this, their training before being let loose in people's houses was one week.

[SJobson]

Various possible reasons:

- bodged jobs; they are supposed to take all the airbricks out and cover the back of them, prevent the insulation crossing the damp course etc
- possible corrosion of the ties between the inner and outer walls
- concern about matching paint/render/other cladding
- general fear over messing about with something that currently has no problems
- (as in my case) no cavities

[GreenDog]

SJobson said:

Various possible reasons:

- bodged jobs; they are supposed to take all the airbricks out and cover the back of them, prevent the insulation crossing the damp course etc
- possible corrosion of the ties between the inner and outer walls
- concern about matching paint/render/other cladding
- general fear over messing about with something that currently has no problems
- (as in my case) no cavities

Also the cavity has to open at the top of the wall. My house has stone guttering at the the front which means the top of the cavity is covered so we can't have the insulation. The back of the house has no cavity.

[Simpo Two]

They are opportunist companies taking adavantge of government grannts to make lots of money quickly. They probably put in £100-worth of insulation and charge the government £3K. And of course it all comes from Joe Taxpayer.

'Warm Front' put loft insualtion in my mother's house recently - the work was OK but the two Neanderthals who did it could only communicate in grunts.

Edited by Simpo Two on Tuesday 10th August 13:56

[mk1fan]

GreenDog said:

Also the cavity has to open at the top of the wall.

Err, no. It should be closed. I'll happily be corrected though.

[mattdaniels]

Mattt said:

NinjaPower said:

They offer a 20 year government backed garuantee with all works and send a surveyor round prior to doing the cavity walls, to make sure the property is suitable and there is no damp present.

Then presumably the surveyor salesman finds lots of remedial work to be done?

No but there is a presumption you are going to have the work done. Initial blokie knocked at the door with card and flyer from Northampton council showing their company name saying they were working with the council on cavity wall and loft insulation yadda yadda, would you like a surveyor to pop round and see if your house is elligable.

Said yes, surveyor pops round immediately opens his book and says we can fit you in on Thursday. I was like "err...you're just supposed to be here to check out if we have cavity wall insulation already or not, and if not advise which filling to go for etc. etc."

House is less than 20 years old, we only moved in in November, survey said cavity wall insulation is likely installed, surveyor that visited said it is not, on the basis that none in this estate had it done and there are no tell-tale marks in the brickwork where after-market cavity wall insulation is squirted in.

Told him to bugger off anyway.

[cjs]

I had cavity insulation installed in my place around 5 years ago, it stays noticeably warmer in the winter, I assume therefore I'm using less gas but I have never checked, the bills have gone up anyway!

No damp issues. They used a blown rock-wool type product. Drilled 20mm holes every few feet in the brick mortar joints and then blew the stuff through a pipe into the cavity. They filed the holes with cement afterwards and I can hardly see where they have drilled. They did remove & refitted all the air-bricks and installed a rectangular 'brush' to stop the insulation falling across the air-gap.

I'm happy, think it cost me about £100??

[blackcab]

the cavity is there for a reason it creates a barrier between hot and cold, wet and dry, if these companies had the knowledge to do it right then its fine but they just employ ex double glazing guys

[village idiot]

i turned it down on my last property as i would prefer to spend a little extra heating my house in the summer than deal with potential damp issues.

[TedMaul]

blackcab said:

the cavity is there for a reason it creates a barrier between hot and cold, wet and dry, if these companies had the knowledge to do it right then its fine but they just employ ex double glazing guys

Quite. If it were an issue in my property, I would pay a professional who came recommended by people whom I trust, with appropriate warranties, not just some numpties picked from a spreadsheet of other numpties, by a further numpty. Don't want to get all Watchdog/Rogue Trader/Daily Wail about it, but there is no such thing as a free lunch, nor is there 'free' insulation. You pay for it from your taxes and this sort of thing should be discouraged imo.

[Kuroblack350]

A house over the road from us had something similar done a few months back, by two of the dodgiest looking characters I've seen in a while, sporting the ubiquitous, unmarked rusty old tranny van.

The proceeded to drill about 30 *huge* holes all over one wall, and stick the filling hose through it for a few mins - seemingly with no patterm, rhyme or reason.

Now their house looks like it belongs in Helmand...

[The Black Flash]

cjs said:

I had cavity insulation installed in my place around 5 years ago, it stays noticeably warmer in the winter, I assume therefore I'm using less gas but I have never checked, the bills have gone up anyway!

No damp issues. They used a blown rock-wool type product. Drilled 20mm holes every few feet in the brick mortar joints and then blew the stuff through a pipe into the cavity. They filed the holes with cement afterwards and I can hardly see where they have drilled. They did remove & refitted all the air-bricks and installed a rectangular 'brush' to stop the insulation falling across the air-gap.

I'm happy, think it cost me about £100??

we had ours done a couple of years back. I was surprised that it made a noticable difference in the winter.
"Neanderthals" is a pretty good description of the guys who did it though.

[otolith]

We get cold-called fairly often by companies offering this and trying to sound as if they are a government agency.

As I understand it, it isn't free to everyone, if you aren't on any benefits and don't have any kids or pensioners living in the house, you have to pay 50% of it yourself.

[ClassicMercs]

mattdaniels said:

Initial blokie knocked at the door with card and flyer from Northampton council showing their company name saying they were working with the council on cavity wall and loft insulation yadda yadda, would you like a surveyor to pop round and see if your house is elligable.

Told him to bugger off anyway.

Did you get a look at that paperwork ? Was it possibly just a Council registration document listing them with the council as a door knocker (its got some proper name). Then dressed up with the story about working together.
Who would look close enough to check ?