I am pretty sure our house does not have cavity wall insulation and being a 1930's house does have cavity walls. How much could we expect to save per annum for a 3 bed semi?
By chance, someone has been walking the street today trying to get people to let them get a grant towards this work so the cost apparently would be £99 to us. Is this possibly some sort of scam? The company is/was ALVA Surveyors - anyone heard of them?
With a potential cold winter approaching I'd been thinking about this but had put off looking into it. The survey we had pointed out the lack of cavity wall insulation for example.
Ta.
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I'd found his website via Google after I posted my question... got me wondering now for sure.
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My 1930 house has walls with no cavities and the two upper bays have only single brick walls so no cavity to fill.
I was recently visting an old ( 1930s?) bungalow and work was being done on the adjacent property.
The job being done was to remove the cavity insulation and replace it with another variety as the previous type was affecting the owners health. I have no idea what type of insulation was involved. Another possible risk that might be worth exploring?
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My 1937 bungalow has walls with no cavities as well. The old bit does anyway.
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I do not think it is a con I had my mothers house cavity walled and new loft insulation and it didn't cost a penny,that was Bradford area ,you should look to see what grants are available from "warm front" they payed for mine.
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There have been a few articles in the Terrorflag this year Re: cavity wall insulation ~
www.telegraph.co.uk/search/?queryText=cavity+wall+insulation&Search=Search
OUR previous 1950's property had been done some years previously,
we had quite awful condensation and mould problems.
Our present 1936 property doesn't have c'walls (to the best of my knowledge)
but I wouldn't have them insulated anyway, from what I've read here & there.
Modern property ~ no problemo with it.
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>>was affecting the owners health.
IIRC early cavity wall insulation used polystyrene beads loosely bound with a glue. I think the evaporative part of the glue could cause allergic reactions.
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Scrub that.
Now I've slept on it, I recall the polystyrene beads used to slip down over time and leave a cavity at the top.
What caused problems was expanding foam (urea based?) injected into the cavity that emitted a gas (formaldehyde?). Heaven knows how you'd remove the stuff.
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When I bought my current house (1978) the surveyor failed to identify (amongst other significant issues!) that there was expanded foam insulation in some of the cavities. I discovered it within 24 hrs of moving in. It gave problems that when water penetrated the outer skin, the foam (or discontinuities in it) effectively 'channelled' it to the weakest points eg above the window lintels. In the right conditions of wind direction and heavy rain, water would drip on to the window sills in LARGE quantities. A bodged up cavity tray had been inserted from the inner skin in the loft to divert the flow, but this just resulted in bigger problems downstairs. I minimised the problem with several coats of aquaseal on the porous brickwork , and have seen no problems in the last 5 years. It makes me question whether the 'direction' of the weather has changed over the time.
I would be wary of using the same technology on an older building.
Last edited by: pmh on Fri 29 Oct 10 at 11:06
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>> With a potential cold winter approaching I'd been thinking about this but had put off
>> looking into it. The survey we had pointed out the lack of cavity wall insulation
>> for example.
>>
Get it done. once you have lived in a house with it, you won't like living in one without it. Apart from saving money on heating, the even temperature across your house will make it feel really cosy. Answer to your question on savings here:
www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Home-improvements-and-products/Home-insulation-glazing
www.housebuildersupdate.co.uk/2005/11/on-cavity-wall-insulation.html
Last edited by: John H on Thu 28 Oct 10 at 22:23
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I'm just wondering about the condensation/damp issue some have. I'll think it over. I am sure you'd have to save money if installed correctly.
I read the article about damp etc. Our previous house was Edwardian so a solid wall two bricks deep. Damp didn't get through those so I assume this is not necessarily such a big problem??
Last edited by: rtj70 on Thu 28 Oct 10 at 23:22
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It's called a cavity wall for a reason.
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I wouldn't touch it rtj70. It is often very hard for them to make sure all the areas are equally filled and this can give rise to concentraled cold spots/condensation.
If there are issues that give problems in the future you may have a guarantee... but just think of the physical destruction needed to remove the filling!
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Thanks for the feedback so far. Obviously if installed correctly then insulation will help with heat escaping. I'm concerned about the problems that it could cause, for as some have said, the cavity was there for a reason.
I don't think the cavity is only there to make building the walls quicker than the older style double thickness. Possibly part of it. I always believe the cavity was partly to stop water getting in and also to allow moisture out.
The other thing that concerns me now I've thought about it is the airbricks... they are there to let moisture out and air in.... the insulation would surely cause problems for the building's ability to 'breath'.
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>>Obviously if installed correctly then insulation will help with heat escaping.
The only way to achieve this is to demolish the wall, attach insulating sheets to the outside of the inside skin, leaving a gap between the outside skin and the inside skin.
Needless to say, this is not possible.
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>> Needless to say, this is not possible.
>>
Stating the obvious, it is never possible to retrofit something to a perfect standard as if it had been fitted as part of an original build.
I do not agree with the anti-CWI scaremongering. It is anecdotal at best.
Just ask yourself, would you refuse to buy a property if you knew it had CWI installed as an afterthought? If yes, then avoid doing it. If no, then go ahead and do it.
Get a decent experienced qualified installer as you would on any other skilled job.
Last edited by: John H on Fri 29 Oct 10 at 12:30
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>> Get a decent experienced qualified installer as you would on any other skilled job.
Good advice I think. Clear from above and links that there are a lot of variables in both CWI techniques and, obviuosly, construction. They can interact in unpredictable ways.
Current house was constructed in 1998 with CWI as part of the build. Previous was seventies built, outer skin brick inner possibly brick as well (might have been just before breeze blocks came to the fore). Internal walls were cold enough that, once UPVC windows were fitted condensation, mould & peelong wallpaper became a problem in areas lacking airflow.
I suspect good CWI would have solved the problem but we decided to trade up instead.
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My 1880s Victorian three-bedroomed semi had both cavity wall insulation and additional loft insulatation installed three or four years ago free of charge - the cost was met by PowerGen (now E-On).
After initial arguments with the call centre handling requests for the service (woman operator insisted no properties before the 1930s had cavity walls!), the cavity wall insulation was done about a month later in about three hours using a form of on the spot machine spun wool (rock wood?) material and the loft insulation topped up a few days later.
The difference has been remarkable and even rooms situated on the entry side of the property are now warm even in the depths of winter (the central heating was installed with the aid of a WarmFront grant). There have been no problems with condensation or similar unwanted side effects.
Next door was done a bit earlier as the then owner was a building surveyor and was, of course, au fait with all the pros and cons.
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Another concern I've thought of is the size of the holes drilled. The gap between bricks is about 10mm or so and they drill 22mm holes I've heard. I might live with the effect on the side of the house but not the front. And would they be able to do anything with a curved bay window at the front or would that be missed out?
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Had ours done last year. I used Sainsbury's offer. I started with B&Q but they kept finding "extras". I could see the holes at the time but I've "lost" them now. I have to look to find them. Oil usage was well down even in the coldest winter since we've been here.
John
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With reference to my earlier post about my Victorian property, the front is constructed with Accrington brick.
You would struggle to find the original holes drilled to undertake the cavity wall insulation and that includes the original check to ensure it did have cavity walls, because the correct colour of fill-in material has been used for said holes.
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When we bought the 70's house, my solicitor initially advised buying against it due to the expanded foam cavity wall insulation in it. After a lot of research, I found not only the original Which? article which reported the problems (from America) reagrding the foam type insulation, but also the subsequent retraction article quite some time later, which concluded that the problems were peculiar to US wooden houses, where the foam leaked through the multitude of gaps into the living spaces. Having forwarded these to my solicitor (a friend in another part of the country) he dropped his objections (and forwarded the info to the other solictors in his area, apparently making life a lot easier for movers in that part of the country).
Roll on to 18 months - 2 years ago, I got a good deal from my electricity/gas supplier for my 30's semi (£175 vs £350+ from diy stores), using mineral wool. Trouble was, there was some sort of blockage in the cavity in the front - after drilling a lot of holes (and shaking off a lot of pebble-dash!), they still couldn't do a proper job; after some deliberation, I was charged a reduced £100).
Hard to quantify cash savings due to the constant changing of gas pricing, but I've been able to drop the thermostat by 1 -2 degrees, so it has made a difference. (Only the front and side was done, due a single storey extension at the back)
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>>It's called a cavity wall for a reason<<
Listen to the man, listen to the man, listen to the man, MAN.
La la, la la la la, la la.
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John, I don't understand "dropping the thermostat". You should be able to leave the thermostat as is but because you are losing heat more slowly, the central heating will run less and so you use less fuel. Anyone can use less fuel by turning down the thermostat.
John
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Yes but you can waste fuel by having to raise the thermostat to try and maintain a temperature that in many parts of the house can be much colder.
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Cavity Wall Insulation - CGNorwich
