Reply With QuoteSo you mean full board or bead?
We are considering moving home and need a bit of advice.
Our current home was a new build, very well insulated and all I've known really.
Looking at our next home and we've seen one we like. It's had full home cavity wall insulation, installed in 2009, it does have the 25 year guarantee and on viewing the property it doesn't look to be causing any problems.
However I'm not a fan (the cavity was there for a reason), it gets some bad press and need some balanced opinion on the stuff.
So anyone with any knowledge on the stuff? Should I be worried? Would you buy a property that's had it done?
So you mean full board or bead?
Hi
Tread with care - the insulation in my experience slows down moisture movement which hangs around more in the dwelling - much on Tinternet.
Unless of course you 'vent' the dwelling well, minimise cold/damp clothes airing/drying in-house. Sure you can use a dehumidifier to reduce the moisture content......
L
As below, we had ours done on our last house back in 2001, almost straight away we had issues with mould spots and from then on in had to get dehumdifiers
Last edited by Franky Four Fingers; 5th November 2023 at 18:19.
The house we are looking at was built in 1981 and the insulation was retrofit so I assume bead or whatever other material is used in that scenario
We got the bonded beads installed on our house maybe 10yrs ago. The installers were doing a number of houses in the street via the grants that were available.
We did specify though that we wanted only bonded beads… because the other houses were getting the blown fibre which I was not a fan of.
Never had any damp issues before or in the subsequent 10yrs.
You probably want to find out what type of insulation has been used. There’s 3 or 4 types all with their own pros & cons.
We have the beads in our wall, there are special plastic drainage tubes/vents installed that allow moisture to transit through the beads at the foot of the wall, huge improvement on thermal effects, due to being a south facing, exposed end of terrace/corner house with large windows, previously our house would take on the temperature outside very quickly. Now it’s significantly better, the temperature inside status between 15 -20c regardless of outside (in the summer we need to keep all shutters closed almost all the time).
Very topical. I have just spent a couple of weekends hoovering out the cavity in my living room of 1990’s cavity wall insulation. I haven’t been able to do it all but done a good metres up from dpc. Was presenting as rising damp but there was a good damp proof course. The bottom 6 inches of cavity was sodden wet with old insulation and the walls had an actual damp tide mark around 8 inches above skirting board. I did get a quote to remove it professionally but it was around £6k. Definitely beware.
We were offered free cavity wall insulation in our 1938 house when grants were available, many took up the offer.
I'm glad I didn't.
Cheers,
Neil.
Sounds like an unpleasant job ... I have read too many tales similar to this to ever consider cavity wall insulation.Originally Posted by tz-uk73
What is annoying is that nearly every EPC survey suggests this as a solution to improve the score.
The cavity is there to make the house waterproof ... if you breach the cavity with insulation then moisture will transfer.
If you have ever woken up in a small tent and pushed the inner tent onto the flysheet you see exactly what happens if you breach the air gap ...
I know a couple of people who have had it done and swear buy it and another couple who had nothing but problems sounds very much of a gamble and if it goes wrong very expensive to put right,thought of having it done in our 60s semi but have seen and heard too many horror stories
Long story short: I removed the (soaking wet) cavity insulation on the south-west facing side of our property to investigate damp on the inner wall, which finally turned out to be a roof problem i.e. water tracking under the slates. However the roofer then suggested not replacing the insulation as in his experience it could be more trouble than benefit. So we left the void empty and I can say that we've not noticed any decrease in warmth in the rooms as a result.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Thanks for the responses all. As expected it can be fantastic and it can be problematic
Got a second viewing this weekend so will look for signs, and take the feedback on board when making any decisions
Cheers
Check it very carefully one of my friends that had the problems found they had painted over the damp and problems didn't occur till he had been in the house for 3 months ended up taking the surveyor that had given it a clean bill of health to court
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