Me and the missus have decided that as part of a new year house fix up we are going to get cavity wall and more loft insulation, now almost every week we get either a flyer or caller telling us about some government scheme or another that could give us this for free if our house qualifies.

Now me being one of the worlds biggest cynics usually swear by the adage that if it’s too good to be true then it probably is, however the chance to save a couple of hundred quid is not to sniffed at, so has anyone partaken in these schemes, and if you happen to be in the South East could you recommend an installer.

Many thanks.

Everytime I looked into them it seems I wasnt eligible as I has a job!!

Yep. I plumped for such a scheme. A company from Cardiff targeted houses in my sleepy Somerset town. To have cavity wall insulation installed didn’t cost me a bean, but the process was made a lot more complicated than it need have been:

1) Some guy checked my cavity,
2) then a few months later they had to send someone else out to re-check it (still not sure why).
3) The neanderthal that actually came to DO the installation looked like he’d been in a fight the previous night and seemed to struggle (there should have been two “installation engineers”, apparently).
4) Anyway, he took longer than he should have (see previous point) so I had to leave him to it and go to work. When I returned home he had left quite a bit of a mess behind him around the house (multiple latex gloves, broken bird box/table, beads everywhere) which I was a little annoyed about.
5) A month or two later an engineer came to inspect his handiwork and check it had all been done correctly.
6) Then (and this is the best bit) a month or two later the company said the “installation inspector” should have left a certificate in the roofspace.
7) So they sent TWO GUYS in a high-top all the way from Cardiff, to my house in Frome (70miles?) just to staple a sheet of A4 to a rafter in my roofspace… and then drive all the way back to Cardiff again.

Not the neatest example of company procedure, but at least I got free cavity wall insulation 🙂

1) Some guy checked my cavity,

Erm.

Fnarr fnarr indeed.

I’ve got to get Mrs Gimlet to Oldham and then I’m going to Bangor as fast as I can.

British gas did mine
Loft and wall insulation
Totally free
Bargain

I had to pay £150 for cavity wall and got lost insulation for about £30 to install myself. This was about 5 years ago and don’t think the free options were around then. A bloke did knock on my door a week or two ago offering free installation but I think I wouldn’t have been eligible as not on the appropriate benefits – didn’t pay much attention as already done.

even if you have to pay full whack it can be worth it. but a little more info about the house would be good (i don’t work for any of these companies)
basically…
extra loft insulation is always good,
cavity insulation – sometimes good
draught proofing – good
etc etc – its a minefield but insulating the house is the one thing where you will make your money back in a reasonable length of time.
these schemes are paid for by the energy companies having their pants pulled down over the exuberant profits they make.
research research research and cheap isnt necessarily best

I’m not convinced by cavity wall insulation that is injected into the cavity, I tend to think it’s going to cause all kinds of problems and from recent work, already is.

Reason being that the cavity exists to allow air ventilation and in so doing, enables the outer brick skin to dry -especially after this very wet season we’ve experienced. Even the polystyrene balls absorb moisture and with no movement of air, the damp will travel to the nearest dry thing, which will be the inner structural skin and result in damp spores on the inside of that wall, resulting in damage to plaster and damp.

Ultimately of course, if you feel your house is more marketable with it, then by all means, personally, I wouldn’t buy a house with it.

Loft insulation on the other hand is a very good idea.

slackalice – Member
I’m not convinced by cavity wall insulation that is injected into the cavity, I tend to think it’s going to cause all kinds of problems and from recent work, already is.

Reason being that the cavity exists to allow air ventilation and in so doing, enables the outer brick skin to dry -especially after this very wet season we’ve experienced. Even the polystyrene balls absorb moisture and with no movement of air, the damp will travel to the nearest dry thing, which will be the inner structural skin and result in damp spores on the inside of that wall, resulting in damage to plaster and damp.

I don’t think that idea is valid anymore, buliding regs now insist on cavity insulation on any new builds or extensions. That and the blown stuff has been done on tens of thousands of houses around the UK without issue.

Lots of loft insulation is an easy decision. Cavity wall didn’t make that *much* difference to our 30s semi but I’d still have it.

We were told a few times that we did not qualify as my wife and I both have jobs /claim no benefits but whilst having a boiler quote last week I mentioned it to the salesman and he said that the criteria has changed and that we should now qualify.
I rang British Gas straight after he left and enquired and was told that the government has got targets to meet and that almost anyone can now get it for free.
They are sending out a surveyor next month to do an assessment on our house so hopefully we will be eligible.

I’m not sure if British gas are the best people to use but at least its a big company that should still exist in a few years if something goes wrong.

I don’t think that idea is valid anymore, buliding regs now insist on cavity insulation on any new builds or extensions. That and the blown stuff has been done on tens of thousands of houses around the UK without issue.

I’m with slackalice on this if the outer skin is porous the insulation MAY act as a wick cause damp on the inside walls. Seen it a few times
Obviously depends on type of materials used in building and for filling cavity you can’t retrofit what they would install in a new build

I had my cavity filled for free (loft already knee deep in insulation so didn’t have that done). It certainly made a difference worth having.

I used the scheme being offered by my energy company rather than one of the telesales calls I received and it was all pretty painless. One guy came to survey first and wanted to see the certificate for my stove installation. A week or two later two blokes turned up to pump the insulation in and staple a certificate in the loft. Some time after that another guy came to check the installation.

I’ve had no problems and I’m very happy I had it done.

Edit to add: I work and own the house, can’t think of any reason I’d get anything for free other than the energy companies having their arms twisted. This may have been about two years ago and similar schemes may or may not be available now.

The free grants that were available to anyone finished in Dec 2012.

Very few people qualify for the remaining free grants. If you have a job you almost certainly won’t.

The only optionss seemingly left are:

a) pay for it all yourself
b) use the Green Deal to repay it monthly via your energy bills

However, b) may leave you with issues if you want to sell your house and purchases don’t want to be attached to a Green Deal charge for the next X mths/years.

New build cavity wall insulation and retro fit pumped in insulation are very different things.

New build will be a solid sheet material and generally a 75mm thick sheet in a 100mm cavity so ait can circulate and the cavity is not bridged.

If you have an older property with a cavity wall and no insulation, and you have insulation pumped into the cavity, then the cavity is filled with no gaps for air to circulate.

Then one or more of the following may happen:

If any water gets into the cavity, the insulating material may become waterlogged.

Or if any loose mortar has fallen down inside the cavity (I know this has happened in my house), so that a section of the wall at the bottom is now effectively a solid wall filled by mortar, then this section of wall will not be insulated, because the mortar is not an insulator. This causes a cold area on the wall on which condensation may form.

Thanks for the replies all, certainly given me some things to think about, will make a few phonecalls and see whats what.

I looked into this when we moved into our new home, the loft insulation is falling apart/non existant. From what I could gather you need to be on some kind of income support/benefits to qualify now.

BlindMelon – Member
……..New build will sometimes be a solid sheet material and generally a 75mm thick sheet in a 100mm so a clear 50mm residual cavity remains between the insulation and outer leaf cavity so air can circulate and the cavity is not bridged……………

FTFY

And even then generally only when in geographically severe exposure zones 3 or 4 for rain penetration where a cavity is required. Otherwise full fill mineral wool type insulation is used as it’s cheaper and less easy to mess installation up (but not impossible) i.e. cock up rigid insulation installation and it potentially falls bridging the cavity etc.

Look at document by BRE Press: Thermal Insulation : Avoiding Risks

Off on a tangent to the OP there as relates to new build sorry.

Also ventilation is key, sometimes adding insulations can exacerbate condensation issues. Get a man in (as is looks like your intending)!

We had a company come round to ours last year asking if we were interested in it. I asked him if he did the surveys for it, he said yes, our row and the one opposite had been identified as potentials.

I then pointed out that the cottages he was stood in front of are stone built from around 1850 and have a dormer which occupies the whole of the roofspace. This should be pretty damn obvious we don’t have a cavity, or a loft.

cheeky get then told me that I couldn’t be right.