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A
third of your heating costs could be escaping out of your
walls - more heat than any other area. Cavity wall insulation
is a very cost-effective way of reducing this. Furthermore,
it can be installed in a few hours without the installers
even coming into the house.
Any queries, do contact
us.
What will the works involve?
Cavity wall insulation consists usually of
inert mineral wool, shredded into small lengths so that it
can be blown into the gap between the walls through small
holes drilled in the outside of the wall. This work takes
less than a day, and can usually be done without even entering
the property!
The holes are about the size of a 10p piece,
and are drilled in the mortar gaps between the bricks. They
are filled after insulation using material chosen to match
your existing wall, and are actually quite difficult to spot.
The wool is not itchy like loft insulation - it is like cotton
wool in texture.
Occasionally polystyrene beads are used instead
of mineral wool. They are slightly more expensive, but can
be used to fill narrower cavities.
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How much will it cost?
The amount available depends on the house size
and type, whether you are in receipt of benefits, your main
fuel type, and how much insulation is already installed.
The price is currently:
- free (if you receive benefits)
- £249 for insulation
from 0-250mm (before council tax credit)
- Slightly lower prices apply to existing
British Gas customers.
Additional costs may arise in the small number
of houses where the wall area is unusually large for the type
of house.
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Do you have cavity walls? Are they insulated
already?
It is usually fairly straightforward to tell
whether a house has uninsulated cavity walls. There are 4
tell-tale signs:
1 - Brick pattern
(if visible)
 Solid
walls are two brick widths thick, and the bricks alternate
between bricks laid parallel to the wall and those laid across
the wall to tie the two layers together.
 Cavity
walls are usually two layers one brick thick, so all bricks
are laid with long axis parallel to the wall. The layers are
tied with metal / plastic wall ties.
2
- Wall thickness: measure the thickness of your walls at the
wall or window reveals. A thickness of 30cm (11 ½ inches)
or more in a brick built wall usually indicates a cavity wall.
A thickness of 9 inches usually indicates a solid wall.
3
- House age: building regulations mean that houses built between
1930 and 1976 have cavity walls. Houses built after 1976 were
built with insulation already in the walls.
4
- Marks showing where holes have been made in the wall: installers
install cavity wall insulation by drilling small holes (about
the size of a 10p piece) in the walls and injecting the material
with special equipment. The holes are filled afterwards to
match the existing wall, but they can be seen if you look
carefully. Holes are usually made under windowsills to ensure
that the spaces under the windows are fully filled, so this
is a good place to look.
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Other Considerations / Frequently Asked
Questions
Cavities must be there for a reason. If so,
why should they be insulated?
Cavities are there for two reasons. The first
is to make a home better insulated. The second is to reduce
penetrative damp from rain driving against the wall. Cavity
wall insulation has been shown not to increase the chance
of penetrative damp, and will usually reduce damp by making
internal wall surfaces warmer, reducing condensation risk.
Should problems occur, all of our installers’ work is
CIGA guaranteed (see below).
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What about the air bricks and so on? Will
the insulation block up the necessary ventilation?
No. The installers put in plastic shielding
around the ventilation pathways to stop them from being blocked.
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My home is a flat, is this a problem?
Flats can be difficult, but can usually be
insulated using foam which will stay where injected rather
than falling to the bottom of the cavity as happens with mineral
wool.
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Are there guarantees on the work?
The Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency
(CIGA) provides independent 25 year guarantees for Cavity
Wall Insulation fitted by registered installers. All of our
installers are CIGA registered. CIGA was established in consultation
with the Government to provide an independent and dependable
guarantee covering defects in materials and workmanship. Independent
government research confirms that cavity wall insulation is
a very reliable process, so problems are very rare, but if
they do occur, CIGA will ensure that they are swiftly rectified.
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For more information
call British Gas:
Lines open 8am - 8pm Monday to Friday, and
8am - 1pm Saturday. Calls may be monitored for training purposes.
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