wwp8

got a leaflet in my letterbox,

about grants for insulation
loft/wall.
might be interested in the wall one,
anyone done it and is it worth it?

http://www.heatproject.co.uk/

Buzzer

I did a project at Uni (some years ago) about the effects of insulation. Whilst all insulation is considered good. The cons outway the pros when it comes to wall insulation.

Filling the cavity between the brick on external walls is not the best thing in the world to do as it tends to make the dwelling sweat which long term can cause your plaster to "adle". IIRC the conclusion i come to on Value for money wasn't much either, i *think* in real terms it would take 15 years before the insulation had paid for itself. Sadly as it was relatively new at the time i dont know if there was or would be any degenerative change in the composite material

No doubt someone will tell me thats complete bollox but i'm only giving you my findings

Loft insulation, go for it. Best to get bagged insulation. Fibre migration and degredation of material is slowed down by the fibres not being in contact with the atmosphere

pbee

yes yes and yes. but it depends how old your house is, if it is relativily new it should allready have adequte insulation, if its older it is worth it for the environment but depending how much your heating bills are and the style of your house would depend wheteher you see a return on your investment.

Buzzer

Sorry pbee is right. My findings were based on a 2 storey detached and semi-detached houses

If you have a large house or one with many floors then the results could differ. If possible can you find the U Value of your property this would help

The U value is usually specific to your house style and positioning, even which part of the country you live

pbee

Buzzer the cons of using wall insulation insulation heavily depends on the type insulation being used. injection sprays vary but you have to remember depending on the quality of construction they will no be able to 100% fill the cavity anyway so im not convinced of its efectiveness. or if it would cause vapour / damp problems. If you have damp problems now it could make it worse.

I agree certain types can cause serious issues, the same with these rendered wall sprays that dont need painting, its like wrapping a house in a plastic bag and watching it sweat the wallpaper off.

CrisPDuk

Echoing Buzzers comments, if you've got an older (pre 1960's) house, still with it's original plaster, the chances are cavity wall insulation will eventually cause that plaster's hold on the walls to weaken, modern plasters or board/adhesive combo's tend to have mch better adhesion properties so do not suffer.
However, as central heating tends to contribute to the problem also, I would say go fir it anyway, but be careful when decorating

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

as a builder it seems crazy to me that people would willingly fill up the gap between brick leafs on a house

the air void is an important, integral part of the system.

as for lofts, well cant put it any better than our Buzzer above

Buzzer

pbee, you reminded me of another thing i dealt with at uni. We attended a new build at the time with a thermal imaging camera. The property showed large heat spots on main walls and absolutley nothing between windows and door convergence. This was typically a foam filler. I cannot comment on the mineral fibre type or any of the new ones that may be available today

wwp8

its a 4bed detached house built in 2002
what would YOU got for and what material

it sounds abit confusing.

john_s

iTrader: (1)

Built in 2002, the U value will have to have been maximum 0.45 for the property to get building regs approval, and i'm sure there will already be some form of insulation in the cavity to achieve that value.

If you really want to do something, put another layer of glassfibre in the loft, but again, there should be plenty up there.

If it was my house, I'd leave it be & spend the pound notes on my scoob instead.

John.

03-CTR

as it's a new house then it should be ok but it wouldn't hurt to add some more.

regardless of what happens with walls the inescapable fact is that the weakest links are your windows/doors and your roof.

doubling up your loft insulation will make a significant difference but anything past that will see diminishing returns. same goes for double glazing as triple glazing will make a difference but (if you could get) quad glazing it probably wouldn't make much more of a difference.

the irony of all this is that modern houses have to have a specific air change rate anyways so whatever you do you're buggered so it's probably best to buy some thicker jumpers lol

ChrisB

I did the insulation in my loft last year. Can't say I considered looking at grants. Measured up and went down to B&Q, stuffed the car full of the evil stuff and spent a few hours getting sweaty in the loft (fnar fnar). I put some T&G flooring down whilst I was up there as well.

MJW

If it was built after April 2002 it has to conform to Document L of the revised building regulations which states a lower U-value AFAIK

john_s

iTrader: (1)

The new part L requires a U value of 0.35... couldn't remember when it took effect from though.

A house built after the change of regs could still be built to the old requirements if the building regs application was approved (or is it submitted?) before 01/04/02.

John.

BTW - is it *really* a sensible idea to have new regulations taking effect on the first of April???

P1Fanatic

Ours was built in 2002 also and when I first went in the loft I thought they had built our house last and just left any remaining glassfibre from the whole site in there. There is shed loads of it everywhere. Makes it bloody hot in the summer - after about 5 mins Im sweating buckets.

Simon.

john_s

iTrader: (1)

Rof insulation between joists needs 250mm of glassfibre to comply with building regs now.

Problem is it's not very safe, as you can't see where the joists are if you wanted to walk on them to move about in the loft.

John.