I have a 7 year old small semi-detached house.
Is there an (easy) way of telling if I have cavity wall insulation?
The original builders are no longer in existence, and the two previous owners are not contactable.
Regards
Terence
Remove a brick on each external wall ;-). If this doesn't sound inviting, you could always ask a neighbour (original purchasers if possible) what the build spec was.
HTH
John
If a house has been constructed in the last 7 years without it then the BCO should be shot!
Phil
|I have a 7 year old small semi-detached house. | |Is there an (easy) way of telling if I have cavity wall insulation? | |The original builders are no longer in existence, and the two previous |owners are not contactable.
Drill a hole, with a masonry drill, through the outside skin and see what comes out. If you can get into the underdrawing, under the ground floor, look round the air bricks to see if anything is spilling out. The choice is foam, rockwool or polystyrene boards in the cavity.
Several ways...
On this side of the Great Pond we would try and do some detective work from the inside. I wouldn't want to comprise the integrity of the exterior.
Is the wall drafty? Do you feel breezes on cold days coming from electrical outlets, from behind moldings, from around windows?
Can you remove any electrical outlets on that wall to see behind the box? Are there any closets, cabinets or furniture on this wall that you can drill a hole behind to see if there is anything in the cavity. You'll have to patch those holes but at least your working in a concealed area. Is there an attic that you can get into to drill a hole down thru the top plate into the cavity? Again you'll have to patch but it will provide a concealed way to view the inside of the cavity.
Do any neighbors have similar homes, built by the same builder at the same time? Do they know if they have insulation in their walls? Are their walls as colder, warmer or the same as yours?
Drill a small bore hole through the joint (the bit must be over 100mm long) in an inconspicuous place, then insert a piece of wire (from a straightened coat hanger or similar) if there's anything there, you will feel it spongy, also if you wet the end of the wire before insertion, and withdraw it carefully you will notice fibres stuck to the end of it, if they are green / grey it's rockwool, yellow and they are fibreglass, white and they are blown fibreglass....if you can feel something but nothing sticks to the end, it's probably blown-in polystyrene blocks, made from scrap polystyrene.
You don't need to drill a hole at all if you can find one already made, your best bet is near a pipe outlet or finding a hole already drilled, don't bother roaming around the loft on your belly because most cavity tops have been capped for years.
Hi,
I had to do just this on my newly bought, extended 1911 'ex-cottage' just last week. A while ago I rang around for cavity insulation quotes, and a bloke from "HEAT" finally showed up for my "free survey".
He pulled out a 18v DeWalt cordless, put a 10mm hold in the outside course of bricks about four feet off the ground, and put a 'boroscope' (sp?) in.
He had a prod around, then said he couldn't see anything. Great. You get what you pay for. He couldn't tell if there was insulation in there or not, but he knew the cavity definitely wasn't 'fully stuffed' with insulation.
I grabbed a screwdriver and had a prod around in his hole (if you'll pardon my expression), and found something spongy that wasn't brick/block/whatever. I had a good feel around, and decided that there was something about 30mm deep in there, that felt like some kind of insulation.
Upshot: Drill yourself a little hole and see what you can feel. Then, don't do what the HEAT bloke did (piss of with a caulking gun under one arm and a useless boroscope under the other, *without* filling the hole). Instead, drill somewhere out of sight and not too exposed from the weather, and fill it up nicely. If there's something in there, you'll feel it.
Also, If you can get to the edges of the attic easily, it's worth trying to look down into the cavity. If you can see it from on top, you should be able to tell what type of insulation you have, as well as knowing that 'something' is present (as I do).
If I had to bet, I'd say mine feels like Celotex, but I wouldn't admit in public that I habitually prod insulation products with a screwdriver.
Regards,
Glenn.
Hi,
[snip sensible advice]Why don't HEAT know how to do things your way when you get a 'free survey'? They just banged a hole in the outside of my house, and said (paraphrased) "dunno mate", then left me to do the making good. Gits.
Regards,
Glenn.
The message from "Glenn Booth" contains these words:
You mean he didn't turn up in the ten days the website promised? Odd that - I'm waiting for one even now.
So what's best ? I need to insulate as mine are just cavities at the mo.
As soon as my heat goes off about half an hour later the house feels completely cold. The loft is insulated, but I could put more up there .. I'm already double glazed.
Cheers
Paul.
On 15 Mar 2006 03:42:19 -0800 someone who may be snipped-for-privacy@technologist.com wrote this:-
Blown fibreglass is probably the best for an existing wall, at the moment. Others will probably advocate other things though, including more environmentally friendly alternatives.
With cavity wall insulation it will remain warm for considerably longer.
If the loft isn't used then more fibreglass rolls to take it to
250mm is an advantage. If it is used for storage then there is much to be said for different forms of insulation, which allow one to fit the same amount of insulation as 250mm of fibreglass, but fit it within the 100-150mm of many roof joists.Double glazing prevents relatively little heat loss, unless it replaces badly fitted windows. However, double glazing has other advantages.
They are all basically the same...rockwool is a heavier fill, IE more of it is used and it's quite dense within the cavity compared to blown white wool, but this does not mean it's a better insulator, it's the air trapped
*between* th particles that insulate and not the actual material itself.Also you only really have a choice of two materials now that the building is erected, rockwool and blown white fibreglass, hardly anyone uses polystyrene anymore (except in Ireland) due to it's bulk (the fibre is compressed into large bales, poly can't be compressed). Yellow fibre 'batts' are only used during construction.
I'd get at least 150mm in the loft, if you have 50mm up there already, just lay 100mm over it, don't go over any shower cables as they /could/ overheat...best place to purchase is from an insulation contractor in the yellow pages IMV.
Recommended is 270mm. Pack in as much as possible. Take a silicon gun and seal up the hole where pipes and cable run through and any other hole around.
The sheds can have some very good deals on insulation.
Do they still drill a 1" hole in your bricks?
Hmmm ... and I was thinking of letting British Gas come around for their "free" assessment to do the same. Mine's a 1930's end of terrace and I'm pretty sure there's nothing in there. Pebbledashed though so no idea if it was done previously and covered up.
What's the best way to fill such a hole btw? I was thinking expanding foam filed down followed by some mortar made up to match the pebble dash?
a
replaces badly fitted windows. However, double glazing has other advantages.
Eh? Think you've got your wires crossed there, a single pane of glass offers near enough no thermal insulation. A standard 28mm air gap coupled with K-glass makes a huge difference
On 15 Mar 2006 23:56:36 -0800 someone who may be "Alan" wrote this:-
No.
You miss the point. Windows are a small part of where heat is lost through conduction. Most of the wall is not window and it is far better to insulate the non window part of the wall, before insulating the windows. Insulating the loft before the windows is also a good idea. Having done both of these (and the floor in some cases) then double glazing the windows makes more sense. All this can easily be demonstrated by simple steady state heat loss calculations.
Badly fitted windows can cause the loss of a fair amount of heat, by letting cold air in and hot air out. Double glazing will eliminate these draughts, to the extent that it often has trickle ventilators to provide some ventilation. However, there are cheaper ways of blocking the draughts.
Someone who is looking on how to spend their money to reduce bills should first get the walls, roof and possibly floor insulated. They should also insulate hot pipes inside. Only after doing this do things like double glazing and a more efficient boiler start to make sense.
Hi,
I'm not the right person to ask. Mine got filled with external builder's caulk, but there may be something better suited to the task. I'm a novice when it comes to putting holes in external walls and fixing them!
Regards,
Glenn.
Hi,
It took six weeks in total. I filled out a form online, then 10 days later got a letter through the post saying that a contractor would be in touch with a few weeks. I heard nothing for a few weeks, then contractor calls me from his mobile saying he's 'just around the corner, is now convenient?'. It takes them weeks to organise the 'survey' then they give you zero notice. Typical!
Regards,
Glenn.
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