I have agreed to a company representitive from Rockwool to visit tomorrow afternoon to do a survey/quotation for our 3 bed semi.
The price is likely to be in the region of £175, which I doubt I could beat even if I was to DIY. Am I right in this assumption and if so what I'm wondering is "Where is the catch?"
Has anyone here had it installed recently and what are the potential drawbacks to having it fitted.
TIA.
I haven't a clue about modern cavity wall stuff, but when my parents had the stuff pumped into their cavity in the 1980s it completely ruined the purpose of the cavity: to keep the water out! When the wind was in one particular direction it would drive rain against the gable-end wall of the house and it would get through the (really bad, porous 1960s) bricks, through the cavity insulation (we assume) and come cascading down into the bathroom and kitchen.
They cured it in the end by having that wall rendered and pebble-dashed.
It's something to ask anyway :-)
Hwyl!
M.
We did it some years ago, it was more than £175 but we've never regretted it.
It's quick, it's easy and it's effective. I don't know how you could DIY but if that's the way you want to go so be it. It's a once for all job, why bother. At £175???
There's no catch.
Do it. Or, rather, have it done.
Mary
You will probably find that the problems was the cement, and quality of how it was installed, rather than the bricks themselves.
Mary, what were the differences before and after in comfort and bills?
It may well qualify for a subsidy - which is probably why the price is low.
It is well worth doing - and you will notice the difference as soon as you get some cold weather (not this week!) - quite apart from the fuel savings.
Modern filling is in the form of glass fibre beads which get injected in through a very long "vacuum-cleaner-type" tube from the operator's van out in the street. These are claimed to be impervious to moisture - and thus will not transmit water across the cavity.
My father-in-law's bungalow was done a few months ago. The whole thing only took a couple of hours. The operator first went round drilling holes through the outer skin in a matrix pattern - at the corner of a brick, so the holes were mainly in the mortar. Then he went round to each hole with the injection nozzle (on the end of the aforementioned pipe) in one hand and a bucket of mortar in the other hand. As soon as each hole had been injected, it was duly plugged with a dollop or mortar on the end of his finger. When the mortar went off, it blended with the original - and it is now *very* difficult to see the holes.
It's definitely *not* a DIY job!
I haven't compared bills.
The comfort difference was felt immediately. We didn't feel cold when we got out of bed in winter. We didn't feel too hot when we got up in summer (except today when it's been Hell).
The most obvious effect was that our large double glazed window in the kitchen steamed up because it was colder than the walls ...
Mary
So significant difference then? If it was 25% less you would have noticed. Or do you have so much dash you don't bother counting?
I don't know what you mean by 'dash'. We have direct debit for all our bills so they're evened out over the year and we don't compare bills. Our comfort is important. We're not in debt. what more could anyone want?
Mary
Money. It's an expression typically used in the former colonies in connection with a "commission", typically to an official. Needless to say the word has been adapted over the years.
One thing to watch out for on these is that the utility company will typically overestimate the usage and payment so that at the end of the year, they end up owing you money. You may get a refund, but typically they roll it forward. In effect you are lending them money at zero interest.
If they can, they will also try to start an accounting year for direct debit in April. This is at the end of the heating season and so for the summer months, you are effectively overpaying against the rate of use and again lending them money over the odds. One could argue that you are effectively underpaying during the winter months as usage increases, but that is towards the end of the billing period.
When it comes time to review the direct debit for the following year, I check other suppliers and if need be make a switch - I haven't done that for the last two years though. What I do do, is to take the preceding year's actual cost and add to it any increase in the unit rate and meter charge that they have made, but assume the same consumption of energy. I also ask them to provide me with a quote for the same pattern of energy use as the previous year.
Inevitably, their proposed DD figure is about 10-15% more than this quote. I then simply tell them that I am willing to pay them 95% of the quote figure - take it or leave it. They always take it because it is such a competitive business. Then at the end of the accounting year, I ask them to carry forward the shortfall which is generally a small amount and factor that into the next year. Effectively it plays them at their game.
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
I make sure it happens the other way.
Quite.
You're not alone.
Mary
... and I'm not even a Yorkshire person :-)
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
Do you also sqoeak when you walk? How much are they going to be oput? £100? So you lose £5 in interest? Tightarse
Not at all. I'm among the most generous people I know.
I'm also prepared to pay over the odds for good products and especially good service. However, when I do that, then I expect it to be delivered. I never ask people to do more than they say they are going to do. If they don't, and don't forewarn me or offer to resolve the issue, then I am quite merciless. There's never an excuse for poor service coupled with a poor attitude.
The utility companies want to offer a DD facility, they claim, to reduce their costs in chasing people up for money. That's fine.
What I am not prepared to do is also lend them money which is the reality of the game they are playing.. They are not honest about that aspect.
If they were honest and just stuck to using the previous year as the basis of calculation and didn't try to rig the anniversary dates of the arrangement then I could care less about the odd fiver.
Since they are not, then I pull them back to being inside the arrangement that they are claiming to offer, plus a little in my direction to make the point.
I doubt whether the call centre people could give a monkeys anyway, but that's how it is.....
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
I agree 100%
I don't think they're dishonest, it can go both ways. My payments have been underestimated by two companies so I have to fork out an unanticipated sum. Another owes me money but that's understandable because there was no previous record (the water meter was installed only last year. It will all be sorted.
I haven't had that experience.
Mary
My God!! Sarf Lahndaners are reputed for their meanness. Appalling down there! Truly appalling!
Is it? I wouldn't know
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
We had a new boiler fitted in a different place to the old one last year. We're still finding beads that came out of the old and new flue holes! Remember the Tribbles on Star Trek?
It was already installed when we bought the house and the beads look and feel more like polystyrene to me, was that ever used?
MBQ
Modern beads are supposed to have a liquid injected that glues them all together.
I can remember my mums house getting cavity wall insulation in the 1980s it really made a difference in terms of the heat in the house, it also cured the damp problem in my own bedroom, so I guess the insulation wasn't a problem on our gable-end wall.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.