cavity wall insulation - anyone had this done

[bossykate]

hi everyone

i'm trying to curb our household bills atm and become greener in the process. our loft is insulated, but i've also heard that cavity wall insulation helps a lot.

has anyone had this done? has it helped reduce your bills? was it expensive? or messy, did you need to redecorate afterwards?

we live in a 3 bed Victorian terraced house, in case that's relevant.

thanks for your help!

Do you get any tax credits? We get Working Families and had cavity insulation, loft insulation and free energy saving lightbulbs all free. Got the number from a newspaper. Took a few hours. Big long pipe (very noisy) inserted into various points of the wall. Has made our house much warmer.

Happy to be proved wrong, but are you sure you have a cavity? Cavities are a relatively modern fashion (became popular between the wars?), so you may not have the option of cavity fill insulation in a Victorian terrace home.

Bluestar, do you know anymore details about this. We get some sort of tax credits and would be very interested to know if we would qualify. Is it a recent thing? I don't suppose you would have a phone number or know who to contact? If you can remember anything that may help find the right people I would be extremely grateful Thanks

Bossykate, I think Janeway is right, we live in a Victorian terrace too and couldn't have it done because we don't have cavity walls, or not the way they are built now. The walls do have 2 skins and there is a space in between but we had a bloke round who made holes and stuck a mirror in and he said no. I think it is because the spaces aren't empty, there is rubble in the bottoms and they are tied together with bricks rather than metal ties, and also (possibly) because the cavity runs along the row. Ours was built about 1890.

What you can do, I have read, is line your walls inside, but it makes the rooms smaller and is very messy as the skirtings etc all have to come off first.

On the other hand our house is quite gappy so we get lots of fresh air! (My brother lives in a 70s house insulated to death and you can hardly breathe in his.)

Have you got weatherstripping round windows and doors, or double glazing? Both of those cut down on draughts. Thick curtains are good too. Does your front door open straight into the hall or front room, or do you have a porch - inside or outside? They make a big difference.

How old is your central heating boiler? New ones (condensing) are much more efficient and use only about half as much gas I think.

You are getting green in a hurry!

Demented - I got my loft insulated because I was receiving WFTC. I think you need to contact the Energy Efficiency Council (?) who will be able to advise you. Next time your new WFTC rate is calculated, there should be a lefalet in teh pack telling you about it.

bossykate - my house is 1890's and I think I too couldn't have cavity wall insulation.

bossykate

I had this done to my house earlier this year when the local area was being done and got a 50% subsidy from the government to do it.

I spent a total of £180 getting the whole house done and the effects were fairly dramatic.

Usually on cold days/nights the downstairs part of the house gets cold due to heat loss from the end wall (were have an end of terrace house) having any wind whip past it. It used to get so cold it was unreal. Now the wall barely gets cooler than the internal walls and the overall temperature in the house is up by about 4-5 degrees which makes it a much nicer place.

The best bit is that the amount of actual heating used is less than before as well so I'm saving money there.

If you have the money to pay for it I would seriously recommend it.

Thanks a lot, SimonHoward. Glad you are warm anyway.

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thanks very much everyone for your input, especially those who reminded me to check that we have in fact got cavity walls! lol ! i will check it out - but i vaguely remember discussing this with my dad (he used to be in the business) about three years ago when we moved and him being quite sceptical... will check again. also, i've checked out the current guidance for the minimum level of loft insulation, and i suspect this needs a top up.

thanks again