No cavity wall insulation in 14 year old house

[NordVeg]

I bought this house a couple of years ago. It's not as warm as I'd expect a modern build to be, so got an insulation company to do a survey, lo and behold, empty cavity.

Now I was under the impression the builders had to insulate properties built since the early 90s.... so do I have any chance of complaining to the builder and getting them to pay? (about £600)

How should I approach it? I've tried looking on coucil planning website but not sure if they would intervene.

The house is 4 years past the NHBC warranty, which was my other though.

Can anyone give me some advice on where to start please? And what to say to get them to pay for what they skimped on back in the day!

TIA

Insulation doesn't wreck houses, and it doesn't cause damp.

Leaky gutters, defective pointing, badly built walls and lack of ventilation can cause damp, though. They need to be fixed whether you have insulation or not.

cavity wall insulation can cause a bridge between the cold outside and warm inside and slow water to travel through. It makes your house sweat, in other words.

*allow, not slow

houses don't sweat. They don't have sweat glands.

If you mean that the house suffers excessive humidity, for example due to construction defects, a water leak, wet washing draped around, or inadequate ventilation, then the excessive humidity can cause condensation. The correct action is to rectify the source of the excess water.

"insulation can cause a bridge between the cold outside and warm inside"

Not a bridge between cold and warm. Insulation is a barrier.

"Householders who complained of dampness following retrofit CWI were told that this could not possibly be a result of the insulation. They were told that pre-existing building defects must be to blame (even though the installer is supposed to have carried out a thorough pre-works survey to spot any such defects), or that the dampness was caused by “lifestyle condensation” (even though the occupants might have lived in the property for many years with no previous condensation problems)."

"It is not true that only “unsuitable” walls can suffer from damp cavity insulation. As a former bricklayer, I know that no wall has ever been built well enough to withstand wind-driven rain. That is the whole point of the cavity – to stop rainwater crossing to the inside.

"Moreover, even in sheltered areas, retrofit CWI is likely to cause problems, because its installation is contrary to the basic scientific principles governing thermal insulation.

"Thermal insulation in dwellings requires a vapour barrier to be fitted on the “warm” side of the insulation, to stop moisture-bearing air from inside the dwelling finding its way through to the “cold” side and condensing out as liquid water."

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/advice/11411880/Could-the-cavity-wall-insulation-scandal-rival-PPI.html

I'm aware of the one-man campaign by a self-publicising man in the press.

But tell me how you think insulation can generate water.

I already know how leaks, wet washing and construction defects can cause damp. But tell me how you think mineral wool can.

PigletJohn we had lived in our property several years with absolutely no condensation or damp issues whatsoever. Following the CWI being installed as soon as the weather became cooler and damper we began to have problems which became worse and worse. We opened Windows more, had heating on less and tried all sorts of ways to rectify the problem. We had to spend money on more ventailation that we definitely hadn't needed previously.
The CWI has not made our property any warmer or reduced our heating bills at all. We have had the company back twice and had CIGA involve and follow up inspections which highlighted issues. Our loft has had to have tiny pegs to slightly lift the roof felt so air circulates more, as well as air bricks.
The CWI company wanted to redo our loft insulation but there's no way I'd have it done now. You certainly don't have your windows open when your heating is on (what the CWI installer said to do to stop damp/mold issue) as that is so very wasteful of money and energy - what CWI is supposed to save you!!!
We are not the only ones to have had this issue, my sister had CWI around the same time as us and she's had similar issues. As have several of our neighbours.
CWI is certainly not the answer to keeping warm and saving money for all properties and many people can testify to this.

There are THOUSANDS of people with these problems.

How do you know how many there are, and how do you know what the source of the water in their houses is?

Be very careful retrofitting cavity wall insulation. Simply filling up the cavity with insulation material could cause thermal bridging between the external and internal wall. This can then lead to interstitial condensation, moisture transfer and damp walls. This will then lead to an increase in heat loss from inside to outside and thus increase your energy bills - the opposite of what your trying to achieve. Most cavities, the ones being described here, are designed to have an air gap between the inner and outer leaf.
Ensure you employ a professional installer who is suitably qualified to determine the best retrofit insulation method for your particular property.

I'm very interested in your suggestion of interstital condensation.

Do you think it will occur in the inner leaf; or in the insulation; or in the outer leaf?

It will depend upon the vapour and saturated vapour pressure gradient through the structure.

So, remembering that the inside leaf, thanks to the insulation, will be warmer than it was prior to insulation; and assuming that the occupants create the same amount of water as before, where do you think interstital condensation can occur?

If I were you, I'd email your local authority building control department. Ask them if they covered the building regulations inspections on your property when it was built.

If they were, explain the issue and ask them if they are able to provide details of the insulation method that they would expect to see in that wall.

If there didn't do the inspections, ask them who did (a private approved inspector) and then contact them and ask the same question.

If you know what you are expecting to see, that would give you somewhere to start.

well, I've emailed building control, the council inspected the building, and to meet the thermal requirement at that time the architect specified a thicker internal block (115mm), this along with a 50mm clear cavity which complied with the building regulations. The aim was to obtain min 0.45W/m2 U value.

I have no idea if this means I ought to go for retro-fitting insulation, any ideas?

The house is still bl**dy freezing!

thanks

Try Warmfront

Our estate is about 14 years old and all the houses are eligible for free insulation from them. Via some government scheme as the original insulation was the bare minimum they could get away with.
We haven't had ours done yet but friends on the estate have and said they noticed a difference in warmth straight away.

Worth a google? :)

We had our (2002 built) house done with the beads. Cost £199 under the grant last March/April. Heating bills are down this winter and I think it's slightly cooler in summer.

We also had the "thicker inner wall" things that allowed them not to have a filled cavity when they built the houses. All the other houses down the road have been done too.

Ours was done by Max Energy, although they weren't the ones who did the survey (found that through a green website thing)