Hi folks,
Looking at having our cavities insulated, had a couple of guys round now to do a survey for it. Trouble is, they've told me completely different things and I'm not really sure who to believe.
Difficulty is that we've got a couple of extensions, which lead to the house not being a regular rectangle, to walls being external upstairs and internal downstairs and even (over the garage) internal upstairs and external downstairs.
The first lot said that it was impossible (or at least a very bad idea) to insulate half a wall, so we'd have to do the internal as well as external parts of any walls. They also said they couldn't stop the insulation at a corner, so where an extension sticks out, they'd have to keep going along the original wall. Fair enough, except the surveyor apparently missed half the walls and the installers refused to do the job when they (eventually) turned up.
This morning's bloke reckoned they could "blow the insulation in tight" which would stop the insulation going where it wasn't supposed to be. Cunning if that works, but (a) why didn't the first people think of this and (b) given the number of horror stories about condensation and cavity insulation, I'm alarmed that this sounds like just the sort of thing likely to cause problems.
So I could do with some more opinions on this.
Incidentally, all the cavity insulators seem to work by principle of sending a "surveyor" round. He drills three holes in my house to tell me what I already knew (no insulation), then spends five minutes drawing a sketch and says "right, 150 quid". He then seems surprised/annoyed when I want to know how they are going to handle the sticky-out bits. I know they're working to a tight budget, but I'd rather pay a bit more to someone who convinces me that they know what they're doing. Can anybody recommend installers who take a bit more time and effort on the survey?
Looking at having our cavities insulated, had a couple of guys round now to do a survey for it. Trouble is, they've told me completely different things and I'm not really sure who to believe.
Difficulty is that we've got a couple of extensions, which lead to the house not being a regular rectangle, to walls being external upstairs and internal downstairs and even (over the garage) internal upstairs and external downstairs.
The first lot said that it was impossible (or at least a very bad idea) to insulate half a wall, so we'd have to do the internal as well as external parts of any walls. They also said they couldn't stop the insulation at a corner, so where an extension sticks out, they'd have to keep going along the original wall. Fair enough, except the surveyor apparently missed half the walls and the installers refused to do the job when they (eventually) turned up.
This morning's bloke reckoned they could "blow the insulation in tight" which would stop the insulation going where it wasn't supposed to be. Cunning if that works, but (a) why didn't the first people think of this and (b) given the number of horror stories about condensation and cavity insulation, I'm alarmed that this sounds like just the sort of thing likely to cause problems.
So I could do with some more opinions on this.
Incidentally, all the cavity insulators seem to work by principle of sending a "surveyor" round. He drills three holes in my house to tell me what I already knew (no insulation), then spends five minutes drawing a sketch and says "right, 150 quid". He then seems surprised/annoyed when I want to know how they are going to handle the sticky-out bits. I know they're working to a tight budget, but I'd rather pay a bit more to someone who convinces me that they know what they're doing. Can anybody recommend installers who take a bit more time and effort on the survey?
