Having to add insulation when replastering external walls

[spada01]

When replastering 25% of an external wall these state that you must upgrde the insulation too. This appears to involve adding Kingspan or similar.

I'm renovating and extending my house and so the BCO will be in for the extension which will be going on alongside the refurb. I'm just reskimming internal walls, am happy with the insulation they have currently and have fairly low heating bills for a 1930s house so don't want to fork out the expense and hassle on added insulation.

In your experiences does the BCO take an active interest in such matters as enforcing the insulation upgrade?

 

[noseall]

In your experiences does the BCO take an active interest in such matters as enforcing the insulation upgrade?

Yes they do as it is within their remit.

 

[^woody^]

The requirement is to 'consider' upgrading insulation at the same time as the re-plastering, and to insulate only if it is practical and economically viable to do so. It is not a definitive requirement to insulate

Anyway, mere re-skimming work would be exempt

 

[chappers]

As woody says this is only a requirement if stripping back to the brickwork

 

[spada01]

Hi and many thanks for your replies. Re only having to add insulation if replacing the existing coatis how understood things to be. I anonymously spoke to the BCO last Friday who informed me that adding a new layer of plaster or render means would have to consider ading insualtion if cost effective. I lso searched previousposts on here and found this:


In the Building Regulations there is the following definition:

"Renovation in relation to a thermal element means the provision of a new layer in the thermal element or the replacement of an existing layer, but excludes decorative finishes, and ‘renovate’ shall be construed accordingly. "

The latest version of the Approved Document contains the following extra advice

"Examples of decorative finishes are paint and wallpaper etc that add no appreciable thermal resistance, and thin polymer foam sheeting for decorators to apply under wallpaper to reduce condensation risk. Dry-lining and external renders are not decorative finishes because they add thermal resistance."

I believe I could rely onthe 15 year payback calculation, but is there anything else that would help me argue my case that the work I'm doing shouldn't be covered?

 

[^woody^]

In lots of other housing related legislation, plaster is not a structural element and is decorative - and in the context of skim plaster alone, it is definitely decorative

You can get some blown vinyl or flock paper more thermally efficient than skim plaster so the text in the approved document makes little sense and is contradictory.

Add the fact that just re-skimming is completely different to hacking off plaster or boards and relining, and the intention of the approved document can not be that a person is expected to go to the extreme of insulating and messing about with all the sockets etc just for the sake of some re-skimming.

I can't see how any council will enforce this for re-skimming and if challenged in an appeal or at Court, I can't see how this requirement would be deemed valid as it is very poorly written, open to interpretation and goes way beyond the intention of the b/regs

 

[spada01]

Thank you very much Woody and others, your time and answers are really appreciated. I am very relieved to learn I wont have to mess around with this - the gas bill here is about £20 a month in winter, so must be pretty energy efficient anyway.

THanks again!

 

[jeds]

I agree that re-skimming must be exempt. In any case though, you would only have to upgrade insulation if your current insulation was below the threshold. If, as you say, your insulation is allready good, then there is nothing to upgrade.