Insulate Britain Fails

I agree, but the ultimate blame must also go to the police and the courts.
Our country has become far too soft on crime and the consequences must be apparent to everyone.

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Spot on JBR :023:

Tough on crime, and tough on the causes of crime. :face_with_monocle:

I’m surprised that no one has used that as a campaign slogan. :thinking:

:slightly_smiling_face:

Insulate Britain? We’ve insulated our bungalow on the outside (no cavity walls) at a cost of ~£7.5k. It was money well spent too. Last winter we had the CH on morning (coming on at 08:00), noon, and evening (going off at 10:30) and all the radiator valves were on max. By the time we went to bed at midnight, the outside wall of our bedroom was freezing cold and we had to sleep under 15Tog duvets. This year, we haven’t had the heating on in the mornings, it comes on at about 4:00pm and goes off at 10:30, the valves are set at 3 (½ open), and we sleep under 5Tog summer weight duvets. Some nights our bedroom is so warm I sleep on top of my bed without the duvet covering me.

Interesting. What form does the insulation take? We have cavity walls but, being a 1920s bungalow, I’m not sure how wide they are or how effective they are. I don’t want the insulation that they insert into the wall cavity as I’ve heard it can lead to damp. A completely external insulation sounds more interesting to me.

I am not surprise insulating britain failed. It was organised and followed by a lot of crackpots and nutters.
Unfortunately they seem to breed under one banner or another every so often

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My house was built between the wars too (1925) and with only a 2" cavity I had blown fibre fed into it together with block insulation on the outside which was spray rendered after it was fitted. Before all that was carried out I had all the windows & doors replaced with triple glazing and the result is a much warmer house. I did consider the floors but decided it would be too much upheaval to rip up and insulate those. The roof spaces are covered in two layers of 200mm to finish the house off.

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Thanks for that information. Much appreciated.
I have to say, though, that it looks like a lot of work especially the block insulation and triple glazing. I’d have to think about weighing up the potential cost against the potential savings over the rest of my life time (though Marge is 9 years younger than me!).

cavity walls were built for a reason. That was to stop any damp getting to the inside walls. By filling up that cavity this protection has now gone.

Well yes, that is a concern I mentioned earlier. Perhaps they now use materials which don’t bridge the gap in that way.

They use a water repellent non-wicking fibre and I suggest you stay away from polystyrene foam that has caused all sorts of problems. As for bridging the gap, what about all those tie irons/wires that are fitted while the walls were built and all the snotts dropped by the brickies into the cavity on piece work?

My triple glazing was gained because the installer was looking for someone to give his new highly insulated frames a try, so I negotiated a strong discount and the outside cladding I also got a good price on as the insulation fitter was already working in my road and again the strongly negotiated price was too good to pass over. Too many firms chasing only a few customers = a good price for the keen negotiator :ok_hand::+1:

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I had always assumed that in the 1920s, although they may have had piece work, they had higher standards which they maintained. Perhaps I was wrong.

I’ve no idea about the quality of work in the 20’s, but speaking from supervisory experience in the 70’s, cavity cleaning was often put aside in favour of speed and a full pay packet. These days they are supposed to use a continually rising cavity tray, but I doubt if many use them.

Oh yes, I can believe it today, and ever since the '60s for that matter.

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The external insulation we had installed is made up of fire-retardant 60mm thick expanded polystyrene slabs that are attached to the walls by some sort of fixing. 10mm of a render and then a Snowcem-like finish was applied over the top of these slabs. This is the company we used.

Ah yes, the Lancing chap J Thurston I used is/was a subbie to Jefferies & Partners and very quick + efficient his chaps were too👍 Two of them swung straight from another group of houses (housing association) they were working on straight to mine. I think Jefferies HQ is somewhere up north, but then everywhere is north of my gaff lol.

Nah, it’s in South Wales. They have a depot in Cannock not far from us. The project manager, Simon, lives in Chesterfield I think.

That’s very interesting, thanks. I see they do internal wall insulation as well as external.

Chesterfield is reasonably close to civilisation.