What insulation would you recommend

[familyguy1]

I live in a bungalow, built around the 1980-90's in Oxfordshire.

Our wall construction consists of one skin of brick, a cavity and then a stud wall with plasterboard, or thats what I believe.

according to a neighbour, the previous owners tried to go for cavity wall insulation, the company came out looked and stopped citing they could not put cavity wall insulation in this type of construction.

So I'm leaning toward external insulation, either

insulated render on the outside or external wall insulation where blocks of insulation are bolted to the wall and then rendered on top.

Anyone have experience of either of these, or provide recommendations of companies, as google/checkatrade seems like pot luck.

And does this sound about right, given our wall construction?

[megaphone]

Sounds like you may have a 'timber framed' house. If so usually they are quite energy efficient, one of the plus points.

[TooLateForAName]

We have part of the house done with eps rendered over the top. very pleased with it.

ewi is a better idea than internal - easier to avoid cold bridging.

on a bungalow it would be really easy to install. just need to be careful about the detailing at the roof join.

[familyguy1]

Can you clarify what you mean by .."just need to be careful about the detailing at the roof join."

[familyguy1]

megaphone said:

Sounds like you may have a 'timber framed' house. If so usually they are quite energy efficient, one of the plus points.

sadly thats not the case on ours

[Cow Corner]

With EWI, the devil is, literally, in the detail.

It can be tricky to detail around the roofline, openings, porches, bay windows, rainwater goods etc - all these issues can be overcome when a competent designer/installer is used, but I’ve seen some absolute horror shows, which include cold bridges, routes for water ingress, not to mention looking crap…

In short, don’t use somebody from checkatrade!

[familyguy1]

Cow Corner said:

With EWI, the devil is, literally, in the detail.

It can be tricky to detail around the roofline, openings, porches, bay windows, rainwater goods etc - all these issues can be overcome when a competent designer/installer is used, but I’ve seen some absolute horror shows, which include cold bridges, routes for water ingress, not to mention looking crap…

In short, don’t use somebody from checkatrade!

Thank you where would you recommend finding someone

[Cow Corner]

Meant to say that, depending on their age, it will often make sense to replace windows at the same time, given you’re likely to need to replace the sills as part of the work.

Plus, make sure you max out of the low hanging fruit first - I.e loft insulation, reducing drafts etc.

[TooLateForAName]

familyguy1 said:

Can you clarify what you mean by .."just need to be careful about the detailing at the roof join."

You need to make sure that the wall and roof insulation join up properly without, as someone else said, cold bridges, gaps or directing water into the property.

May well be easier to strip off the bottom few rows of tiles to do it well. but that isnt a big deal with a bungalow

[Cow Corner]

familyguy1 said:

Cow Corner said:

With EWI, the devil is, literally, in the detail.

It can be tricky to detail around the roofline, openings, porches, bay windows, rainwater goods etc - all these issues can be overcome when a competent designer/installer is used, but I’ve seen some absolute horror shows, which include cold bridges, routes for water ingress, not to mention looking crap…

In short, don’t use somebody from checkatrade!

Thank you where would you recommend finding someone

Unfortunately my professional experience with this is with large contractors doing big social housing or cladding replacement schemes.

I’d probably start by talking to a few local architectural technologists or building surveyors, who may be able to point you in the right direction.

[familyguy1]

Thanks all, much appreciated, windows was always going to be on the list, I assume its much better to get the windows done, then insulation, the otherway round would likely disturb the render/insultation.

[Cow Corner]

That’s what I’m getting at - the whole design needs to be co-ordinated. Otherwise you may end up with a dogs dinner, and all the contractors just blaming each other.

That means either finding a professional to design it and then give the details to a contractor to work to, or find a contractor who has lots of experience with EWI and who will take express design responsibility.

[OutInTheShed]

I'd suggest a proper analysis of heat loss via the various paths.

You might find that there are not huge savings to be made from insulating the walls, compared to improving roof insulation, reducing draughts, using thick curtains on big windows etc.

However I do know people who've had render over polystyrene EWI to great effect, and also people who've done Kingspan and tile hanging.

As others have said, details matter.
There are many fairly modern houses from last century with grossly excessive cavity ventilation, cavities open to the loft gales blowing through voids etc etc.

[bobtail4x4]

in the 1980s houses were being built with cavity insulation, not as much as now but it was still there,
are you sure it wasnt built in the 70s?

[TooLateForAName]

familyguy1 said:

Thanks all, much appreciated, windows was always going to be on the list, I assume its much better to get the windows done, then insulation, the otherway round would likely disturb the render/insultation.

i would say other way or same time.

you want the windows to be set into the insulation to minimise cold bridging

[Andeh1]

If in doubt, start with YouTube! Spend a few hours researching what's on there, as that will be a great education! The good bad and ugly from home owners, installers and videos tours of it Al!

[DonkeyApple]

familyguy1 said:

I live in a bungalow, built around the 1980-90's in Oxfordshire.

Our wall construction consists of one skin of brick, a cavity and then a stud wall with plasterboard, or thats what I believe.

according to a neighbour, the previous owners tried to go for cavity wall insulation, the company came out looked and stopped citing they could not put cavity wall insulation in this type of construction.

So I'm leaning toward external insulation, either

insulated render on the outside or external wall insulation where blocks of insulation are bolted to the wall and then rendered on top.

Anyone have experience of either of these, or provide recommendations of companies, as google/checkatrade seems like pot luck.

And does this sound about right, given our wall construction?

Whatever trade you bring in to discuss they will just tell you that what they sell is the best solution and that they are the best person to install it. Like car mechanics and other such trades a huge number of them just talk utter ste.

And whatever trade you do decide to pay money to it will be a lottery as to whether they can do a good job.

As OutintheShed suggested, you must make sure that you work out for yourself where you are losing heat before you enter the monkey enclosure.

The 'insulation' trade is an absolute haven of grifters, thieves, thickos and tts all talking total ste and out to rinse the elderly.

You want to establish first hand where you are losing heat and then work out whether you are losing enough heat to warrant spending money limiting.

Step one is evaluating whether you are buying more energy for your square foot space than is average.

If yes then ascertain that it's not due to lifestyle.

If not then you need to ascertain where the excess heat loss is occurring. It might not be through the walls but the floor or roof, windows or draughts.

External cladding is a big expenditure and it can go horribly wrong and it simply doesn't matter what bit of paper or industry guarantee is floating about they are all worthless. The job just needs to be done correctly first time.

Also, even if you isolate the greatest losses to your inside walls there is every chance the wall cavities open into the roof void and that's where the loss is.

Good luck but absolutely work out for yourself exactly where the heat loss is occurring and pay a professional for that full report before picking up the phone and gambling on finding one of the professional tradesmen and not being yet another victim of the tooth sucking monkey legion of thicko, greasy grifters. And even those energy efficiency firms are full of snake oil salesman so spend time finding one that has plenty of quality references.