I posted a question back in June about external wall insulation for my end-terrace house (thanks for your replies!)
Since then, I have been trying to find somebody to install insulating render for me. So far, I have only managed to find one company to provide a quote. They gave me an initial estimate of £4.5k but the quote came in at £8k!
All the other companies I have managed to find on the web only seem to be interested in providing insulation for the volume builders and not for single houses.
Does anybody have any suggestions of where else I can look? Happy to take recommendations off the forum, if you prefer. Just let me have an email address.
Alternatively, any other suggestions or comments would be welcome. Am I wrong to think that £8k is too much? I certainly couldn't do this sort of thing myself, btw, so DIY is not an option for me.
cheers
Kate
Saint
posted on 20-09-06
Kate, are you absolutely sure that external insulation is the "way to go"? I'm currently involved peripherally with a local authority that is upgrading old housing stock. The houses are typically terraces and originally the plan was to insulate externally. However some of the houses within the block are privately owned. This creates a problem when applying a significantly thick EIFS. Apart from the aesthetics i.e the newly insulated houses building line will be standing 50mm or so in front of the uninsulated ones there is also the edge finishing to consider, the treatment of reveals, extending window sills, door openings, eaves details etc. etc the list goes on. Additionally scaffolding will have to be hired and remain in place for some time whilst all the substrate and finishing work is completed. The LA has decided therefore to go for internal insulation with an insulated gypsum board. Yes this reduces the internal space somewhat although if a high performance insulation is used this can be minimised. Yes there will be some internal disruption and mess but the savings in costs and time are substantial. Just a thought
Kate H
posted on 21-09-06
Yes, I've thought about internal insulation too but think the disruption would be too great. You still have the issue with the windows / doors and, to do it properly, my kitchen would have to be dismantled.
I guess there is the option to do just the end wall internally which would avoid most of the problems with doors etc. but I'm not clear whether that is worth the effort.
Kate
Liz M
posted on 21-09-06
The advantage of insulating externally means that the thermal mass of the brick is left exposed (unless it's got wallpaper on it). This means that the risk of your home overheating is reduced, especially as temperatures are going to rise in the future.
I've been considering external insulating render too, but as my wall forms a boundary, I'm not sure what the legal position would be if I added 50mm to it.
KAB
posted on 21-09-06
Has anyone got any experience with insulating render, ie. plaster and ploystyrene balls mix?
Brian lee
posted on 27-09-06
From brian, ewi@hotmail.co.uk Hi all, i am the office manager for a company specialising in the external insulation application industry, with experiance in rockwool, phenolic laminates, expanded polystyrene and lightweight insulated renders. Lightweight renders made up of a mix of Polystyrene and cement are not commonly used on the whole wall in this country, although i have done this abroad in the past, here it is mainly used for dubbing out bent walls, keeping the weight down.
We quite often do odd houses especially on council estates where some have have purchased and some havent, and a trim is supplied to finish the edges or render can be brought around the arris.
Insulating indoors is becoming more common thanks to in the first instance Phenolic laminate, being half the thickness of rockwool for the same u value, but now other thin insulated boards are available.
I did once put 180mm of polystyrene on the internal wall of a front room in Germany, but it was of some size, here you would probably have to cut your sofa in half.
