Not intended to be Political

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Just a reasonably coherent warning about the mad-dash to retro-fit insulation:

https://apple.news/AbW67Q2qFSTuwLEz26YhXAA

Source: today’s Sunday Times

“ I got a government grant for spray foam insulation — now I can’t sell my house “

MichaelG.

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

These stories have been around a while, there are now firms who ‘specialise’ in removing the problem foam at a greater cost than the original installation! They will then offer to re-install ‘better’ foam. One firm recently featured on my local radio had bought the customer list of an original foam installer so they could cold call the customers offering their services.

Tony

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

… and according to today’s piece, some of those specialist companies are the old installers “re-born”

MichaelG.

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

… and according to today’s piece, some of those specialist companies are the old installers “re-born”

MichaelG.

I think you are right!

Tony

[VicParticipant @vic]

Spray foam never seemed like a good idea to me. It would, as others have said, make it difficult to carry out repairs to the roof structure if required at any point in the future.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

We had similar when the Feral Gumment here in Australia paid for free roof insulation a few years back. Cowboy operators sprang up out of nowhere in a mad feeding frenzy and created such a fiasco the program was shut down prematurely.

Tragically one young UK backpacker lad on a working holiday was killed when sent up into a ceiling space to instal metalic silver foil reflective insulation, stapling it to the rafters when a staple went through a live wire because, totally untrained and unsupervised, he had not shut the power off.

Now, with the privatisation of formerly government-provided aged care services and disability services, the cowboys have moved on to much more lucrative pastures. Hundreds of thousands of dollars a year per “client” to provide a similar quality of shonky services run out of suburban shop fronts.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Mortgage lenders are now not taking on homes with spray-foam insulation, and it may cause insurance problems too.

Its inherent hazard – I am informed by a friend who is a now-retired, self-employed builder –  is of trapping damp between it and the roof, eventually causing rot.

Besides, it’s not the roof that needs insulating unless you are converting the loft to a room, but the ceilings.

On which, watch out for fraud attempts as he once fought off, by cold-callers (!) claiming your glass-fibre loft insulation is somehow now illegal and must be replaced… ” our surveyor is in your area…”

He was even more annoyed when the caller, who’d not known he’d telephoned a builder, basically tried to tell him he was wrong!

[david bennett 8Participant @davidbennett8]

I had a heck of a job fending off the free offers for this (cavity wall foam insulation)  My first objection was that the insulation in foam is air – there was already air filling the cavity walls. My second objection was that the slight convection loss was more than offset by keeping the ventilation as is, and avoiding rain seepage. I now wonder if some posible improvements to home insulation being proposed  are dependent on this stull being fitted.

dave8

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

The “Peoples Car” manufacturers found out the error of their ways on the type 4 after injecting spray foam between the body panels.

Regards   Ian.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

One of the arguments put forward for the foam on the roof underside is to hold the slates in place if you don’t have sarking.

[Author]

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